Actually I tried a 1 second self portrait on both occasions, and simply failed. Last night I wanted to take a shot low to the ground looking up at myself getting into my car. Unfortunately, by the time I set everything up the light had faded more than I wanted it to. Then I forgot to set my camera to AF (I had it set to Manual focus). Then it was so dark that I had lost all ambient light (even at 1 second exposure) and I couldn't even AF (even with the AF on). Total waste of time...


This evening I went straight from work to my grandmother's house (which is actually quite close to work). The sky looked beautiful and there was still daylight (originally I had not intended it to be a 1-second exposure). However, as soon as I got the first lightstand up, the sun went behind a cloud and the three strobes I had pointed into the PCB PLM was way over the top (as I wasn't battling with the sun). Finally I decided to try a 1 second exposure, but I never got a frame that was anywhere near what I wanted. I've had to accept complete failure two nights in a row.


So I decided to come home and do something I can't fail at--watch TV and drink beer. ;-)