Yongnuo Speedlite YN560-II

At the beginning of the summer this year 2013, I had decided to buy two Yongnuo Speedlites (YN560-II) after tons of research and now it's the middle of September and I just bought two more. These are awesome, I have been using these for all my portraits and they have not let me down once. They are manual only flashes and that's all i ever use except for wildlife, Birds mostly, and that is a dedicated through the lens flash but a totally different topic. These flashes i use with two 24 inch softboxes and a 40 inch umbrella and my setup is usually like Joel Grimes, three edge lighting technique. So my point is if anyone is looking for a decent manual Speedlite these are cheap and well made. I'm not going to get into the specs, you can google these and there is tons of info on these all over, i will leave a link "here" if you don't mind waiting a few weeks to get these. Shipping is free and there's no duty. So with these four i don't have to use my vivitar 285, wich is falling apart but will do for an extra for now.
This first photo i took when i got the first two flashes playing around in the garage, the second i took is an orb Weaver in my back yard.

Weekend Composites

Well last weekend was labor day weekend and I needed some more backgrounds, so Michele and i went downtown Windsor on Saturday and i took more photos. The week before that, we went to Grand Bend, Ontario. I got one photo i really liked from that weekend somewhere in a small town. So i went and picked up my Nephew Robert on Sunday and i set up a studio in the living room and did a shoot for three backgrounds i picked. Robert is awesome to work with, when i explain what i want him to do, he understands what i'm trying to achieve with my backgrounds and he is very easy to direct. It sure makes the session more enjoyable in studio photography and he's pretty natural at it.
The first photo was a 3 light setup, two 24 inch softboxes from behind and on both sides about 5 feet high and a 40 inch umbrella directly camera for fill about the same height.  And I used 50% glycerin and 50% water to get the sweat look on his face.
The second photo was lit with two lights with only one 24 inch softbox from camera left, 5 feet high and 40 inch umbrella above camera at 5 feet high, and the third photo was the at same angles but lowered because he was kneeling down, almost sitting on the floor. I then used photoshop to remove Robert and place him in the backgrounds. 
You can view these photos large by clicking on them.