One night my wife was away visiting family, so I set up a little studio in our front room to experiment with off-camera-flash (OCF) using the techniques and gear espoused by Tim Payne at www.flashgear.net (very helpful site.) I was taking photos of inanimate objects since I did not have a model. I thought, "what the heck, I'll be the model." So I sat for my own photos. I had not prepared properly, in that I had barbecue sauce on my face (removed by the magic of Photoshop), had not shaved and basically looked like a bum.
The upside is that there was no backdrop on these shots. The black background was achieved through the use of the OCF techniques. I was simply sitting in a leather chair in an open room.
So, these are not exactly professional. But they do highlight my first efforts into off-camera-flash and portraiture.

