Here is a shot of a swimming pool at the Las Brisas apartment community.

I was out shooting an apartment community in the evening, and the light was dropping fast. I saw this heavily textured palm tree and thought that an element like that would really add the the environment if placed large in the frame. The only problem with my composition, is that the trunk of the tree was in complete shade, and zero texture was being revealed.

So I run to my car (which is around the corner to the left in the back of the image) to grab a flash and my wireless trigger, plus one full color temperature orange (CTO) warming gel. I run back to my tripod and camera and get my ambient where I want it (which happens to be as bright as you can get the scene without blowing out the sky, so you can pull in the shaded areas with more quality later in post). I then pop a few test shots holding the flash in my hand, and letting the hard light from the flash rake across the fibers of the tree. Once I got a shot I’m happy with, I’m done.

The set-up:

Me hand-holding a flash camera left pointing it directly at the palm tree with a full CTO gel, full power

Camera Settings:

Canon EOS 5D
ISO:50
Shutter: 1/25
f/8
Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX