Thank you, Lonnie!!!
Look at my new toy!!! It is easy to attach to the camera and use right out of the box- but if you want your photos to look natural and not “flashy”, well then, there is a LOT to learn!!! Here’s some synchronicity- there is a Clickin-Mom’s breakout session with Neil van Niekerk on Off Camera Flash going on right now! I have started the class, even though I will be using my flash ON camera. In the videos, he goes over the principles off both on and off camera flash, so I can learn both.
So far, I’ve taken fairly natural looking photos inside with the flash bounced off our (yellow!) walls. At nighttime, however, the flash had to work harder- and my photos look flashier. The good thing is that a lot of wrinkles disappeared!- but the photographs themselves just look too bright and “lit.” I tried fill flash outside today- not great so far. I’m excited to master these skills, so I will have something to fall back on when I can’t get good exposure inside with the grandkids.
Learning flash is going to be one of main photographic challenges for 2012!
melinda anderson photography 
“Hello, my pretty!”