I was 19 stories up on a balcony in St Pete Florida over looking the city shooting for St Pete Art and Fashion Week. On this particular day we had slightly cloudy skies so I decided to pull out my White Lightning X1600 strobe with a soft white beauty dish to further "turn down" the sun and really make the bright colorful dress on our young model "pop" against the now darkened sky. Since we were on a balcony, traveling light was important and with not many outlets in sight the Paul Buff Vagabond mini lithium battery pack really came in handy. Getting a quality of light this good would not be possible with small flash. I like to use the soft white beauty dish a lot because it gives a really nice quality of light that flatters its subjects. It also adds a really nice round catch light to the eyes as a bonus. The Paul Buff beauty dish comes with a front diffusion cover akin to a shower cap that further diffuses the light, however on this day I did not use it. I wanted a slightly edgier light so I placed the strobe  just slightly to the models left side (notice the shadow on the right side of her face? I'm digging it!). Below is a behind the scenes shot that's more accurate to how the day looked and shows the placement of the beauty dish.

For more information on the gear used in this shoot please visit www.paulcbuff.com