Crash course in night photography

I've been doing photography as a hobby for several years now, and recently I've begun doing family shots, senior pictures, and baby pictures for people I know. It's been regular enough (and requires a large enough chunk of my time) that I am charging a small amount to do photo shoots. I'm not comfortable charging much, because I still consider myself very much in the learning process of it. I've taken a few college classes, which were very helpful, but I still have SO much to learn.

The really fun thing about getting paid to do this hobby I love is that every cent I make goes toward a never ending list of camera equipment or my dream guitar. I'm torn between two guitars, but fortunately I have a loooong time to save money before I will have enough to be forced to make a decision.

Anyway, I do think I have a pretty good eye for photography, and I enjoy every bit of the process. From taking the pictures to editing them, I love every second of it. I mostly use Lightroom for photo editing. It has so many editing options, and it's very user friendly.

My comfort zone is using natural light to take portraits. I like to go to urban settings, and find fun backgrounds. I have VERY little experience with flash, or anything dark. I was asked to do senior pictures for a friend, and (of course) agreed to take them...at the state fair. At night.

My stress level was pretty high about the whole thing. I knew I had some research to do. Unfortunately I didn't have time to do a test run. So, I read online about how to adjust settings, talked to a friend who is an excellent photographer (and also happens to be the dad of the senior I took pictures of - which didn't really help with the intimidation factor.) I did the shoot last night. My friend (the photographer) let me borrow his 17-50mm lens, and his super nice flash, and his mono-pod. It was VERY helpful - and I now have three more items added to my camera wish list.

The photos turned out ok. Fortunately the subject is gorgeous, so she made the pictures better than they would have been if it were just up to me. It was a learning experience for sure. I did feel like I spent a lot of time adjusting camera settings, rather than focusing on the creative side of it. But, I definitely got a good crash course in night photography.

With the family's ok, I'll post a few pictures after I edit them.