We've been back a week (almost to the hour) from our awesome adventure to Kenya's magical Masai Mara with our good friends Jonathan and Angela Scott - known and respected around the world as "The Big Cat People."

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to Willima Pere's Village , where I took this portrait of Alex, who, to me, looked like the coolest dude in the village.

Portraiture is all about light and shadows - because light illuminates and shadow define, topics I talk about in my KelbyOne class on lighting.

The light in the portrait on the right is flat, so I think the portrait falls flat.

The portrait on the left has, to me, not only more light, but more life.

I added the light (brightness, color and contrast) by having our guide/driver/new friend, Simon Sitienie, hold the Sunlight side (as opposed to the Gold side) of the reflector in my Rick Sammon's On-location Lighting Kit and Tote so that the sunlight bounced beautifully onto Alex's face. The kit also contains a diffuser and speedlight diffuser.

Readers of my blog know that my favorite lens for on-location portraiture is the Canon 24-105mm IS lens.

I like the flexibility that this lens offers when it comes to composing a portrait, as well as its sharpness.

Stay tuned for more images from our visit to this village, and scroll down for more posts in this series.

Here's a fun shot of Simon checking out Jonathan's Canon 200-400mm IS lens. I used my 200-400 for most of my wildlife photographs on the trip.

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. A special "thank you" goes to Governors' Camp for making our stay on the Mara, well, perfect.