A Salvaged Session

I had a VERY busy weekend.  Especially Saturday.  Saturday I had to get up at 6:40AM, drive to Raleigh, purchase my own Christmas present (makeup from Bare Escentuals - my mom is paying me back) and then attend a lighting workshop at http://www.jenniferweinberg.com/.  The workshop was great.  Two hours worth of all kinds of lighting info.  Yes, my bottom was sore when I left, but it was worth it!!! 


  The workshop gave me grand ideas for my toddler session I had booked Saturday afternoon.  I was all prepared with some shop lights from Lowes and 60 watt bulbs  as well as some computer paper (because placing the paper over the lights will give them less intensity).  I had an aspiration to be able to diffuse my on camera flash with a piece of the paper as well. 


  My aspirations crumbled into a heap right after the session began....


Let me back up.  I got the the session a few minutes early (it was in a home with a fireplace), set up my lights and took some test shots.  The test shots looked very nice.  The light was warm, golden and flattering. So I was excited!!!  Then, the clients arrived and we began the session.  The first few shots I got were nice and the lighting was like I wanted.  But then, something happened and I honestly do not know what it was.  I had set my white balance but suddenly, every photo I was taking was harsh white, not the warm colors before.  I was thrown for a loop.  I continued taking pictures and while the toddler was running around doing something else, I would frantically take test shots while changing my Shutter and Aperature in Manual Mode.  Nothing worked. 


  Finally, in desperation, I put my camera into Auto Mode (I felt like a fake). 


  Then, the clients suggested we take some outdoor photos (a blessing for me because I do much better in outdoor light than indoor) and we went outside.  After taking a few test shots out there, I turned my white balance to cloudy so that the colors were warmer. 


  We shot 20 minutes outside and I got much better photos (sigh of relief).  I was more comfortable outdoors and the lighting was much better.


  When I got home and downloaded the photos, I had a whopping 300!  Guess how many are on there now, after I completed my very harsh elimination process?  30, at the most.  So, I'm happy that the session went better than I initially expected but I am very disappointed that I shot 300 images only to have 10% of them come out decent.  Does anyone have a solution/suggestion for this?  I'd love to hear them!

Sara