As soon as I read the word my mind immediately went to this scene in the famous movie Office Space.
After that quick chuckle in my brain, I thought about a long lost jacket. A jacket I had circa 1998. I was almost positive I still had my jacket and all my "flare". Much digging through old Rubbermaid containers ensued and sure enough, there it was. The jacket and the "flare".

Nikon d40
f5.6
1/125 sec
ISO 200
34mm focal length
spot metering, natural light
This shot was probably the single hardest shot I've taken for this blog to date. In a perfect world I would have had someone either pose for me or take the photo for me. Fantasy world would had also brought me cooler temps, less wind and a slightly better location.
Alas, I do not live in a perfect world. I live in the real world. A world where it was 93 degrees with huge wind gusts. Talk about sweaty. And let's not forget, I no longer have a wireless remote after dropping it in the lake, so I was working with the 10second timer built into my camera. Not exactly convenient.
Here is a list of what it took to get this shot.
camera (obviously), tri-pod, light reflector (gold for added warmth), kitchen chair (to prop the reflector up), chip clip (to hold reflector in place on the chair), bag of charcoal (to anchor the reflector in place - I said it was windy) and lots of patience.
I spent the hot afternoon standing on the front stoop of my house for 30 minutes, setting and resetting my timer, taking photo after photo while waving at my neighbors as they laughed at me. I would have preferred a different location, maybe one with a little privacy, but the harsh sun today was more than I could compensate for being solo in my mission. So I chose the brick wall under the porch that offered some shade.
Post processing - I didn't do much. I really tried to watch my histogram while I was shooting so I would have appropriate exposure. Using the reflector gave that soft, warm, goldy glow to the photo. So all I needed was a quick sharpen (for web viewing) and a little cropping in Photoshop and I was set.
Lots of challenges for a seemingly simple photo. But, isn't that what this is all about?
Sere's coming up tomorrow. Where will she take my "flare"?