Hey Jeff,

You are quite correct. Pushing close to 255 is definitely not blowing out. You want to see detail in the muzzle and hair. It is very hard to do. I have been working on this and believe I FINALLY have it right. I am currently using a 4 flash system - two bounced off the cieling to control shadows, and two direct flashes to highlight areas I want highlighted. I may add a 5th at some point for periodic back-light shots.

ChrisA has inspired me with some of his awesome portraits. I have been testing out my system and so far it works (most of the time). LOL. The Nikon wireless system, in my opinion, is nice than Canon's.

-JM