"Some people do not seem to mind and are quite happy to have just a reasonable head-study of their dog, but that's not the result I would like to be achieving. "

Hey PC,

I hear your frustration. Having never been to your part of the world, is the outdoor light always so strong? i.e. what if you did shoots in the morning or later in the evening when the sun is at a stronger angle and not quite so powerful? Or, is that unreasonable?

The reason why I ask this is because I find 75% of the day unphotographable...even here where the light does not seem so intense as what you are dealing with.

On another note, a studio set-up is not that expensive. I believe that you can get a set of Alien Bees for about 500 dollars, and I have seen two light studio sets for less than that. The wireless proprietary system by Nikon and Canon is much more expensive (i.e. my ST-E2 wireless transmitter is a couple of hundred dollars...two 420 EX flashes are about 200 each...the 550 and 580 EX flashes are about double).

James