Darn beach shot is a little off color. I shot with a ring flash and frankly you can keep it. Crappy flat lighting from it. No depth to the light
Guy,
If I may interject a comment on this..... The ring flash units tend to produce a very rounded, wrap-around lighting that reduces the sharper shadows you would normally see with angular light, so it will tend to reduce the dimensionality of what you shoot. Usually, ring flashes are used against a more even background that has little character or dimension for comparison. In you beach shot, it appears that the great sky and water are trying to create more dimension, even if out of focus, and the ring flash on the model is maybe a half stop too bright and is imparting its more rounded look against the more angular background depth.
It is doing what is was designed to do, in my opinion, just maybe not the tool to use for this particular shot. Had the sun/sky been much brighter, the flash may look less obvious, and you may have gotten better results. Although folks use them for the kinds of shots you took, I still contend that a much fuller light, like an octo, or even the para would have been better for this particular setting. The octo would have provided a softer light all around, thus isolating the subject more. The para would have provided a much bigger angular source which would create a bit more shadow, and thus depth to the model.
This is a tricky area in which to shoot. It can go very 2d looking fast. In your shot, that looks like what happened with the model, while the rest of the scene held a nice 3D look, so she appears more like a cutout placed on top. Not criticizing, as I think this type of shot is challenging to pull off, so lots of practice and experimentation is needed.
The others look very nice with the variety of simple to more complicated lighting use. The keep that dimensionality you want because the light is coming from a bit more of an angle to help there. The ring flash throws a lot of light straight on, and looks best when used as a fill flash against a brighter background. Just my thoughts and observations from what you have posted.
LJ
P.S. Oh, and that horizon makes me lean to the port side while viewing ;-)