When we first walked into this abandoned sugar cane building I noticed this room in the corner and it was all dark and dirty. I couldn't have had a better backdrop if I'd painted it myself. We went to this room (I inspected it first to make sure it was safe) and then with the use of two video lights we lit the room up. I loved the verbiage on the walls that made it fun to work with. I was able to shoot at 2500 ISO, with a 20mm lens at 1.8 at 1/80 sec for my shutter speed.
When I shoot with interns or other photographers and they ask me about the most important pieces of equipment to buy I tell them to first get a camera that has good ISO sensitivity (like my D3), but even more importantly is to buy a prime lens (low aperture, high speed) to really drive the results you seek. Shooting with a prime lens also gives you great depth of field and if you put your focal point on the subject's eyes, the result will be a picture that has great focus on their eyes and can add a soft blur (pre-photoshop) that will really make your pictures look great. I hope you enjoy! 
