Tag: speedlight

2009-05-23

It Is Good to Be Humbled

After the past three or four days, I feel like I did sitting in the school principal’s office, waiting for the imminent whipping. It is in those times that you would do anything to avoid what is coming, and it is not so much the physical beating as much as it is the emotional tension of having to look your bad decision in the face.

My current humbling experience all started a few days ago with a wonderful meal and talk with a photographer friend of mine. It was not him, but just watching some of the videos he has produced recently really reminded me what a two-bit punk hack I am. It was not the technique, but how he captured the power of the story.

Then today, I shot a very “ok” family portrait session. That is “ok”, as in, I do not want to say more of what I really think. The harsh sunlight made things tough, not only for lighting, but for the quickly wilting subjects. Excuses aside, though, I really want to know what happened. How do I improve? What can I learn here?

keep readingIt Is Good to Be Humbled
2009-04-07

My Normal Flash Setup Using Optical Slaves

I have been trying lots of different flash setups lately (optical, radio, bounce, etc), but I tend to fall back on optical triggering because it is the most trustworthy and versatile of my options. Of course, I would love to grab a pair of Pocket Wizards, but hey, you donate a pair, and I will certainly put them to use!

If you have a normal flash mount (just found out Sony uses their own “standard”…punks), you can easily buy a little optical trigger for no more than $15. You slide that baby on the bottom of your flash, and then when any other flash goes off, it will trigger that flash. So, the pop up flash will trigger it, or hey, I have even used my point and shoot flash to set off my speedlight!

But that is not the end.

keep readingMy Normal Flash Setup Using Optical Slaves
2009-01-29

Flash Took a Dive Underwater

I have had too few chances to use my umbrella flash set up. Most of my shooting is still natural light (everyday life and such), but this past week, I have had two chances to take photos for a friend of mine who is graduating with his Master’s degree, and I figured that was the perfect opportunity to put my set up to the test in the field. And out comes the umbrella!

The first day, about a week ago, things went ok…not great, but lessons learned. I also wanted to field test a pair of Cactus triggers. “What are those,” you might ask? With those, I can remote trigger my flash via radio (i.e. no cords). Those ended up incredibly frustrating, to be honest. They did not fire very consistently. When you read through discussions about these on Flickr, some folks love them and some hate them. They are consistent for some folks and inconsistent for others. For me, when they are needed, the break. When I am goofing around, they work flawlessly.

Wait, this was about the flash. I will get back to the story.

keep readingFlash Took a Dive Underwater