No Flash In The Pan!!

Until fairly recently I had used some cheap ebay triggers for studio and location work which worked fine the majority of the time but became increasingly frustrated with the number of misfires I was getting – you get what you pay for I guess.  I replaced these with a set of Yongnuo RF603 triggers which were a real improvement and my misfire problems were a thing of the past.  A friend of mine Stu Glen was in raptures about a set of Pixel Kings he had recently bought and the virtues of High speed Sync (HSS) which worked with both hot shoe flashes and studio strobes.  I was close to investing in a set but then read that Yongnuo were about to release a similar trigger, the YN-622C, the rest as they say is history!!

These are my thoughts, admittedly based upon one location shoot, about the new trigger.  The   YN 622C is a fairly substantial piece of kit and solidly built with a metal hot shoe attachment.  It is a 2 way transceiver with seven channels and 3 flash groupings available.  Functions available include TTL ratio control, manual selection of power output for different groups and HSS.  The unit runs on 2 AA batteries, has an on off switch together with controls for group and channel setting and a test button, something I missed having on the 603.

My main motivation was to use these on location with my Bowens lights / Travelpak set up so I headed out with the lovely Sharon to try them out in the field.  Set up is a doddle with one trigger locked on to the camera, secured with a locking screw, with the other attached to the Bowens Gemini 500 strobe via a cable which screws into the side of the unit.  The units worked really well throughout the shoot, firing faultlessly, though to be fair the camera to flash distances were not too demanding.  Towards the end of the shoot I really pushed the HSS,  or Super Sync as they call it, and the images posted were all shot at f1.4 and between 1/2000 and 1/4000 sec,  iso 100, which obviously throws up a lot of creative possibilities for future shoots.  So a really promising start and to say I was pleased with their performance is an understatement, will hopefully get to shoot a lot more with them before the winter weather finally arrives.

 

Bak To Skool

One of the things I really love about photography is that there is always something new to learn and even though I feel I have come quite a long way in the last few years I’m very aware that there is still a long way to go.  With that in mind I signed up for a workshop with Leeds based commercial photographer Jay Mawson held at Banana Studio in Newcastle. I had been an admirer of his work for quite a while now and was really looking forward to the experience.  It turned out to be a really interesting day during which Jay shared his philosophy on lighting techniques and getting the best from the people you are shooting.  Perhaps the most refreshing aspect were the stripped back set ups, utilising single strobe and reflector, natural light and on camera flash, allowing the photographer to concentrate wholly on the image and the models expression / pose.  During a series of demonstrations and discussions Jay outlined his workflow, supplemented with the odd pearl of wisdom from Steve Robertson, this was  followed up with ample opportunity to put this into practice with the five models on call using different sets around the studio.  It was also good sharing your thoughts and ideas with the other photographers on the course who were great company throughout the day.  At the end I came away feeling really enthused about the whole thing and with lots of food for thought.  Big thank you to Jay and Steve for a stimulating day, Eric and all his staff at the studio who rolled out the red carpet as usual, models Kirsty, Louise, Shonagh, Abbey and Sarah and last but not least to the other photographers who took part on the day.

 

New Business Cards

Well i thought it was about time that I had some new business cards so I started looking around for a supplier.  A couple of people had recommended Moo.  What I really liked about them is that you can choose as many images as you want for your cards, up to a maximum of 50,  at no extra cost.  The interface is easy to use and the whole thing was very straightforward.  Delivery was within 3 days with the cards packaged in a smart presentation case.  The quick grab shot here doesn’t really do justice to the quality of the print, suffice to say I’m very happy with them and will be ordering some new ones soon to reflect different areas of my work.