I made this a few years ago. Not really a video, just a slide show in a video format. I'm not entirely happy with my narration but its good enough to share. Its geared for people like I used to be... those who think you have to travel great distances to photograph wildlife.
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Monday, August 4, 2014
Travel Photography Links from B&H Photo
Here is another link I didn't want to lose, so I figured I'd post it. It's a collection of travel photography articles from B&H Photo.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/explora/p/travel-series?cm_mmc=EML-_-Newsletter_Newsletter-_-140729-_-BannerT_Explora_TravelSeries
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/explora/p/travel-series?cm_mmc=EML-_-Newsletter_Newsletter-_-140729-_-BannerT_Explora_TravelSeries
Monday, December 30, 2013
More of My Favorite Photo Tutorial and Photo DIY Resources
These are several of my favorite photo tutorial and instructional sites. The list was longer a year ago when I first made it, but several of the sites no longer exist. The dead links have been removed. It should also be noted that some of these sites are sponsored by camera shops or equipment manufactures, and as such, may contain a sales pitch. While I'm not endorsing any of the products, I do fully endorse their tutorials, otherwise they would not have made my list.
http://www.apogeephoto.com/ A photography magazine with photo tips, techniques, workshops and online classes. An inspiring photography website to get educated and informed at apogeephoto.com.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/indepth/tips_and_solutions/Photography Photography Tips and Solutions BH inDepth
http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/photography/topics/diy-projects.aspx To help
alleviate some of the “I want” pains, here are several articles that will teach
you how to make your own homemade digital photography equipment and photography
gadgets, from tripods to backdrop stands. Save money, get creative and have fun
with these easy-to-follow do-it-yourself projects designed with the
photographer in mind! Including DIY photography crafts to help you show off
your photos in style!
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm Digital Photography Tutorials
http://www.cameratown.com/guides/ Free Tutorials from Cameratown.com
http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/tag/diy-photography/ DIY photography - Digital Camera World
http://www.diyphotography.net/ DIYPhotography.net Hacking Photography For The Love of It
http://digital-photography-school.com/ Digital photography tips and tutorials for camera owners of all levels. Read by over 5 million people per month.
http://www.diyphotographystuff.info/ Diy Photography Stuff Diy Photography Tips Flash reviews Products Photography Basics
http://www.geofflawrence.com/photography_tutorials.htm Free photography lessons for digital photographers. Great tips and tutorials to improve your photography skill.
http://www.instructables.com/tag/type-id/?sort=none photography - search Instructables - Explore the Biggest How To and DIY community where people make and share inspiring, entertaining, and useful projects, recipes, and hacks.
http://www.lighting-academy.com/index.php?id=diy_anleitungen DIY Projects
http://www.lighting-essentials.com/ ESSENTIALS For Photographers Ideas. Inspiration. Fun. Photography.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/ The web's most comprehensive site devoted to the art of landscape and nature photography using traditional as well as digital image processing techniques.
http://www.photoflex.com/pls Photoflex Lighting School Photoflex
http://photo.tutsplus.com/ An assortment of photo tutorials and ideas.
http://www.silverlight.co.uk/tutorials/toc.html Free photography tutorials. Improve your photograhy by starting with the basics.
http://strobist.blogspot.com/ The world's most popular free resource for learning how to use off-camera flash.
http://www.studiolighting.net/ StudioLighting.net is a free online resource for Studio Lighting for Photography. Site features information on Studio Lighting Equipment, tips, setup, technique and tutorials for portrait photography.
http://www.tabletopstudio.com/HowTo_page.html Product photography - how to improve your product photos
I May Be TOO Detail Oriented for Blogging
Just realized I haven't posted to this blog in almost a year. When I left off, I was preparing a set of links to my favorite resources. It started as a very simple project, then it got a little out of hand. It turned into a meta tag scanned database of links to individual tutorials on a dozen different sites; THOUSANDS of articles, all searchable. If you ever did that type of project, you probably know how the fine tuning and debugging can go on forever. It was never quite ready. So I'm going to find my original set of links and post them. If I ever win the lottery and have all the free time in the world, I'll get back to my database.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Review of Poverty Wizards: Cactus V4
I finally took the plunge into wireless triggers for my strobes. Pocket Wizards were out of the question due to their price. I liked the fact that they would handle the higher voltages of old strobes, of which I own many, including 3 Sunpak 544s, but I digress (I promise to talk more about the many uses of the classic Sunpaks in a later blog.) What I didn’t need was the ability to trigger a strobe from a football field away. Yes, Pocket Wizards have great range, but how often to we need to be more than 20 or 30 feet away?
In the early days, any trigger that wasn't a Pocket Wizard was considered "cheap Chinese Ebay junk;" and it was. But the Chinese have learned they can no longer sell complete junk and still hope to compete in the global marketplace. Their strobes still have a way to go but their triggers are great. Enter the Cactus V4. At the time of my purchase, and this writing, Cactus is up to V5. But I have found that you can very often get the features you want, and pay a lot less, by staying one step behind technology.
Another reason for choosing the Cactus brand was the fact that I could by them from a US distributor: Midwest Camera. That meant I didn’t have to give my credit card number to someone in China. Not that I have anything against China in particular; I really don’t care to conduct transactions with businesses in ANY foreign country. IF there are any shenanigans with my card, I want it to be in the US where I have more legal recourse.
So far the Catcus triggers have worked quite well. Prior to their purchase, I had to rely on the built in optical slaves that often required me to set up in a manner that would make them all fire, rather than in the optimal locations for the best lighting. Plus my 3 Sunpaks which I use in my location work don’t have optical slaves, and I found that the Peanut Slaves are a bit iffy.
For the most part, I have used them either in a studio situation where everything was in a 10 foot radius, or at events where I used them to trigger an off-camera Sunpak mounted on a monopod for overhead lighting of my subjects.
One of the more common complaints I’ve heard is that they don’t fire reliably. I have not found this to be the case. The only time they have failed to fire is when I forgot to turn on the receiver. Another complaint I have heard is that the battery drains if you forget to turn OFF the receiver. I have not found that to be the case either, as I often (usually) forget to turn them off, and have yet to drain a battery. And if I do, they are cheap and readily available.
All in all, it was a good purchase. The price, with shipping, from Midwest Camera for the starter kit of 1 transmitter and 1 receiver was right around $50.
THEIR Write Up
The much anticipated, all-new Cactus Wireless Flash Trigger System V4 is here! This new flash trigger system is a significant upgrade from all current and previous Cactus wireless flash trigger versions. The new version gives photographers even greater creative control over lighting in their images.
With the new Cactus Wireless Flash Trigger System V4, you can place multiple flashes at various angles and distances from your subject. This is particularly useful for portrait and product photography. Each receiver works with one flash. You can use as many receivers as you wish, all receiving their signal from one transmitter. Simply attach the hot shoe of the external flash to that of the receiver, or use the flash connection cable. Most importantly, without the need to connect the flash to your camera by hot shoe or cable, you can move the flash to anywhere that produces the best lighting on your subject. With the flexibility the new Cactus V4 triggers provide, the possibilities are endless!
The innovative standing design allows all the common portable flash units to sit securely on it without a separate light stand. When shutter is released, the receiver picks up on the signal emitted from the transmitter on your camera and will trigger the external flash connected to it. The fastest response time is 1/1000s (actual sync speed varies from 1/125s to 1/600s depending on the sync speed limit of the camera system).
The Cactus V4 offers many improved features over the V2 version. These improvements include a new antenna design that increases the reliability and effective distance to 30 meters(about 100 feet) and a new power source: AAA batteries. The 16 selectable channels and advanced anti-interference feature will allow the device to work within the effective area without interference from other devices. This new Cactus version offers a high degree of compatibility. With the provided connection cables, photographers can use the receiver with a range of lighting sources including low trigger voltage portable flashes, high trigger voltage portable flashes and studio strobes.
A complimentary copy of the photo album, "When Light Dances" is included in the package. Wonderful pictures taken by photographers using the new and improved Cactus V4 radio trigger system, as well as setup details are shown for your reference.
Compatible With:
Cactus V4 does not work with V2s or V2;
Cactus V4 does not transmit TTL information.
Some dedicated flashes (e.g. Nissin Di-622 and Di-466, Sunpak PZ42x and PZ30, Sigma EF-530/500 DG ST for Canon, etc.) are triggered via system-specific pins instead of the central contact of the hot shoe. Cactus V4 does not work with these flash models. To check whether your dedicated flash units are compatible with Cactus V4, try attaching them to a camera of other brand (e.g.attaching a Nikon TTL flash to a Canon DSLR camera). If the flash can be triggered, it will work with Cactus V4.
Tested with the following flash models:
Cactus KF36;
Canon SpeedLite 580EX II, 580EX, 540EZ, 520EZ, 430EX II, 430EX, 430EZ, 420EX,420EZ, 380EX;
Nikon SpeedLite SB-900, SB-800, SB-600, SB-28, SB-27, SB-26, SB-
25, SB-24;
Olympus FL-50R, FL-50, FL-36R, FL-36;
Pentax AF-540 FGZ, AF-360 FGZ, AF-400 FT, AF-240 FT;
Sigma EF-530 DG Super, EF-530 DG ST (for Nikon only), EF-500 DG Super, EF-500 DG ST (for Nikon only), EF-430;
Sunpak Auto 2000DZ, 622 Pro, 433AF, 433D, 383, 355AF, 344D,333D;
Vivitar 285HV, 285, 283, DF-400MZ, DF-340MZ
Specifications
Working radio frequency
433Mz
16 channels selectable
Responding time
1/500 - 1/1000 second
Support sync speed
up to 1/500 second (depending on sync speed limitation of the flash unit)
Maximum effective area
30 meters / 98 feet (open area without interference)
Operating temperature
above -10°C (14°F) and below 45°C (113°F)
TRANSMITTER SPECIFICATIONS
RECIEVER SPECIFICATIONS
I finally took the plunge into wireless triggers for my strobes. Pocket Wizards were out of the question due to their price. I liked the fact that they would handle the higher voltages of old strobes, of which I own many, including 3 Sunpak 544s, but I digress (I promise to talk more about the many uses of the classic Sunpaks in a later blog.) What I didn’t need was the ability to trigger a strobe from a football field away. Yes, Pocket Wizards have great range, but how often to we need to be more than 20 or 30 feet away?
In the early days, any trigger that wasn't a Pocket Wizard was considered "cheap Chinese Ebay junk;" and it was. But the Chinese have learned they can no longer sell complete junk and still hope to compete in the global marketplace. Their strobes still have a way to go but their triggers are great. Enter the Cactus V4. At the time of my purchase, and this writing, Cactus is up to V5. But I have found that you can very often get the features you want, and pay a lot less, by staying one step behind technology.Another reason for choosing the Cactus brand was the fact that I could by them from a US distributor: Midwest Camera. That meant I didn’t have to give my credit card number to someone in China. Not that I have anything against China in particular; I really don’t care to conduct transactions with businesses in ANY foreign country. IF there are any shenanigans with my card, I want it to be in the US where I have more legal recourse.
So far the Catcus triggers have worked quite well. Prior to their purchase, I had to rely on the built in optical slaves that often required me to set up in a manner that would make them all fire, rather than in the optimal locations for the best lighting. Plus my 3 Sunpaks which I use in my location work don’t have optical slaves, and I found that the Peanut Slaves are a bit iffy.
For the most part, I have used them either in a studio situation where everything was in a 10 foot radius, or at events where I used them to trigger an off-camera Sunpak mounted on a monopod for overhead lighting of my subjects.
One of the more common complaints I’ve heard is that they don’t fire reliably. I have not found this to be the case. The only time they have failed to fire is when I forgot to turn on the receiver. Another complaint I have heard is that the battery drains if you forget to turn OFF the receiver. I have not found that to be the case either, as I often (usually) forget to turn them off, and have yet to drain a battery. And if I do, they are cheap and readily available.
All in all, it was a good purchase. The price, with shipping, from Midwest Camera for the starter kit of 1 transmitter and 1 receiver was right around $50.
THEIR Write Up
The much anticipated, all-new Cactus Wireless Flash Trigger System V4 is here! This new flash trigger system is a significant upgrade from all current and previous Cactus wireless flash trigger versions. The new version gives photographers even greater creative control over lighting in their images.
With the new Cactus Wireless Flash Trigger System V4, you can place multiple flashes at various angles and distances from your subject. This is particularly useful for portrait and product photography. Each receiver works with one flash. You can use as many receivers as you wish, all receiving their signal from one transmitter. Simply attach the hot shoe of the external flash to that of the receiver, or use the flash connection cable. Most importantly, without the need to connect the flash to your camera by hot shoe or cable, you can move the flash to anywhere that produces the best lighting on your subject. With the flexibility the new Cactus V4 triggers provide, the possibilities are endless!
The innovative standing design allows all the common portable flash units to sit securely on it without a separate light stand. When shutter is released, the receiver picks up on the signal emitted from the transmitter on your camera and will trigger the external flash connected to it. The fastest response time is 1/1000s (actual sync speed varies from 1/125s to 1/600s depending on the sync speed limit of the camera system).
The Cactus V4 offers many improved features over the V2 version. These improvements include a new antenna design that increases the reliability and effective distance to 30 meters(about 100 feet) and a new power source: AAA batteries. The 16 selectable channels and advanced anti-interference feature will allow the device to work within the effective area without interference from other devices. This new Cactus version offers a high degree of compatibility. With the provided connection cables, photographers can use the receiver with a range of lighting sources including low trigger voltage portable flashes, high trigger voltage portable flashes and studio strobes.
A complimentary copy of the photo album, "When Light Dances" is included in the package. Wonderful pictures taken by photographers using the new and improved Cactus V4 radio trigger system, as well as setup details are shown for your reference.
Compatible With:
Cactus V4 does not work with V2s or V2;
Cactus V4 does not transmit TTL information.
Some dedicated flashes (e.g. Nissin Di-622 and Di-466, Sunpak PZ42x and PZ30, Sigma EF-530/500 DG ST for Canon, etc.) are triggered via system-specific pins instead of the central contact of the hot shoe. Cactus V4 does not work with these flash models. To check whether your dedicated flash units are compatible with Cactus V4, try attaching them to a camera of other brand (e.g.attaching a Nikon TTL flash to a Canon DSLR camera). If the flash can be triggered, it will work with Cactus V4.
Tested with the following flash models:
Cactus KF36;
Canon SpeedLite 580EX II, 580EX, 540EZ, 520EZ, 430EX II, 430EX, 430EZ, 420EX,420EZ, 380EX;
Nikon SpeedLite SB-900, SB-800, SB-600, SB-28, SB-27, SB-26, SB-
25, SB-24;
Olympus FL-50R, FL-50, FL-36R, FL-36;
Pentax AF-540 FGZ, AF-360 FGZ, AF-400 FT, AF-240 FT;
Sigma EF-530 DG Super, EF-530 DG ST (for Nikon only), EF-500 DG Super, EF-500 DG ST (for Nikon only), EF-430;
Sunpak Auto 2000DZ, 622 Pro, 433AF, 433D, 383, 355AF, 344D,333D;
Vivitar 285HV, 285, 283, DF-400MZ, DF-340MZ
Specifications
Working radio frequency
433Mz
16 channels selectable
Responding time
1/500 - 1/1000 second
Support sync speed
up to 1/500 second (depending on sync speed limitation of the flash unit)
Maximum effective area
30 meters / 98 feet (open area without interference)
Operating temperature
above -10°C (14°F) and below 45°C (113°F)
TRANSMITTER SPECIFICATIONS
- Transmitter’s Camera voltage handling
- Up to 6 volts
- Compatibility
- Compatibility to all cameras with standard ISO hot shoe or PC sync output
- Connection port
- 3.5 mm (1/8 inches) mono mini-phone
- Dimensions
- 60 x 46 x 27 mm
- Length of antenna
- 45 mm
- Weight (including battery)
- 33 grams
- Power input
- one (1) L1028 / 23A 12V battery
RECIEVER SPECIFICATIONS
- Innovative standing design
- supports major portable flash units
- Flash voltage handling
- up to 300 volts
- Compatibility
- Compatible to portable flashes and studio strobes
- Connection port
- 3.5 mm (1/8 inches) mono mini-phone
- Dimensions
- 74 x 45 x 28 mm
- Weight (including battery)
- 55 grams
- Power input
- Two (2) AAA size 1.5V (IEC: R03) batteries
Friday, January 11, 2013
This Weekend
OK, enough of the social media for awhile. Its time for some PHOTOGRAPHY. Going to see a friend's band tonight and will be shooting some photos with an off camera flash. With a little luck, we'll be able to get some photos OF shoot to illustrate how its done.
In a nutshell, I use an old Sunpak 544 equipped with a poverty wizard mounted on a monopod. I used this technique at a living history event last month with outstanding results.
And IF I have time, I'll be cutting holes in the moving box that has been kicking around my garage for the past 6 months and doing some tabletop photography.
In a nutshell, I use an old Sunpak 544 equipped with a poverty wizard mounted on a monopod. I used this technique at a living history event last month with outstanding results.
And IF I have time, I'll be cutting holes in the moving box that has been kicking around my garage for the past 6 months and doing some tabletop photography.
Monday, January 7, 2013
My Social Networking Activities in Photography
OK, I’ve been busy. I…
- Updated my Facebook business page. Of course now I learn there are ways to add Flash effects to it to dress it up and give it some pizzazz. But that’s going to have to wait ‘til later. If I get into all the details like that, I’ll never be ready for the big debut of the new website.
- I have been busily posting to this blog on Blogspot to generate some backlinks and hopefully also some interest. It’s also helping ME to learn. Fact is I know nobody but me is reading this right now.
- I updated my Blogger profile to include a link to the website.
- In the process of messing with Blogger, I was taken, against my will I might add, to Google+, but I figured “What the heck,” now is the time. So now I am on Google+ as are more links to my website.
- I also visited my Yahoo account, only to find it hadn’t been updated in nearly a decade. Put links there, too; not only to the website, but to Facebook, Blogspot, and Google+ as well.
- I set up a Pinterest account, but still have no idea what specifically I’m going to do with it. That, like fancying up the Facebook page, will have to wait.
I was feeling pretty proud of myself, until I remembered I
still have to work on my LinkedIn account and see what’s going on with Flickr
as well. WHEW!!! Its never ending. I’m learning why people get PAID to do
nothing but social networking.
What has been driving all this work? Among other things, articles found in the links
below.
- Why Photographers Should Love Google+
- Pinterest: Inspiration for Photographers
- 5 Tips For Getting The Most Out Of Google+
- Short On Time? Learn To Post To Google+, Your Blog, Facebook, and Twitter Simultaneously
- Will Google+ Become Another Flickr-style Feeding Ground For Photo Theft?
- 5 Tips on How to Utilize Facebook for Your Photography Brand
- What Every Photographer Needs to Know about Social Media
- What Every Photographer Needs to Know About Facebook
- Facebook for Photogs – 10 Ways to Generate Business
- Organize Your Social Media Outreach
- Facebook for Photogs – 10 Ways to Generate Business
More to come...
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