New photo gear

I bought some new photo gear this last week to expand my lighting techniques.  I have been using two 580EX's off camera with a Canon ST-E2 for a number of years, but I've always been stuck mainly indoors because of the infrared range.

So I've taken the plunge and bought some Pocketwizards (3 x FlexTT5), as well as some more stands and a background stand, some white seamless, etc.

I hesitated a bit when a read the problems with Canon flashes and the FlexTT5's, but took the risk.  Although there has been a few initial issues with misfires or no fires, I am happy with having the ability to shoot TTL.

I am using white shoot through umbrellas for now.  Softboxes are the next on the list.  I would like to have a three light system eventually, but for now, I'm learning to get different looks with two lights.

For this photo, I put Suzanne about 2 feet from the background and I am lighting her with a main light 45 degrees to my left.  The second fill light is to my right and feathered to hit her and the background.  I was trying to get a light grey or soft white background, so I had to have enough light from the two lights to spill on the background,




You can see the two catch lights in her eyes.

For this photo, I wanted a put white background, so I had to use one flash for just the background.  That meant I would lose some of the fill light on her face, so to compensate, I used a Photoflex reflector about 2' from her left shoulder (camera right).




The background is still not pure white at the top of the frame.  I might try a different way to hit the background (the flash was on the floor behind her, pointing up).  But all in all, I'm pretty happy for my first attempt.  There is still good separation from her hair and the background.

My next goal is to try and photograph our dogs.  It will be great fun to try and get them to sit still on the seamless!

Just getting back into working with my speedlites.  The weather has been a bit cool over the long weekend, so I've been (re) reading the excellent blog at www.strobist.com.  It's really got me pumped to get working with some OCF (off camera flash).  It made me want to go out and get some new gear ... Maybe my wife will let me get a couple of pocket wizards ... It's always good to hope!

A couple of weeks ago, I went on a 6 day trip in Algonquin park. Not just any old trip. 6 days of canoeing, portaging, lifting, grunting, bug swatting fun ... :)

It was a lot a of hard work (at least for me), but certainly worth it. Algonquin Park is absolutely beautiful! It's not a wonder that Tom Thompson spent his life living and painting in the area ...



Started in Magnetawan, with the first night in Butt Lake (now Ralph Byce). Second day two portages to Little Queer. Third day was long, with 2 extra long portages down Tim River, finishing in Shah Lake. Day four, a short travel to Misty. Day five, another long day, to Daisy. And finally on day six, a short trip back out Magnetawan.

Anything carried in, was carried out. The first days were the hardest, because the food was the heaviest. I don't think I could make a longer trip! Too much to carry!

I should note, that my buddies did the major heavy lifting. Hopefully I wasn't too much of a burden ...

When I went to Italy this summer, I carried my LowePro backpack with virtually all my gear.  But on this trip, I was worried both about getting wet and weight.  Keeping the gear dry would have been pretty easy.  But I'm glad I opted for the "light" option!  I took my wife's digital Elph.  Easy to carry and easy to keep dry.

But on the nights when the sunset was perfect, I still wished I had my tripod, a couple of ND filters, and the ability to control my aperture and shutter speed ...  Oh well, I still like my photos.

My friend had a pretty cool PS that was waterproof!  He actually took it right into the lake and took a few pictures of us swimming under water.  Now that was cool!