Monthly Group Shoot -- West End Overlook

So on Sunday I went to my first Meetup of the Pittsburgh's Model and Photographer Meetup.  They have a group shot at the West End Overlook on the first Sunday of each month.  I went, met some good people and captured some good shots.  There were about 10 of us while I was there.  I believe the model's name was Alexandra.  It rained during most of the shoot, but that didn't deter us.  Here are some samples of some of the shot's I was able to get:

So I took a few photos as I was trying out my new Yonguo YN-622N's.  Here are a few of my beautiful family (Giao, Maia, and Rowan):

I was super excited because my family NEVER sits for me when I have my studio equipment set up.  Once we took some serious poses, a few silly ones came out as well:

 It was a short but fun session.

Photos were taken at f/8 or f/6.3 and 1/60s.  Primary flash was off camera on the left in a diffuser, while a small fill flash was camera right for two of the photos with Rowan.  The photos of Rowan were taken with a Nikon 85mm F/1.8, while the photos of Giao and Maia were taken with a Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 VC @ 45mm.

Yongnuo YN-622n flash triggers

I purchased Yongnuo YN-622N flash triggers recently.  They are a very cheap alternative to PocketWizards, costing something like $100 for two (I bought 4).  They are transceivers so you put one on the hotshoe on your camera and the other ones on the flashes you want to control.

They also have a passthrough so that you can still use your flash on top of your camera.  I am very impressed so far (but still have a lot of testing to do).  Here are some of my notes so far:
1) Controlling the other flashes from the transceiver itself is painful, as the controls are through a series of button pushes that are not intuitive.  The good thing is there are other options for controlling the other flashes.

2) I originally thought I would be able to use my camera's master controller menu for the built in flash to communicate with the camera mounted YN-622n, but that unfortunately does not work.

3) You CAN control the system from a flash mounted on top of the camera/YN-622n.  Controlling the system from a camera mounted SB-910 or SU-800 is super easy and what I am doing.  You can also use an SB-900 or SB-700 as a master controller (the SB-700 allows you to control 2 groups, the others let you control 3 groups).  Note, although you can use an SB-800 as a controlled remote flash using the YN-622n, the YN-622n is not compatible with using it as a Master.

4) I am still testing the pass through TTL.  I have had some inconsistent results in TTL mode but it could be me.

5) I usually set up for manual flash output.  This has worked flawlessly for me.  To do this you set all of your remotes as TTL, and in my case I set my SB-910 as Master.  I control all of the flash ratios for my groups from my SB-910 so without having to walk over to my remote flashes, or worrying about whether the infrared eye is pointing in the right direction, I can just fire and forget.  Very cool.

6) I thought that I might be able to mix and match with my SB-910 on camera with some remotes using the YN-622n and some still relying on the infrared CLS communication (since I was using the 910 as my Master).  Unless I did something wrong in my test, that mixed mode does not seem to be supported.

7) I have not tested it, but there is a 3rd party SU-800 available from Debao that is around $100.  That is significantly cheaper than Nikon's SU-800 (and it uses AA batteries instead of the CR123 that the Nikon uses).   If the Debao works well with the YN-622n system, it would be a very cost effective alternative.

All in all, if you want to experiment with off camera flash and don't mind doing manual flash control (all from your camera mounted flash, which is super easy), then I highly recommend the Yongnuo's.  If you want to shoot TTL, I would read a few more reviews to verify that TTL is working correctly for others (as I said, I may just be doing something wrong).

Happy Shooting....

I recently went on a fly fishing trip in Utah with a friend.  It was a great trip.  I'm not a huge fly fisherman, really just trying my hand with it twice in the last 10 years, both times with him.  In fact, I didn't even fish every day.  Instead, I took my camera and tried my hand at a few things that I don't practice enough.  Those two things were:
1) Macro work
2) Manual focus technique

In brought about at least one revelation: I rely way too much on AF.  Going to manual actually felt good; at least it did for the landscape and macro work that I was doing that day.  It has inspired me to go into manual more often.

Here are some of the semi-macro shots from the day (I say semi-macro because they aren't full macro close-ups.  The photos posted are crops of larger photos)....

The Bee: 105mm VR lens, f/11 @ 1/125s, ISO: 200

The Bee shot happened when I was walking through the brush.  It was sprinkling and as I walked by this bush with yellow flowers, I noticed some dark spots on the yellow.  On closer inspection, they were bees, about 15 of them, clinging on for dear life to ride out the rain.  I had a captive subject and I was going to make the most of it.  I pulled out my camera, manually focused and starting shooting.  The issue was that it was very windy, so the bees were going in and out of the focus plane.  I was lucky to get about 1 shot in 10 in any sort of focus.  This one turned out the best of the lot.

Red Ant: 105mm VR lens, f/6.3, 1/320s, ISO: 200

This photo was taken on our last day.  My friend Stephen was fly fishing and I was taking photos in the same area.  At one point I felt and sting on my ankle and looked down.  There were red ants crawling all over my feet.  I started hopping fast so no more could get on, frantically brushing as many off as I could and crushing the rest.  If you take a close look at the phone, you can see the pincers, and they know how to use them.  After that, I sought out a less active ant hill to get a recording of what the little devils looked like.

Twisted Metal: 105mm VR lens, f/13, 1/400s, ISO: 200

This last one was actually taken on the first day.  It was part of an old wooden fence that I took a few photos of.  I am not sure what the appeal is, but for some reason I am drawn to photos of wires like this.  I'll have to see if I can do anything interesting with this one in Black & White.....

Still ticking....

Its been awhile since I have posted.  I've been busy with work but have gotten out to take photos a few some in the months that have passed.  One such time was on February 5, 2012.  I took a photo lighting workshop.  Jim Powers was a great host.  We had the session in his studio downtown and he hired a wonderful model for the session - Katty DeLux.

There were three others and we learned a lot about the use of studio lights and lighting techniques.  I also used a ring light for the first time.  Here is an example of one of my shots using the ring light:

Overall, a good way to spend the day.

My first Kansas City Photographer's meetup

My first meetup was to the West Bottoms in Kansas City.  We went there in the late afternoon and left right as the golden hour was upon us.  It was great meeting some of the other photographers in the MeetUp group.

My photos were not all that great, but it was fun to get out and to challenge myself.  I want to go back around 8pm one night, stay during the golden hour and into the evening to take some night photos.......

New Weekly Challenge - WPC 201

This last week's challenge was "WPC PC #201 - Silhouette".  I entered two photos.  One was a photo taken last year of the statue at Gezer park against the sunset.  However, part of the reason that I am participating in the photo challenge is as a way to get me out shooting.

Therefore, when I took the kids to the elementary school park, I grabbed my camera and decided I was going to get a Silhouette picture this last weekend.  Well, I wasn't thinking of everything.  It was hot and humid out, but my camera was nicely cooled at home and in the car, so when I took it out, it fogged all up.  I waited a few minutes and it wasn't clearing.  Oh well, I'll see what I can do with what I have I told myself.  I ended up with a nice silhouette of Maia walking away in the soccer field with one arm held up.  It looks a bit like she is walking away into an apocalyptic landscape.  Sort of a Holga look.  I wasn't sure what others would think of it.  However, even though it didn't win, it did get some nice comments from others.  Experimentation is good!!