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Quick Tip – Use a Power Bar While Traveling Abroad

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The awesome Benjamin Von Wong is here on a visit and we gave my new video setup a quick run.

Since Ben comes from Canada all his devices has weird Canadian no good plugs. The solution, use one all-in-one pongs adapter and a “bought at home country” power bar. This configuration has a small foot print and can be reused around the world.

(Side note: expect more videos here, one of the first ones will be on how to create that “white” look on a budget).[Read More…]

Bullets Out / Batteries In

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Weapon stores are a cool place for photogs to hang out in, not necessarily because photographers use firearms (though we are constantly treated as terrorists), but because photogs share some of the same concerns of hunters.

Readers Michael Page just spotted that bullet cases or (“Ammo” boxes) can be used to store batteries on long trips where you have no chargers. Or when you need lots of batteries to stay dry.

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The External Flash Power That Will Last Till Hell Freezes

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UPDATE: IanW has a good point in the comments that flashes can go thermal on you. He is right. Pop to hard and too fast and you will overheat. “Fire a flash too frequently with this setup and you will destroy it due
to overheating, unless it’s got a thermal cutout (most don’t).“

UPDATE 2: if you’re gonna do this, make sure you’re doing this on a 6V flash, i.e. 4 AA batteries. This will fry your flash if it is a 3V flash (2 AAs)

We write quite a bit about portable strobes. If you’ve been around for a while you may remember an older version of those strobes. The Sunpak family. While I have not used them myself (too young, sorry), those behemoth shoot at a staggering GN of 48 (meters) and have the look and feel to support it. That makes them ideal for sun swamped on location lighting. The nice thing is that they are old enough to be bought at ridiculously low prices second hand.

The following post about portable power source for small flashes (and Sunpak 611 in particular) is written by John Hagar (blog).[Read More…]

The Best Invention Since The Invention Of The Power Cord

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The following guest post about the best invention since the invention of the power cord (and saving space while traveling) is made by Simon Williams of Simon James Williams Photography.

You’ve been looking for something that will change your photography forever, something you’ve never quite been able to put your finger on, the “Zen” some people say that you have been looking for.

You have the best camera that your wife (or husband) will allow – in fact you’ve got more mega-pixels at your disposal that the Hubble space telescope. You are in more debt than the Lehman Brothers website designer because of it. [Read More…]

Empower Yourself On Location (Or Two Portable Power Packs)

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I used to love a good what do you get when you cross jokes. I still do. What do you get when you cross a battery with a pure sine inverter? Read on to find out.

As you probably know, I am a big fan of small flashes. (*cough* Strobist *cough), but sometimes small flashes just don’t have the juice to light up a scene. It may be a big place that needs tons of power or a huge light sucking modifier that eats up all the light from your strobe. (Try using the SB 900 on the westcott 2.15 meters octabank, that would be an interesting strobe challenge). So I do have one big 400WS flash. (Ok, just before you hit me with the “you call 400WS big?? ppffffhhh!”, I’d say that it was big enough for me when I bought it, and it was I could afford.

So anyway, if you are in a studio this is no biggy. Plug the flash to the wall socket, dial up the power and you are good to go. But what if you are outside the studio. On the beach, park, moon? [Image by andyarmstrong]

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More Power To Your Flash – External SLA Battery Flash Mod

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If you’ve been shooting with a flash for a while, I’m sure you had some battery problem or another at least once. Like when one of four batteries goes bad and quickly discharges the other three. Or when it’s cold and the batteries don’t hold their charge so well anymore. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have a more reliable source of power? One that virtually lasts for ever (well, not forever, but for a darn long time). This is probably on the wish list of anyone who is shooting off shoe and don’t care much about weight, but do care about recycling time and number of pops that can be squeezed in a session.

Konstantin Sirotkin describes how to make a Flash mod that will allow you to connect your flash to an external power source.
Yes this is an external power source, no mater how bomb-like it looks.

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Portable Power – Explorer XT Product Review

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I try to do almost all my outdoor shooting with Nikon Speedlites. This should be quite obvious to anyone who reads this blog. However, strobes can not always provide all the light you need. (Unless you can stack a gazillion of them together). Some cases where a strobe will not cut it are shooting against a harsh sun, lighting huge deserted interiors, having to use large diffusers outdoors, and more.

Those are just the types of scenes where I use a studio flash… Hey there! waitaminute!! You said shooting outdoors. Are you pulling my leg with the studio flash thing?

Well no, this weekend I got to try Innovatronix’s Explorer XT – an External Battery pack for Studio Flashes. Ron Uriel and I tried to squeeze this baby out. Read on for the full review.

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