Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Photographer Greg McCown had a lifelong dream to capture a rainbow and a lightning in a single image. This may seem crazy but if there is one place in the US where the weather is crazy enough to pull this off, it has to be Arizona.
Two days ago, his dream came true. Greg was driving on the I-10 and was hit by a wet microburst which brought the traffic close to a standstill and visibility down to 20 feet. Seeing the rainbow Greg decided to chase it and try to get his prize shot. Luckily he did.
Back when I was photographing Ontario’s largest climbing gym, astute readers might have noticed that I was using both Nikon and Canon camera bodies interchangeably, but I was triggering a set of Nikon strobes (and one studio strobe).
To be more specific, I was using a Pocket Wizard Plus X as a transmitter on a Canon 5D Mk II, a Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 transmitter on a Nikon D300, and three Nikon specific Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 receivers on my Nikon strobes (the remaining four strobes were triggered by optical slave – which just thinks bright light is bright light).
However, since Pocket Wizard Flex TT5s are brand specific – Nikon or Canon (and especially if you have ever tried this), you should be having a saaaaayyyyy whaaaaat moment right about now – because this unholy alliance won’t work out of the box.
In this article, I will show you how to convince your camera bodies to love everyone.
Optical Slaves are the simplest (and cheapest for the most part) method for using off camera flashes.
The principle is simple, when the optical slave sees another flash fire, it fires too. Kinda like yawning. Once one of goes, it is catchy.
Of course optical slaves have their limitations, one of which is that they are too dump to understand the difference between a flash and a pre-flash. There are a few more limitations to optical dumb slaves, but this post is about overcoming the pre-flash issue with a cool gizmo called Arduino.[Read More…]
This self portrait on the left by Reuben Krabbe was taken (believe it or not) by Reuben Krabbe. Now, I know that you know that time/space fabric will tear if a person is present at two different places in the same time.
So, once we remove the impossible option we remain with the possible option – Pocket Wizards.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
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