Flash units and accessories:

The big one is my all around favorite. I shoot in theaters and other deep dark places quite a bit and I need lots of light in places like that. This unit mounts to the camera with the bracket that’s right beside it, but most of the time it’s off the camera when I’m taking a picture. I’ve found that having the flash on the camera seldom puts the light where you want it or aims it in the right direction. So there I am, camera in one hand flash in the other, it’s a little (lot) awkward sometimes, but I like the results. I do portraits and still life. I find I need lots of lights from different directions and different amounts. So I have an assortment in the small, medium, and large sizes represented here. The medium and large models have a couple automatic modes and manual mode. They also allow you to set the amount of their total capacity they operate at (1/8, 1/4, 1/2). That’s real handy when setting light ratios for a shot; you don’t end up wishing the room was bigger so you could move the light back more. All of these flashes are equally at home "on the camera" or on a light stand. I didn’t show all the mundane things like stands, clamps and reflectors, but I did show some of the cords, adapters, and remote trigger sensors just to give a flavor for that sort of thing. Maybe I’ll show a few more representative items later, but I couldn’t get along with out them. One thing about stands is you get what you pay for and lightweight stands can be very disappointing as you’re trying to build a set up and the stands can’t take it. Oh, I couldn’t do without rechargeable batteries, ni’cads in particular. They cost more going in but they pay for themselves quickly if you use flash very much and they recycle the flash more quickly too. Be careful about using ni’cads with simple cameras; I’ve heard some stories that some simple cameras can die an unpleasant death when using ni’cads. I use the color filter shown in the folder to add a splash of color to a scene when I don’t want to add an overall tint to the picture, but it still needs some color in a particular area. The filters can be used with either the medium or large sized flash units shown and the are held in front of the flash with a filter holder like the one shown below the large flash.