FlashFlavor Blog Feed

I see movement

Matt — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:56:05 EST

Recently, I was assembling a few galleries and found a few shots that Sol shot and wanted to share with you. Let this be a little motion motivation for you :) Here are 3 frames where a flash helped act as the shutter and freeze the action involved, just enough so the ambient and movement patterns would leave a ghosting look. This technique is easy to follow, drag shutter, add flash :) low power flash preferably.

She has done very well capturing motion or the sense of motion which directly puts the viewer in the seat of the action. How much motion have you been shooting lately? I found myself getting a little crazy with motion and using flash so I wanted to add a little shot to my motion post as well.

ISO 1000 1/50th at 2.8

Sol shot this one with a little lens barrel effect.

ISO 100 1/40th 2.8

I shot this one on Saturday, 11/8/08. I liked SO many from this wedding that I decided to send them to the hotel yesterday... Besides the hotel manager, you will be the first to see this photo. We will finish the editing on this wedding over the next 3-4 weeks... more to come!

ISO 500 2.2 at 1/25th. The flash and subtle camera movement combine together well. They look like they are floating almost.

Hope these inspire you to move your camera, zoom your lens, run around, do something fun with the camera and flash when shooting to emphasize movement!

cheers,

matt

"tricking" your sync speed

Matt — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:22:59 EST

I was doing some browsing around and hit up my buddy David Ziser's site and found a tutorial he recently put together on "tricking" the sync speed of your camera. I'm liking this idea and can't wait to try it... ALL this time I've been afraid of going above the native sync speed of the camera in fear of the big black stripe on the bottom of the frame.

David makes use of this by filling that black stripe with ambient and highlighting just a certain part of the subject that still remains in the lit part of the frame's upper to mid half.... COOL TRICK MAN!

Also, Strobist featured this and has a few tid-bits to add, so check out David Hobby's article too!

Thanks for the great advice amigos!
Enjoy!

Mateo

Mixing flash with ambient

Matt — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 12:47:33 EST

Where have I been lately? Not writing too many FF posts... sorry bout that. I wanted to add a little weekly motivation to your wedding photography diet. I shot a wedding last night, Friday in Athens Georgia. To my surprise, I woke up this Saturday morning with a SMILE on my face that I didnt have to go to a wedding!!!!! Just to show you how my day started, here is the first awake thing that I did this morning...*note that the eggs fell as you see them, no arranging :)

NO FF value, but smile value is 100%. I didnt manipulte this at all :)

OK, howsa bout a little FF motivation :)

Do you ever feel stale or tired of doing the same ol' thing at your weddings? Welcome to the club! Often, I am constantly challenging myself to figure out how I can make my imagery more dynamic. How can I tweak my lighting? What special twist can I add to the frame to enhance the overall message I am trying to communicate? These are questions that I constantly ask myself. If you are seeking growth or are just looking for a few ideas, I think this FF post will help you out!

I'd like to talk a little bit about balancing ambient light in a reception environment. First thing you must consider is that it is your GOAL to tell the story and communicate not only the actions and sequences of the wedding day or reception, but a clear idea on the mood and ambiance.

With off camera flash lighting, its too easy to let it get out of hand and light up the entire world, especially if you are using bounce flash carelessly. Recently, I made a HUGE effort to try and make sure that I captured an event with the most subtle mix of strobe and ambient that it would give my client an exact remembrance of the ambiance. This is a challenge as all reception rooms are different and every event can present you with new challenges... big bands bring big lights.... ambient can sometimes be turned WAY down, or WAY up or WAY orange or RED....etc.

At this event, I found that shooting with a few primes and adding a subtle bounce gave me just the desired look. As you are evaluating these frames, really give it some time and visualize this room.

ISO 400 1/200 @ 1.4 NO FLASH, ambient only. This shot is provided to show the setup of the room. There were 90 guests. Ambient light fixtures on ceiling pumping out a little tungsten color. Band lights with par can's providing red, orange, yellow gelled lights. BIG band, 10 members.

ISO 400 1/125 @ 1.4 I used a Nikon Speedlight on a stand with a very low power bounce flash, 1/32 power. I made sure to position the bounce setup so that it would highlight an area of the dance floor and I could increase my ISO if I needed the flash to travel more distance. I also left myself with the ability to drag the shutter to give the bounce light a boost if I needed more distance. My advice is to figure out these equations with a little trial and error. You will be surprised how easy it can be. Overall, I made sure NOT to blow out the room and let the ambient in the distance fall 1 or 2 stops under the foreground exposure.

Here is a photo using the same lighting setup, just from the opposite side of the room. You can see the small dispersion of bounce flash in the reflection of the glass. The light is located on a stand just behind the musicians lights to camera left.

ISO 500 1/200 @ 1.8 Here the strobe isnt adding much but it is making a small statement. The band's lights were very HOT and they provided me with most of the exposure seen here. There is a nice highlight on the toasting hand of the maid of honor and a highlight on the edge of B&G. This frame mostly shows the setup position of the camera position in the above photo example.

Here is one more from a different angle slightly closer to the strobe as you can start to see shadows.

ISO 400 1/100 @ 2.2 I was able to freeze action here but think that I could have made a slight adjustment in the flash's position as the flash head is so close that there was a little direct spill, causing the few shadows seen on the girls. Not alarming, but a slight technical flaw.

I hope that this helps you with a little motivation to make sure you are capturing the Mood and Ambiance at your events as your clients remembered them. Are you blasting flash all over the place? probably shouldn't do that...

Next post is going to be from the SAME wedding... VIDEO LIGHT Flavor... coming soon!

Cheers!
matt

flash flavor details

Matt — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:26:32 EST

*revised to add*

If you have any snazzy lit detail shots and are proud to share the inspiration with us, please send it to me. Link to my "contact" page on the Nav bar to get me. 850ish wide with your branding. I'd like to build a series of posts with lots of killer idears.... so please contribute.

My friends Ed & Monica recently were talking about adding a flash flavor to their detail shots. This is a technique that i highly recommend you plug in and try every once in a while. We really enjoy adding colors or streaks of light to our detail shots. Just to change up your normal routine every wedding, do something crazy or set up a science project on the subject...watching that volcano spew can be really exciting.

Ed & Monica have previously contributed to FF. Thank you for your suport!

Also read "flash flavor formals"& one of my fav's, "deleting the ambient"

Also read this article about FF details that I published a bit back...."shoot the cake"

Ed writes:

When shooting FF-style weddings, don't just limit yourself to the couple or the bridal party. Flash flavor applies to anything... seriously, ANYTHING. What we like to do is cover the details with our "safe shots." shoot it how you normally shoot details. as soon as you're done, start playing.

We''ll place the strobes anywhere and angle it in ways we've never done before... basically, we experiment...and if we get a shot, cool! and if not, that's cool too because we'll know what not to do next time. It only increases your chances of getting cool and unexpected images. we even surprise ourselves sometimes. =)

//ed pingol
edpingol.blogspot.com

============================================

Take this shoe shot. we placed it on this cool chandelier hanging in the kitchen. It was peculiar-looking plus the mom was like, "what are you guys doing?" LOL! the background was a mess, people were running back and forth, and if you shot it straight, it would definitely be a "throw away." So we shot from a low angle where everything was clear of any mess and we back lit it. same situation with the dress below.

Cakes are particularly shot "normally." sure, it looks nice with a lot of shallow depth of field (of course, everything looks good with a shallow depth of field). But when you look at most of the photographers out there, they normally settle on shooting it straight or maybe shooting down on it with a tilt, to be more creative. Why not add some "flava" to the cake? light it up and shoot low. Include the flare..why not? Anything and everything goes. If you like it, then SWEET! if most people like it and some hate it, then you're on the right track. Why? Because that means you're creating a niche with how you shoot details. This will make you stand out from other photographers. Believe me, it's a good thing.

Cheers & thanks for these images ED & Monica! They sent me so many detail shots that i figured that I woluld bring you a VOL 2 detial set from them both.... Thank you for your contribtion again amigos!

mateo

JVS offcameraflash.com

Matt — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 04:06:46 EST

In 2005, I was lucky enough to attend my 1st photogaphic workshop that greatly influenced my flash photography career. Ironic enough, it had nothing to do with flash photography! The workshop was "See, Shoot, Show" offered by Huy Nguyen and JVS. The 2 day workshop encompassed photojournalism techniques and thought process working an event as a documentary journalist. Both of these guys opened my eyes and enlightened me with some serious direction.

Basically, these guys regurgitated ALL they knew and my pen was non-stop writing. JVS had some interesting ideas and concepts that especially stood out to me. Up to that point, I was using flash off camera but just not really having a clue how to control light whatsoever. He showed a few slideshows and let us in on some of his flash lighting tricks. I remember thinking that I couldn't wait to RUN to my next wedding armed and firing away with some new inspiration.

HAD that workshop been about flash ONLY, holy sheesh... I would have wet myself! Since that time, I have been constantly checking the updates and imagery from JVS and was so suprised to see his recent announcement. This guy will teach you how to find the HOLY GRAIL of flash lighting essentials, especially for those wedding photographers who work with small strobes. Details on his off camera flash workshop at the bottom of this post!

He likes to work as lightweight as possible and has a killer eye. Jump on his website real quick to see what I'm talking about, if you haven't already seen his stuff. BOOKMARK it!

JVS gave me these few images for this FF post...

The bridal was lit with a 580EX II, focused with a homemade foam snoot and tripped with a MultiMAX.

I have always LOVED this shot of his....Have you ever wondered how to make a nice groom portrait?

Old-school and classic, the groom portrait was lit with a 550EX, focused...yep with a homemade snoot, and tripped with the original 16 channel Pocket Wizard (black case model).
I’ve been using and refining my small strobe technique's for close to 15 years and will be sharing this knowledge at our 2 Day Workshop.

Check out his flash blog at: www.offcameraflash.com

His workshop link: 2 day workshop

Date: Oct. 7-8
Location: Dallas, Texas
Who: JVS and Anne
Name: 2 Day Lighting and Portrait Workshop
What: Electronic flash in a portrait environment

This 2 Day Lighting and Portrait Workshop with JVS and Anne will take you
from being timid with strobes to understanding the ins and outs of lighting
techniques with small strobes and monolights.

Explore the world of light with JVS through multiple demonstrations and
hands-on learning. You will become familiar with using your own strobes,
multiple strobes and have the chance to use Alien Bees in studio and on
location.

Anne will help you breathe fresh air into your portraits by offering ideas
on how to control your portrait session with unique results.

JVS and Anne are excited to have several awesome Workshop sponsors!

For more information please visit http://www.jvspictures.com/2day

***In addition, we plan to take our Workshops on the road in 2009 and we’re currently looking for hosts. If you’d like to host a Workshop, please email 2day@offcameraflash.com

41 exposures? 100 exposures? Artists that paint with light...

Matt — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 08:44:36 EST

Recently, i've been very interested to try this technique out... Imagine a totally blank canvas. Now imagine that canvas is the frame inside your 35mm DSLR. When you open the shutter to allow light through the iris, you start the magic! Now lets say you have 100% control over the amount of light that enters your frame... hey, last time I checked, I did! Ok cool, no that you understand the basic principal of starting this artistic process, turn on your flash.....50+ times... take a million photos....whatever. Follow a few rules.... 1. determine your ambient light's exposure in your frame... ex: bright sky, tungsten street lights, etc. 2. tune in your flash to control the light (manual flash mode). 3. Walk around blasting the flash aiming it all around highlighting special parts of the frame. 4. Combine each frame using tons of masking in photoshop...

I first gazed at the creative vision of fellow light master, John Michael Cooper. I met up with John at the Vegas get together in the desert mountains where we was doing one of concept sessions. Jason Dominguez and I stood there watching him and really scratched our heads and let the creative juices start to flow.....

Thanks John for your time during this workshop! I really enjoyed watching you work!

My bud Jason Domingues was recently playing around with this technique... He told me that for some of these, he was shooting 100 frames.... he may only use 40-50 or so frames in post production.....picking and choosing the best as each frame gives another layer possibility... you can light whatever you want!

Thanks for the cool shots guys! I'm eager to go out there and try this one myself....i'm sure I'll botch it real good on my first try :)

Cheers!

matt

Jaco's TTD

Matt — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 12:11:13 EST

Every time my eyes hit Jaco Fourie's site or an image he has created, i'm drawn in. This South Africian photographer has one outside the box creative vision and I'm so happy he is willing to share here on FF. Recently, he was involved with a TTD shoot that resulted in some serious fine art. He continues to challenge the creative edge and is delivering some killer stuff. Rangfinder even contacted him and is planning on featuring his business in their February 2009 issue! Congrats Amigo!

Jaco writes:

I had a real blast shooting these images. I like to combine video light with off camera flash. It gives me the ability to be so creative when it comes to lighting up my subjects. The video light is too weak to use in direct sun light. That is where the off camera flash comes in handy.
So why is off camera flash such a big buzz word these days? It has been around like forever. I personally think it is because now we are so portable that we can create stunning images using it very quickly and in places never seen before.
The main aim of off camera flash is to model the light so that the subject in the image becomes more 3D. Well that is the reason I use it. It adds a lot of drama and makes my wedding images a lot more dramatic. If you do it correctly you have so little postproduction on the images. The images are 95% done in camera

I shot this image using only video light from the side. The pier we were under had these blue lights shining down the side and I wanted to use that in the image. Using off camera flash was too powerful and overpowered some of the blue. That is why I decided to use only video light here. The image was shot with the Nikon D3. These cameras are truly amazing. I shot this hand held in the dark. I under exposed this shot by 2 stops so the blue would be prominent. It reminds me of a Star Wars Movie
Exif Info
Iso 5000
1/100
F 5.6

We also shot at this cave like opening. I noticed the wind blowing through it. I am always looking out for spots to use a veil and decided that this would be a cool place to use it. I also wanted to add some drama to the shot, so I added some flash flavor. I had 2 SB-800 speedlights that I fired via Skyports. One pointing at the front of the model and one pointing at the roof of the cave. I under exposed the shot by 2 stops to let the ambient go dark. Remember that your shutter needs to be slower than your camera sync speed to get a proper flash exposure. I played with this image in Photoshop to make it more moody.

Exif Info.
Iso 200
1/160
F 5.6

Thanks for taking the time to submit your killer imagery. I'm very inspired here amigo!

Jaco's blog featuring more TTD's

BIGGER photos...

Matt — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:46:39 EST

I'm still doing a little testing and now that I have this new format, i can post bigger photos.

Are these images too big for your screen? My max size is 930 pixels wide... I figure since this blog is all about the image, then posting BIG juicy shots will have more impact.

Here is an example 930 image... Every year, Whale sharks migrate to the waters of the Riviera Maya for feeding on plankton. You can charter a tour and go swim with them. I took my underwater housing with me, fisheye equipped. Swimming my A$$ off, I snagged this shot.... this fish was 55 feet... his head was the size of a truck!

test post, please comment

Matt — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:20:41 EST

test post for FF...

Feel free to post a comment, had some trouble before with spam....

Man, IM sorry for the lame-O break that I took on FF. On the redesign, the comment system was not working as I had wished and I was getting flooded with spam. In addition, I went to Costa Rica on my honeymoon for 18 days....wow, what an adventure that was. I'll be posting the video that I shot on the trip. For once, I did not shoot any still photos! I bought a hybrid HD vid camera and shot documentary footage the entire trip..... just wait :)

Here is a shot setup that I was in the middle of a few months back. Working at 12noon is tough and usually not advised. We pull out the strobes and blast away at close proximity and at full power. Not going to win any awards for this, but thought that I'd like to show a few images from the setup... also, shooting at high noon in the Riviera Maya is a great way to pull out some hot color of the ocean...

here is my results...

The shot is kinda cliche... but when you stick an airplane in there, u usually get better results :)

cheers!
mateo

flashflavor MAKEOVER

Matt — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:51:50 EST

Flashflavor is getting a total makeover and we are excited to put up something different / more professional for this blog! The look is coming from our friends at flosites who have worked on this with me for some time now. We ask for some patience as we get things together to make the change. Since Flashflavor just had its one year anniversary, it makes me think back on old times and where the flash madness every started. I brushed the dust off one of my old portable hard drives from back in 2004, a few terabytes ago and found one of the first images that I made with the off camera flash.

I knew that I would be upstairs on a balcony with guests some 20 feet or more away from my bride and groom, doing the bouquet toss. Knowing this, I knew that there was a technical answer to make a better photo so i asked a friend of mine to give me an idea or two. He handed me 3 ideas. 2 pocket wizards and a potato masher Metz flash. He said "here ya go". By no means is this fine art, but its the very first time I every used a remote flash at a professional gig. Thinking ahead of time can literally change your life. Flashflavor has been very fun for us because we are always challenging ourselves with new ideas and concepts to keep this thing going. Flashflavor has introduced me to many new photographers and helped me build networking relationships with some amazing peers! The moral of the story is to let every wedding be an eye opener to a new idea and an open door to a lifetime of possibilities. I've grown quite a bit since my first attempt using a remote flash. Keep in mind that I had NO idea how to use this prior to the wedding. Trial & Error made this photo. Don't be scared to use flash, just be quick to react to any problems! Shot with a fuji finepix S2 Pro on July of 2004. ISO 400 1/60th F6.7. I have no idea what the flash power was, but It was very very powerful. In hind site, I'd probably have used it on the lowest power setting to get more ambient.... oh well... Fast forward to October of 2004, I shot this one with a little more creative flavor... Less power and as an accent light.... getting better!

Thanks for keeping patience with my posts on FF. My wife and I are on vacation and are redesigning our del Sol wedding website as well as FF makeover. Keep your eyes peeled for a new look! Cheer! matt

more SOL inspiration

Matt — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:49:11 EST

I was looking over my wife's shoulder as she was working on a recent wedding... She is just on fire with some of her attempts with flashflavor recently. Specifically, I was noticing that she is doing a brilliant job of fooling the eye. I wrote about her attempts to lead the eye out of believing that there is any flash involved in this past FF article. Here, she is at it again with a pretty nice portrait attempt. Sol used a full power flash with a 1/4 CTO warming gel. Slave triggered by pocket wizard. 1/200 f22 at ISO 100. She was able to under expose the sky by bringing the flash very close to the subject (5 feet or less). The sunburst almost tricks the eye to believe that there isnt any strobe used at all... Well, most pros will know what is going on but to the common observer, its magic :) Same portrait session, another creative usage of light. I really like the lines and dynamic use of light here. Definitely a different way to take a groom's portrait! 1/200 f10 ISO 100 full power flash 1/4 CTO Warming Gel. and one more from that same session.... 1/200 F5.6 ISO 100 full power flash 1/4 CTO Warming Gel. For more of Sol Tamargo's creative vision, check out www.soltamargo.com/blog

Neil Cowley on photoshop flavor & flashflavor

Matt — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:14:50 EST

Neil Cowley is a photoshop guru and an off camera lighting wizard. I would like to send congrats out to Neil and Liesel. They are leaving NY and headed for their new move over to Charlotte. If you are a NC photographer, please be sure to connect Neil to your social network. He has made a serious contribution to the photographer society. Neil has taught workshops throughout the US on seeing the light. He is currently shooting weddings, traveling, and teaching all at the same time. I checked out Neil's profile on the WPJA just to revisit some of his award winning stuff. Neil was an influence to me during my first seasons working as a pro wedding photog. He has some seriously nice stuff... Check out a few of his WPJA winners. How are the prospects for 2008 coming?

Neil Writes: Flash flavor + photoshop flava Flash flavor starts with your shaping of the subject using your photo flashes - but need not end there! Here's the original image, and you can see it's flaws from my overly quick setup.... Here's a diagram of the setup - with the positioning of the flashes in relationship to the bride. I frequently will try for a quick bridal portrait after the bride is dressed, just before the ceremony. But in the very limited time and space I generally use a TTL two flash setup. I use one Canon shoe flash on my camera as master, and a second light off camera to provide a nice shaping to the light. In this instance the only place that wasn't messy in the room where the bride was preparing was in front of the fireplace - and there was a neat mirror in the background. Neat until you have to deal with all the ramifications of having a mirror in your shot! If you want me to point out the flaws for you - I will - they're noted in the photo on Flickr. First you'll see the pool of light created by the on camera flash's foofing the ceiling. Second you'll see a bridesmaid's head in the mirror, as well as an overly bright patch of sunlight hitting the dress in the near foreground. All these minor errors add up to a mild and disinteresting shot overall - so how do we overcome them and accentuate the directionality of the light to bring the flash flavor to full fruition? Well, do you notice the intriguing patter in the marble fireplace? So did I - and I cut it out and enlarged it to cover the entire photo. I then changed the layer mode to Overlay - and poof. I have created dappled sunlight throughout, cascading into the pool-like mirror in the background. I finished with an overall contrast boost from an "S" curve to bring out the directional quality of the light and increased the contrast of the reds to boost color contrasts within the image. By bringing light spots to the overall image, I minimized all my mistakes with a dramatic and contrasty look. Oh but you say, my image doesn't have any marble in it to try this.... Texture Download So flash some more flavor on your images with photoshop and check out more at www.MakeLightReal.com/photoshop/ for more ideas, downloads and techniques.

Thanks for taking the time to share! Sol plays around with textures and overlays from the time to time. I too have dabbled a bit with it. I'm a little cautious to get overlay crazy, just as a nice fine art approach now and then! Neil also had a cool photoshop overlay idea in this past FF article. Cheers! matt PS, give shout outs to Neil in North Carolina!

back to playa del carmen

Matt — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:26:11 EST

I was Stateside for 2 weddings and have returned to Mexico for a few more weeks to close out the season here. We are taking 3 weeks off in July and even more time off in August. After spending time away from the wife, its good to see some of Sol Tamargo. Its especially nice to turn around to see one of her killer images staring me in the face. I love this flashflavor image with the bride and groom walking, shutter drag, some kewl editing. She was in bright sunlight and used our Pocket Wizards to transmit to a slave Nikon 2b-28 at 1/2 power. Sol has some nice stuff on her blog. We are getting ready for a new blogsite design for www.delsolphotography.com, so look for way more and way BIGGER images coming soon. At this point, we are trying to recover from early 65 weddings so far this year. Production is pretty thick around here :) Currently looking for hot submissions. If you have something sexy, please send it my way. Cheers! mateo

PS. I was informed that a local coordinator recently abused copyright and regarding some of our images and used them for their promotion for their upcoming season in the current edition of Quinta Magazine in Playa del Carmen. Dealing with immoral people who abuse the copyright system really sucks. We put logos on a lot of things, these people actually cropped out our logo on 3 photos for the add, lovely! Dear WC, if you are are reading this, we pro photogs would like you to know that screen grabbing imagery for commercial use is not liked very much :(

atlanta pictage user group meeting thursday

Matt — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:56:23 EST

While I am in the US, I am giving a small chat about getting the flash off the camera at the local Pictage user group meeting (pug) at Java Vino tomorrow at 7pm in Atlanta GA. These meetings are set up by Pictage so that users can get together and network and talk about business. I'd love to invite you to join us! Please come to visit if you can :) The meeting is at: THURSDAY June 5th 7pm-9pm at Java Vino in the room upstairs! 579 N. Highland Ave NE Atlanta GA 30307 ***UPDATE*** Thanks to Jen & Adam Linke for setting everything up. The PUG meeting was pretty successful. It seemed like there was 30 people there. I hope that everybody enjoyed my presentation and our crazy and fun approach to shooting wedding photography with the off camera flash. Hopefully, we can do it again. Thanks to Mark Adams from LaCour for taking this photo! Check out the Atlanta PUG website for more info! Here is a little FF for your soul :) Do you ever shoot in full sunlight? So bright that the bride needs a parasol to block the sun? How do you actually light your subjects with off camera flash and make the subject blend with the ambient? F14 1/200 24mm In this photo situation, I used an off slave triggered by pocket wizards set to FULL power and blasted away as we walked from one location to another. This was one of those shots between shots. I didnt set this moment up, just kept shooting away. The light from the slave flash blends with the natural light, almost such that you don't even think about how they are lit. This kind of trick fools the eye because the blend of the fake lighting source with that of the sun seem almost 100% cohesive. I wrote about this same technique in this post, for more research on the subject. Cheers & hope to see you Thursday night (6/5) at 7pm! mateo

Pro on my shoulder

Matt — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:27:11 EST

I've been doing a bit of jet setting lately and recently ended up in a beautiful outdoor Atlanta city setting for David & Laura's wedding. The day prior to the wedding, Laura told me that she spoke on the phone to her future Father-in-law for the first time every! He had a ton of questions about ME and when I was shooting and where etc.... I knew from the beginning that David's father was a photographer. I didnt have a problem with the father of the groom toting around a rig and shooting all night, if that is what he wanted to do. However, laura informed me that he was forbidden to pick up a camera until the reception :) Wedding day, I meet Van White. Van tells me that his photography club in Virgina is anxiously waiting to see the photographs from his son's wedding... Initially, its a bit of pressure when you start to shoot for a man and woman to be wed and one of the fathers is a pro, standing right next to you on just about every frame. Every now and then, asking questions and getting answers from me... Hopefully he was able to have fun and not drool over the 85 1.2 and the 50 1.2 that I was using :) He also had his eye on my Radio Poppers.... I just wanted to say THANKS to Van and give a shout out to his photography club. Cheers Amigos! Bottom line to our style and approach... having fun. It also helps to keep the mindset to love your clients. If the love is equally shared, it always makes for a bigger improvement in your delivery. Cheers! Here was one of my favorite flashflavor images from the wedding: 1 off camera slave triggered by pocket wizard. ISO 400 F3.2 at 1/200 I really loved the illumination on the side of her face opposite to the strobe.....likely spill from his white collar. Oh, just so you know: I used and St-E2 with a pocket wizard velcrowed to the top for the entire wedding. NO on camera flash for ANY of my shots. My associate did use a bit of on camera bounce... Check out David & Laura's slideshow if you want to take a peek at the rest of the day! Cheers and thanks for taking the time to read FF. mateo

here is what we did

Matt — Tue, 20 May 2008 04:00:13 EST

Well, I must say that I'm impressed by all of your creativity with ideas on how to light this setup. Everyone who commented has a great idea and we all have respect that there is no right answer on how do to this stuff... matter of fact, I'm a bumbling idiot at most of my weddings with last minute inspiration to do whatever it is that I do... I'm liking all the suggestions, even the one of attempting to light the ocean. I'd be curios to try this setup at an upcoming wedding. Possibly a blue gel? Climbing the tree probably isnt going to be an option but I like the idea of possibility focusing one light on the tree. I wish the palms were fuller and more mature. My ideas for this setup came to me at the very last second and I was very lucky to pull it off as I did. Its amazing how busy you can be walking around just after the light is PERFECT shooting the couple for the last 30 minutes and then realize that its time to focus some attention to the logistics of how you are about to light the next sequence of the night. In this case, we did have a serious dance floor setup. As I watched these guys test the lights, the colors were everywhere. DJ's in mexico believe that they louder they can make the colors, the better the party. Basically replicate a club environment. First, before you decide to add lights to this dance floor, its important to go to them and ask to see the first dance light setup. You will be amazed to watch them scratch their a$$ and pull something out of it as a preset for lights. I spent some time working in the technical theatre in my undergrad and when I see stage lights, I know what they are capable of and especially after watching some of the tests. I requested that two of the spot lights on one side be turned on and NOT move. The floor was also lit from underneath too, which made for a nice balance. The spot lights were crucial here as this would form my dramatic lighting. If you can go ambient, don't waste your time setting up slaves. Lets face it, when you are in a pressure environment, who the heck has the time to do anything? I wanted to keep this flash setup simple because I had no time. I only had 3 slave speedlights with me at the time and just like most of you, decided to light the palapas (mexican name for umbrellas) with the colorful fabrics. They were aimed to bounce the light, placed in some of the wood used in the construction of the top of the umbrella. No need to gel these because they are already gelled with the beautiful sheer fabric. They were all set to 1/32 power. I determined this number because it needed to be low, not to overpower or overexpose on the wide apertures were were going to be using to get the available light exposures. All I wanted to do was create some depth to this setting. To the untrained eye, the scene looks untouched. This is exactly as I wanted to keep it! Final note to say that we used the videographers video light set up on one stand as a source of more available light. The last speedlight was placed in the final palapa (umbrella) as the bride and groom were announced and actually already dancing before I took my first shot. Here are my results: Canon 35mm ISO 1250 1/125 1.4 Canon 85mm ISO 1250 1/125 1.4 This one was a happy accident for me. Sol was actually triggering the same slaves in under the umbrellas, so we were stealing each others slave recycle from time to time, here I missed it. But, I think a darker background with this spotlight just MAKES this moment.... Canon 85mm ISO 1250 1/100 1.2 And here is the same moment, 3 seconds later. I got my flash back... ***Update*** Sol just passed along a few of hers. She too had this happy accident happen when I stole her slave flash :) Don't ya just love it how accidents can be blessings and compliment the dynamic range of your portfolio! Sol has cooled down her images quite a bit from what I was going for.... 2 shooters, 2 different editing styles. I like her touch here! Thanks for all the comments... I hope I didnt let you down with my efforts. Cheers! mateo

what would you do

Matt — Sun, 18 May 2008 05:09:09 EST

What would you do for this scene to add some flavor? I'm going to write a follow up article about this photograph. But, before I do, I'd like to leave it open for a small amount of discussion... if you care to give an idea. When you see this setup, how do you rig the lights for it? What kind of flash setup would you have for this scene? 1 or 2 lights aimed at the stage on clamps? Any other setup for an approach to photograph this area some sexy scene setters? If you read this blog and have 2 minutes, give me a quick rundown on what you would *plan on* during your mental preparation to photograph this reception? Participation helps keep this thing going, so holla if ya got an idea! Cheers! mateo

radio popper testing | video light testing

Matt — Thu, 15 May 2008 02:45:48 EST

Our apologies for the sloooow posting. We have stepped into our high season and just to give a little breakdown on what is happening, consider this: Production status: In May, del Sol has 22 weddings, 10 TTD sessions and an engagement and 1 rehearsal dinner. We are shooting more days than there are days in the month, crazy eh? We have a team of 4 shooters, myself, my wife Sol, my Atlanta associate Melissa and our Mexico associate Vincent. If my FF posts lag or dont show up, its because my head is spinning circles around some production. We made it through April which was just the

I wanted to include a few images shot by Sol or myself, using the trusty radio poppers. We use the RP's conservatively and here are just a few locations that they really stepped it up. I have mixed feelings about TTL right now that I'm trying to improve on. For me, it works and sometime, understanding TTL doesn't work out. I've trained my mind to see Manual Flash to the point where I begin to have a learning curve to care about TTL. But, its a growing experience that has had some fun experimenting with some nice Prime Glass. I've got a few images from what I call Sexy Glass. Anything under 2.0 and in the 1. something neighborhood fast lenses are just outrageous. ISO 400 1/400 High speed sync, f3.2 Canon 24-70 @ 24mm. This was publicity shot made for the Event Director and Sales Director at our favorite hotel in the Riveira Maya, Esencia. ISO 50 1/1000 f3.2 Canon 70-200 @100mm. Poppper performing at some distance, 40 feet or so, out in the wide open. and a little higher speed sync: 1/4000 4.5 ISO 50 Playing with a little underexposure here.

Using a SONY Video light mentioned in this post, with my trusty 50 1.2 or 85 1.2 or 35 1.4. More to come from the sexy glass. Previously seen Bat cave TTD Video light movie. This will give you an idea of how close we get with the video light.

video light used in ttd session
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Who said you can't shoot a table shot at 1.4? ISO 1250 1/100 1.4 35mm and after looking at this shot, i'm loving canon at 1250 ISO and sexyglass. Who said you can't handhold the 85mm 1.2 at 1/50th of a second? shot at 1/50th 1.4 ISO 1250. Video light from camera right. Ok, hope to be posting something soon, looking for an offer of a killer submission for flashflavor. Anybody know anybody? See a photo on a blog recently that sparked your artistic imagination? Please tell me about them in the comments, por favor! Cheers, matt

Sexy backlight

Matt — Tue, 06 May 2008 08:30:50 EST

Have you ever been in a tiny room that made you feel like it was impossible to capture a frame that seemed romantic enough to reflect the mood of the delicate speech of the father of the Bride? Lets face it, every once in a while we are all put in a position to shoot a room or in a location that is just NOT built for making beautiful photos. If we use our lenses and lighting skills to compose and light our subjects with finesse, the results will be show stoppers! My friend Ben Chrisman was visiting this weekend and introduced me to the Apertura photo blog. These So-Cal photographers have some hot frames in their portfolio. There very first blog post stopped me in my tracks. I immediately wrote to Ray & Erwin of Apertura photo and asked if they would give me a a write-up on this rockin photo.

Ray writes: It was a wonderful intimate wedding held in a small room in an Italian restaurant in Westwood. However, the room was pretty crowded with not much space to roam about and it also had a low ceiling to boot. The available light was candle light and it was very, very dim. To add a bit more drama, I decided to put an off-camera Canon 580EX II flash with a Pocket Wizard on the fireplace mantle behind the headtable for some backlighting. During the best men toast, I positioned myself to get the shot and kept moving around until I found this angle. I turned off the on camera flash and relied completely on the backlight for extreme drama. As much as I'd like to say that the flare on the glasses were intentional, it mas more of a happy accident. :-) Canon 5D - f/4.5 1/80 sec ISO 640 Flash 580EX II -1/32 power

I think happy accidents are a blessing and sometimes, these accidents are the difference in the excellent photojournalist and the average wedding photographer. Timing is instinctive and the quality of light used here is excellent. I love your balance of ambient and the use of the flash as it gives a sparkle of light through the glasses is exceptionally dramatic. You got an award winner here! Check out some more Happy Accidents here: Happy Accidents 1 Happy Accidents 2 Happy Accidents 3 And be sure to spend some time on Apertura's photo blog for a little wedding imagery motivation. These cats work pretty hard to frame up some magical compisitions and will inspire you for sure! Any comment love for these guys?

Cheers & thanks Ray & Erwin, Mateo

sol's hot toast

Matt — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:30:06 EST

Have you ever shot people toasting at a wedding? Every shot it from below? Yeah, we probably all have. If you haven't yet, give it a whirl. If you use on camera flash and just blast them with light, it will be less desirable and likely a whatever photo, not getting a lot of interest. This technique will help you visualize how to take a normal / standard exposed moment that you have seen a million times and add a little flavor to it. First step is to make sure you have evaluated the surroundings and know exactly where your ambient light exposures are in relationship to your flash power on your manual off camera flash. In this example, Sol has decided to underexpose the ceiling to contrast the glasses and the shape of the hands reaching out. Its crucial here to make sure that your exposure has some depth to make an impression vs a whatever frame. Sol Tamargo dropped the ambient out of the background and had an assistant with a slave set to 1/16 power, extended on a monopod in the ceiling. I don't know the actual distance, but likely 6-9 feet away. The key to this photo's success is the angle that the light is coming from. I'm guessing it is 35 or 40 degrees from camera left, in the air over their hands. ISO 200 1/200 2.8 | Sol Tamargo

The glasses light up, the ceiling goes dark, contrast rocks! I really love the subtle touch of the ceiling lights scattered between the arms. Those lights tie in the background and give this photo a magical feel! I also love the timing of arm coming in from the upper left. Love the fact that you squeezed the shutter before her toast clinked the other glasses. This is an excellent PJ decision that subtly changes the composition to be WAY more likable.

Great idea and nice shot Sol! Cheers! Matt

My camera's shutter gets the middle finger

Matt — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:48:41 EST

For my operating settings, I've got a few secrets that will help you snap quicker / better exposed photos when your flash is too hot. My wife tells me that I'm too fast for this world so this trick my not apply or matter to some of you. del Sol Photographers all use Manual photo control when shooting our weddings. We have grown close to cameras performance and when shooting, we find it helpful to be able to adjust your shutter and aperture settings while also working some photojournalism in there. I know that everybody will have their own way to adjust these controls... if you open your mind to a little change now and then, you may become inspired. This technique also has a little flashflavor advise built in as well. With a manual power slave flash, your exposure latitude is pretty short, not allowing much room for error with the brightness to darkness of your frame. the closer that slave gets to the camera, the hotter its going to be and vice versa going the other direction getting further away. For example, if you were shooting a group of people who were gripping and grinning, your flash could be 2 times brighter than you thought it *should* be however, drastic measures are needed and quickly inside the camera to make the photo you are shooting that second, perfect! I enjoy rolling my right index finger on the top right dial on my camera, allows me to adjust my shutter. Think of it as a finger-roll technique. If you want to shoot a test but don't have time to test your flash to subject distance, keeping in mind that photo moments happen way faster than you can remember, you aim and shoot. Your light's intensity may be considerably high or low in relationship to how it *needs* to be. Roll the finger on the dial (front or back dial) as fast as possible to stop down or open up. I have calculated that there is a scale of how hard to how soft you can roll the dial, thus resulting in a multi f-stop roll, a single f-stop roll, or a little bit of a f-stop roll.... or something like that. I call that rustic technique the finger roll. Just thought I would share this idea. For me, shooting Manual flash slaves can be a challenge and this technique has helped me in situations where I was totally unprepared with the power settings of my manual slave flash. Here is my secret: Notice the index finger's position, on the shutter control. I give my camera's shutter the middle finger. :)

I honestly didn't even realize this until one of my assistants pointed it out to me at a wedding the other week... I don't even know what they heck i'm doing these days, but glad some body has figured it out for me. Thanks Diego for pointing that out! DO you have any crazy camera quirks that help your game? Wanna share? Tell us about it. Cheers! mateo

My first Radio Popper frame at a wedding

Matt — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:51:16 EST

This is my very first image captured by utilizing the Radiopopper system. Thank you Kevin King for getting these to me, all the way in Mexico no doubt! I am such a bad professional. I ripped the bag open to reveal my new set of RP's just 45 minutes before I walked out the door to a wedding 2 days ago. I ran around my place like a crazy man testing for a few minutes, but really didnt do much pro testing on these units before I unveiled them at a pro gig... shame on me eh? My client will be so disappointed that I tested a new product out at her wedding... Shame on me... here is my first TTL RP frame :) The down light is from a ceiling lamp in the bathroom... the rp slave is located just in below the bride's right arm, next to the sink in the bathroom... I didnt use the RP's too much at this gig, but I did play a little :) More test results coming! Cheers! mateo Edited to add.... If you are a pocket wizard junkie (like myself) TTL is a foreign language that takes some serious time to learn to speak. If you want to use baby steps to learn to speak the RP language of TTL, then try this technique... This is a REQUIRED :) element for those testing the RP who are use to the PW system.... good luck :)

Joco's fury | Skyports

Matt — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 04:00:10 EST

I've seen adverts for Elinchrom Skyports and until recently, hadn't seen images from this system of transmitters until I ran into Jaco Fourie, South African photographer. Along with his wife Daleen, they are producing some amazing imagery that I felt needed to be seen here on Flashflavor. I have been keeping an eye on the Flashflavor flickr group and noticed his stuff along the way. His images are very romantic and his compositions are all very pleasing to look at! Not yet contributing to the Flashflavor Flickr Pool, please drop a few wedding shots off there! Jaco writes: Don't you just love it when it all comes together? This image was a bit of luck on the one side. I had the lights set-up on the dance floor as I normally do. I like to use off camera flash on the dance floor and have them pointing at each other to get some cross lighting. This creates a more 3D look. I kept on moving around on the dance floor and decided to move the 2 lights to the same side pointing at me. As luck would have it the DJ blew some smoke on the dance floor when the father and the bride started to do their dance. The groom and his mother joined them and I saw that they were moving in a circle on the floor. I lifted the camera and waited for the moment when both the couples where in front of my lights. I did fire off a couple of shots just to make sure I had it. The smoke added some real drama to the image. I think that off camera flash adds so much more drama to an image. I first started to experiment with it when I got my first D70. Using the Nikon creative light system I was able to create great images non wedding related but found it a bit limiting at weddings as you got unpredictable results with miss fires. So I left it there. Then I discovered the e-bay triggers and started to play with them as the Pocket Wizards are very expensive here in South Africa. I still had some problems with miss firing using those triggers. Then I found the FlashFlavor site and was amazed with the work Matt, Ed Pingol, DQ Studio and Sol Tamargo were doing with off camera flash. I upgraded to the Skyport radio triggers and the rest is history. Now we are only limited by our imagination. I have always been a big fan of video light photography. People like Jerry Ghionis had a big influence in my style of photography. But now off camera flash has added another dimension to our work. Thanks Matt for creating this blog and inspiring us to be better at what we do. Viva FlashFlavor. Nikon D3 | F8 | 1/125 | ISO | Sigma 12-24mm Here is another: Shot was done with 2 SB-800 and 1 video light in total darkness. Camera WB was set to tungsten, that is why the flash is blue. We used the video light to light the couple from the front. 1 SB-800 was pointing at the steel work and the other pointing at the couple. Both Speedlights where behind the couple. Nikon D3 ISO 2000 F-stop F4.8 Shutter 1/13 Thank you for making inspiring images for us to see! Check a look at Jaco's website if you need some inspiration this week: Jaco has also taken his time to give us a tutorial and a review on the skyport. Check his handy work out: Here is a link to his blog post where he has a few more video tutorials on the Skyports. Thanks Jaco! Any questions for Jaco on this system? I'm curious to see if anybody else has been using / experiencing good results with skyports? Cheers! matt

1000 true fans

Matt — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:03:41 EST

After reading flashflavor and seeing our work day in and day out, do you ever wonder what it is that we do to get the business that we get walking in the door week after week? Well, In this FF post, I am going to give you my true secrets. I'm telling you this because letting this secret out isnt going to diminish my "true fan" base. Hopefully, this post can be about some inspiration for you. For the last 5 years, we have been very client driven and have done all or everything to build a fan base. We have been doing everything we can to go ALL out do deliver the most amazing imagery, delivering tip top customer service, and separating ourselves from the rest!

The secret to success for the creative artist is finding 1000 true fans. The content of this article is 100% copyright Kevin Kelly Genius, Blog Author, Book Author, Wired Magazine Co Founder amongst other affiliations... Kevin writes about obtaining 1000 true fans: ...the gist of 1,000 True Fans can be stated simply: A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living. A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans. Assume conservatively that your True Fans will each spend one day's wages per year in support of what you do. That "one-day-wage" is an average, because of course your truest fans will spend a lot more than that. Let's peg that per diem each True Fan spends at $100 per year. If you have 1,000 fans that sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks. One thousand is a feasible number. You could count to 1,000. If you added one fan a day, it would take only three years. True Fanship is doable. Pleasing a True Fan is pleasurable, and invigorating. It rewards the artist to remain true, to focus on the unique aspects of their work, the qualities that True Fans appreciate. The key challenge is that you have to maintain direct contact with your 1,000 True Fans. They are giving you their support directly. Maybe they come to your house concerts, or they are buying your DVDs from your website, or they order your prints from Pictopia. As much as possible you retain the full amount of their support. You also benefit from the direct feedback and love.

To read the rest of this amazing eye opening and career starting article, please go read Kevin's Kelly's article about 1000 true fans...

Kevin nailed it here folks. This has been the key for my survival and the motivation behind all of our development since day 1. This article is only 1 month old however, it is the answer to any artists search in life to find clients. Flash flavor's motivation has been nothing short of a straight line down the path of finding 1000 true fans... My motivation with Flashflavor has the Karma approach in mind. If I give and give and give, if I'm lucky , on of these days what goes around comes around... I'm not selling anything (yet) on FF... However, I guess one of these days I'll be offering a workshop or selling some sort of software and hopefully, my "true" fans will shine for me :) I must be getting somewhere because as I write this post, we are receiving 1000 unique visits every day :) Hey!! thats a start!

Now take some time, and bookmark Kevin's blog on your RSS feed or write about him on your blog. While you are at it, bookmarking Flashflavor would help me out in many many ways, por favor!

Cheers & start finding your true 1000 fans! mateo

Radiopopper testing

Matt — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 03:19:15 EST

I am very excited to see the birth of the Radiopopper this year. This write-up will serve as a initial preview of my experience with this revolutionary unit. In order to give a full review, I will need this baby on a few of my wedding gigs. I hope to be shooting with them at my first few weddings in April. We haven't used TTL at a wedding with off camera slaves in a long long time. Heck, I can't tell you when. I love to change up my game, so the popper is an exciting new tool in my tool box! We spent an hour or so the other day with these units. Ordinarily, Flashflavor photo subjects will be wedding related. I ask for your forgiveness with this post as we didnt have time to organize any test bridal models during the short term planning we did to organize this shoot. I spent some time with a few other photographers to get some play time with Radiopopper (RP). We each got a chance to set up a makeshift subject and shoot each one of these subjects to test the strengths of RP. We tested firing 3 different flash groups TTL using the 580 EX II as the master unit and 3 remote slaves all in different groups, set to different ratios. Group A, Group B, and Group C. I didn't actually do any test shots with these flash settings but hopefully, I can get a copy of the images from Stillmotion to showcase here. When it became my turn to play with the flash, we found our way inside Battista's Hole in the wall, a rustic Italian food joint with some serious history in Vegas. I wanted to add a little life to my test subject and on the spot, I found a cute little old guy who made a SLAM of a subject. Sorry to bother you with the details but I believe if you add a story line to a test subject, the impact of the lighting efforts actually make a lasting impression. Call me a dedicated photojournalist if you will :) In these photo examples, I used 3 flash unites in 2 different flash groups, Group A + Group B. (Remember, this is TTL folks). Group A 1:1 and Group B 1:4. We had 1 Radiopopper transmitter attached to the ST-E2 and 3 Radiopopper receivers attached to 580 EX II's. In this setup shot, I was shooting a Canon 5d with a ST-E2 wireless transmitter on the hotshoe . I had a RP attached to the top of the ST-E2. Group A was set to 1:1 and Group B was set to 1:4. Basically, I've told Group B to fire with 4 times more light than Group A. Group B's units are placed behind subject on bench and camera right. I dialed my exposure in so that the ambient would hang out. What impressed me most about this is that we were limited here with time, with little or no actual test time to get ti done right. I shot 5 or 6 frames in this spot in the restaurant and I liked his expression best in these few frames. The RP allows you to set it and forget it. If this had been a Pocket Wizard setup (i still love my PW's), I would have needed more time to set each unit up and get the job done. I took 5 minutes with this guy. With this kind of pressure, I'm starting to love the RP!

Here are my frames (all shot at ISO 400, 1/100th at 1.4) Gordie has been playing the accordion at Battista's for an outstanding 27 years. His listeners range from hookers and prostitutes to drunkards and party goers to the occasional superstars. His favorite musicians were the Oakridge boys! Batista's ceilings are adorned with props and the walls are covered with their menus and wine bottles and different photos from the past. Battista is filled with low lighting and a moody atmosphere. I wanted to take a chance to add some light that would accentuate the mood that was plastered all over the walls. I love how the backlight has added some dimension here. Remember, set it and forget it mentality.

Initially, when we choose a location in the restaurant to shoot Gordy, we found a spot that seemed perfect. After my first several frames, I had botched exposures and misfires. After expressing my concerns that something wasn't right, Kevin King (RP Creator), pointed at the link light on the side of the RP and noted that it was blinking, indicating that there was some type of interference. The moment I started to actually test this baby, I found a circumstance that actually challenged its performance. Apparently, the link light on the receiver unit that indicates it has a link with the other will stay a solid yellow upon its initial link up. After a fire, it will turn off and back on to indicate that it has linked up. If it intermittently blinks then it indicates interference. The receiving unit may or may not fire, depending on the circumstance. We walked literally 15 feet to another location in the restaurant and the problem went AWAY... hey, that was easy enough. Ok, so now I've found a problem on the first frame I've tried to expose. In all honesty, this inst my first experience with Interference while transmitting to a slave flash unit... On numerous occasions, I have been using pocket wizards and experienced some sort of interference where my slave units WOULD NOT FIRE. I can recall one specific wedding where Sol Tamargo & I were both trying to trigger our Pocket Wizards. We each have 5 pocket wizards and 4 or so Slaves, each. So thats 10 pocket wizards, 8 slave flashes. In the heat of the moment, we tested all of our PW's and slaves, traded sync cords, did just about anything possible to make it happen... NADA. There was some sort of interference going on and we could not nail it down. I'm not sure what went on as we never figured it out, but the point is that interference has happened to me before when using a device that transmits via radio signals. The bottom line is that I'm not too worried about this potential problem with the RP at this point. I'll need some more testing time to give you more thoughts on this. After my turn was up, Ed Pingol stepped up to the plate and took the RP's outside. He wanted to test the high speed sync abilities and used 2 slave units. I don't have any of the TTL settings at this point, but I do know that he used a ST-E2 on the hotshoe and 2 groups on the slaves, A & B. One unit was 3-4 feet away, camera right and the other unit was 6-8 feet away, camera left. I was a spectator :)

Camera: Canon EOS 40D | ST-E2 set to High Speed Sync Exposure: 1/8000 sec Aperture: f/2.8 ISO: 100 - Focal Length: 17 mm The model is my wife, Sol Tamargo :) I'm loving the use of high speed sync with these RP units!

Well, for now, I'm going to close with those photos of my HOT wife...thanks Ed! Thanks Kevin for giving us a chance to play with your new toys! I look forward to working with these units at my next gig. I will be doing a writeup on what it is like to use the RP's in a live environment where the pressure is ON! Thoughts or comments about the TTL system and Radiopoppers innovative way to use Radio Signals.... please give us a shout or feel free to drop off your ideas. I'm really curious as to how many of FF's readers actually use Manual slave flash operation or TTL... Cheers! Mateo

**Update** I didnt have too much time when I originally wrote this post, so I've added one more image that showcases a long distance field test in "ideal conditions" meaning open range without any interference. In this photo example, i've added a field test shot at 300+ feet. I'm the spec off in the distance under the arrow holding the flash that is actually being triggered at that distance. We tried several frames where I would stick my hand in front of the antenna and some where Kevin would face the opposite direction to test if and when the slave would trigger. Anyway, here is the football field test... F3.5 1/4000 ISO 50 ST-E2 trigger on Camera. photo by Kevin King and a zoom of this frame to see the slave being triggered.

***Update 2*** I got a few frames from Stillmotion's tip top shooter, Amina Myriam Wojcik. We were all tag teaming along with the crew who was testing the RP's. Here are a few of her photos and her 2 cents... She shot these with a Canon 5d and a Tilt and Shift lens... She also has added a cool X-process flavor to her shots... Amina writes: At WPPI, I had a chance to check out the Radio Poppers. The group went on two shoots with them, one at a really cool restaurant called Battista's Hole in the Wall, and on in the desert just outside of Las Vegas. Because of the different shooting conditions, sometimes I was using one external flash, and sometimes more. I tested them at different ratios and groups, as well as channels and different levels of exposure compensation. I found that it was easiest to use the ST-E2 with the Radio Poppers, since the ratio controls are right on the back of the unit, and really easy to access. The 580 EXIIs are great for it too, but it takes a little longer to switch settings, so if you're in a time-crunching situation, be sure to have your "fit-in-your-pocket' ST-E2. The Radio Poppers worked at all settings reliably and allowed me to use high-speed sync in bright daylight without worrying about line of sight. It was awesome when I could light some guys playing hacky sack so easily. Now, focus was another issue! Ever tried shooting moving objects with a tilt-shift, at 2.8 in bright daylight with flashes behind your subjects? Not as easy as it sounds! But it was super fun, and we all got some awesome shots out of it Above four images credit: Stillmotion's tip top shooter, Amina Myriam Wojcik.

Thanks Amina & the still motion crew for your help!

label your gear

Matt — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 05:14:54 EST

I was unloading batteries today after a recent shoot. We stage all of our gear on a table as we pull old batteries out and put new ones in. I looked down at our equipment pile and got to thinking about a Flashflavor post. Since ALL our gear is mixed up, how the heck do we know whose is what? Once you start to build a nice equipment inventory, its about darn time that it get cataloged or labeled so you know what ya got! We are a studio with 4 maybe 5 shooters at a given time. It is crucial to us that we have our ducks lined up in a row! Yeah, a Sb-28 is just the same as the next one but I have found that ALL my equipment seems to come to life and we experience problems with our gear at almost every wedding. How do you identify the problem what it is happening to? For at least 4 years, I worked with a pile of gear in and out of bags. When I found my wife, Sol Tamargo, I knew that something had to change. After the 2nd time of "hey, you got my batteries" or "do you have my pocket wizard, I've only got 2 and I should have 3" or whatever.. I was SICK of that. If you label your gear, you will actually know what is yours... novel thought eh? Ok, lets say that you are a 1 man / woman show and you know exactly what gear you have and therefore there is no need to label anything... Sounds like my thought train for my first 4 years. Guess what? Your WRONG! Why? Everything we use BREAKS at one point or another. Especially in the world of pocket wizards.. I have pulled my hair out a time or two switching cables, changing receiver units, checking batteries...when something fails, its important to identify it and move on. We have experienced MAJOR problems with the Pocketwizard system specifically. The short PC cords are poorly made for our work environment. With tugs, pulls, and catches, these things fail.. oops, there goes another $20 to buy a new one. So we started labeling our PC cords... Yep, i have them all labeled. If we have problems with one on assignment, I pull it out of operation, make a mental note of the cord's labeled number, tuck it away in a special place, and switch to a backup. This kind of mindset works with ALL your gear. We have tons of slave flash units. Flash tubes go out (afterall, the SB-28 has been discontinued for years). PC posts break, zoom heads go out, flashes get thrown in the ocean...heck, a plethora of problems greet you at every wedding. Its about dang time that you can identify your problem unit, put it aside, and address it later in the shop if necessary. Ok, I hope your getting the point. Check out these photo examples of my gear pile and their labels. I purchased my label maker for $29 at a local office store... you can too :) LABEL IT. WE even label our rechargeable batteries. These things have a life expectancy so at some point, they will fail. We recommend that you put a few different color rings around them when you buy them new, make a note somewhere citing the date when those colored batteries were purchased. It helps if you can identify which photographer gets which batteries... Also, I've included our trusty labeler in the lower left, next to a few of our batteries :) You can see that we actually label our gear with the first initial of the photographer who owns that particular unit. Everything has a label, lenses, camera bodies and tripods! Give this a try :) Hope this helps? Cheers! mateo

photoshop user magazine

Matt — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:21:58 EST

I was pleasantly surprised this week to find out that photohsop user magazine published a story I wrote about the trash the dress phenomenon. I was very excited to be featured (along with my wife) next some seriously talented folks. I had a chance to meet one of the photographers published in the article at WPPI, Cliff Mautner. I also parked myself next to the Nikon booth to hear him speak about making magical images... That guy is unbelievable! Check him out! David Ziser was also featured (a talented photographer and photoshop artisan). I have featured David's work here before on FF. I was hoping that I would get a chance to meet him at WPPI as well but with 1 zillion other photographers buzzing around everywhere, it was rather impossible to accomplish all my must see photographer goals...next time David! SO, if you are in the neighborhood of a bookstore, pick up or sign up to receive a copy of photoshopuser magazine. Those guys working with Scott Kelby really have it going on... OH, I had a chance to meet up with Dave Cross at the Leaving Las Vegas shoot a few weeks ago. I've watched numerous episodes of him on Photoshop TV... Also, a special thanks for RC over at layersmagazine.com for asking / motivating me to write this article! Anyway, keep your eyes peeled for the Magazine. Sol Tamargo & I have this very dramatic vision for the future of our Trash the Dress sessions. I'm not sure how long our clients are going to keep asking for them, but with the insane amount of worldwide buzz going on, I dont see it stopping anytime soon, especially with the destination wedding environment. We have 25 TTD sessions booked this year! Look out for some more crazy video's coming soon! Cheers! mateo PS, the photoshop guys & gals did a super job on the graphics... thanks again :)

RadioPopper

Matt — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:04:16 EST

I've been spending my time these last few days hanging out at WPPI in Vegas and finally got to meet up with Kevin King, creator of Radiopopper. Kevin is a pretty rockin photographer and an awesome entrepreneur as well! Kevin let me play around a bit with this killer device and he even told me that I may be able to get my hands on a set pretty soon so I can experiment with them at my next wedding on the 29th. I hope to be doing some killer testing on this device as I just may have a new weapon to my arsenal! r....I fired this baby off TTL at 1/8000 at 1.4...(i'll have to get Kevin to send me a few of those shots to post here as I was using his camera for the quick test). I'll keep you posted on my results...keep an eye on this guy, radio popper may be a big friend of FF very soon! Ps, jump over to strobist to read about David's meeting with Kevin recently.... Cheers! matt

Another FF Trash the Dress

Matt — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 04:06:02 EST

We have been very lucky in a sense that our clients commission us to fly all over the world and shoot in some super exotic places. One of the requested sessions is typically an after wedding session where there are no rules and the dress likely will end up in the sand or swimming in the ocean. This allows for total creative freedom. I wanted to share another one of these sessions we shot recently in the Dominican Republic. We ended up spending the whole day with these folks driving across the entire country and exploring a few locations. Shooting in these conditions is risky as you never know what the locals are going to do to you, and sometimes, equipment is in danger. I'd like to cite a specific example where I was in the water with my wast belt of lenses and for this particular example, I was helping Sol with the flash and we were under exposing the background as the bride and groom were splashing each other. I was also shooting (bad idea). Somehow, I ended up tossing a Nikon SB-28 slave and pocket wizard into the ocean. Lets just say that was the end of those pieces of equipment. $130 for the flash, $189 for the PW and a nice SHOCK to my face as the flash does not like water... I had my SD-8A batter pack plugged in, when I unplugged it I got a jolt! Here is Sol's photo just moments before the flashes death... I walked back to the shore to sulk and drop that now useless equipment and snagged this frame of Sol shooting... Since we had tons of backup, I added a CTO gel to another flash and shot this frame of the bride on the sand (special thanks to our taxi driver for holding the light (he has a cameo in the slideshow with a brides reflection in his shades). Here is Sol's version of this a few moments later when the groom decided to enjoy himself...

If you want to check out our entire adventure across the Dominican, check out this TTD Slideshow. Well, I hope you enjoyed these TTD del Sol moments. Maybe you had a smile or two after visualizing me tossing that flash in the water. Moral of the story, dont try to shoot and assist at the same time, just dont do it! Cheers & thanks for checking us out here at FF! Mateo

Del Sol Trash the Dress | Bat Cave

Matt — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 10:50:11 EST

How much can I begin to say about the fun that we are having with our subjects. Our clients are escaping to a wonderful destination location and planning the wedding of their dreams. Why not dream a little more and go out on an exotic excursion to be photographed in the land of fairy tales? This is exactly what we are doing with our sessions and I often need to pinch myself. Picture yourself in the middle of a muddy deep dark hole and bats are flying around, everywhere. Watch out, if you step in the wrong place, you will be up to your knees in quickmud and sinking fast. Oh, there are little round balls of bat poo everywhere... I am stepping on them with every step through this mud cave. Insert bride and groom in this non-friendly environment and you are slap in the middle of a del Sol TTD. It gets cleaner and eventually becomes a "Wash the Dress" session. I've talked about one of our previous sessions before HERE and if you have seen that, you will see something familiar. We added a little color to the background again but this time, we used a mix between the amazing power of the video light and a red gelled flash flavor. The combo worked very well for the looooow light circumstances. I am hoping that my viewers can live vicariously through this session and help us keep the TTD phenomenon alive. You can do this by posting this TTD link in your blog. Show it to the world, tell a friend or neighbor about this insane video you watched. Del Sol is making a huge effort to keep an interest in the TTD session.

checka lo this video from the session
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Many thanks to our friends Paul & Rachel at Playa Weddings for the awesome video work.

OK, OK, OK, I've used red flash gel in the past to add some sauce to the frame... Well, I thought the flava was oh so nice.... Anyway, here is a set of images that we got recently while doing a little spelunking. Here are a few of my favorite photos... JUST an FYI. The del Sol studio has been undergoing a little brand development. Sorry for all the inconsistency... But you are beginning to see some of the results of our new face. This is our new blog template with the new logo. New blogs for Flashflavor and del Sol coming very very soon! and this is the "scene setter" from the bat cave... We we were getting stuck in some serious knee deep stuff in there... (shot courteous of Sol Tamargo) Sol also snagged this killer frame. If you have been curious up to this point as to some specifics about our lighting, we would like to introduce you to the power of video lights. In ALL these frames, we are using a very inexpensive low wattage SONY Video light. Makes for some pretty sexy fill, eh? 100% Sol Tamargo... and another one from Sol Ambient light all over the background of the cave.... the sun was beaming into the cave producing this beautiful light quality that was being reflected all over the place by the ripples that we were causing by our movement through the water... her is an example of total ambient with a tad bit of low power flash flavor fill. In the video, you can see what I am talking about with ambient splashing everywhere. This shot sets up the ambient beam of light that helping us with these frames...

Again, the movie file at: www.delsolphotography.com/ttd/ttd2 Please, throw the link to this around to share the love. The more people (clients included) helps our worldwide efforts to keep the TTD thing going! Thoughts? We had some serious fun on this one. It is our hopes to perpetuate the TTD phenomenon for the next few years. We believe that fun times and exotic locations such as this continue to stir the imagination. Do you? Cheers! matt

Flash Flavor Formals

Matt — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:37:56 EST

I wanted to follow up with posting another set of images from one of the photographers I am keeping an eye on. Ed Pingol has recently contributed to a FF post on deleting the ambient. One of the things that really stood out about Ed's photography is the effort he takes to set up some of his formals. I think that a LOT of us can take some serious notes on this one... I often get lazy and claim that formals aren't my game... well, after looking at this stuff, I'm a little inspired to go out and try a tad harder.

Go to school on shooting some kewl formals.... Ed Pingol writes: The Importance of a Group Formals The bridal party which usually consist of family and close friends are typically required to take photos with the bride and groom. Providing the bridal party with the same personal experience as the bride and groom has been a HUGE benefit (even if there's over 20 of them total) for our business. Why? Because some of the individuals in the party can very will be your next client, plus they make for a nice spread in wedding albums which can add a great value to its worth. By taking a bit more time to set these "group photos", several benefits can be had: -you get an awesome portfolio - potential clients like to see these type of images because they see that we do take some time to get creative bridal party pictures. a huge factor when deciding on photographers -you get referred out by the bridal party if they don't hire you themselves - this part is pretty cool because several of our clients are great friends. when you shoot a close friend of the bride, you've already established a relationship before even clicking a single shot of her wedding. this makes things SO much easier than starting from square one. But the most important thing is that they already trust you -designing albums are easier - because you have taken a bit of time to set up, chances are the images you're about to capture is clean and well composed. clean and well composed images demand single spreads for themselves. one image per spread is SO easy to design, a caveman can do it. -it's just a lot more fun than traditional poses - of course we do the creative stuff AFTER we've done the traditional poses for the moms and pops. most of the bridal party has never experienced anything similar to this during a wedding. show them just one example and chances are they'll want to take several more. if you make it fun, they'll remember and referrals are sure to follow. Of course, when doing this, you should take several images of the same pose but just varying it up just a tad by saying "look anywhere AWAY from the camera (click, click, click), look to your left (click, click, click), look to your right (click, click, click), look at the camera no smile (click, click, click) and look at the camera AND smile (click, click, click)". We do this all the time to cover all the bases before moving on to the next pose. We include all minor variances of the pose (if the client decides to purchase a dvd) and more times than not, their favorite (and ours) are the ones when people are looking away. Go figure. =) So setting up a pose is cool and all but this is the time where we add a little FLASH FLAVOR to the mix. Below is an example of a typical "Ed Pingol" group photo (whatever that means) of the bridal party - setting is 100iso 1/180th @ f13 - lighting set up consist of dual nikon sb-28's triggered by a PW mounted on a monopod fired 1/1 @ 24mm beam spread - held high by Monica. See example of actual setup here. Kindly please take a look at the example below how an image typically looks like without any flash flavor. There's alot going on especially in the background that can distract the eye from your main subject. In order to "delete" that please read up on deleting the ambient. Other Examples: 100iso 1/180th @ f19 - lighting set up consist of dual nikon sb-28's triggered by a PW mounted on a monopod fired 1/1 @ 24mm beam spread - held high by Monica. 100iso 1/180th @ f13 - lighting set up consist of dual nikon sb-28's triggered by a PW mounted on a monopod fired 1/2 @ 24mm beam spread - held high camera right by Monica. 100iso 1/180th @ f13 - lighting set up consist of dual nikon sb-28's triggered by a PW mounted on a monopod fired 1/1 @ 24mm beam spread (heads swiveled left and right to provide wider cover) - held high by Monica.

Ed, how refreshing to see this post! I'm very impressed that you actually take the time to set these up. I know your clients dig them. I love it when you mix bright sunlight in the frame and blast them with the flash, just hotness! Lets hope that we all can take some inspiration from this one and change it up a little next time you set up a group of formals! Props Ed, thanks for sending me this submission. This is what Flash Flavor is ALL about amigo! Cheers matt

Hollywood motivation

Matt — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:43:22 EST

One of the blogs I'm stalking is from San Fransisco photographer, Anna Kuperberg. Anna's eye is always fresh and exciting, so for me, its a huge source of inspiration. If you haven't checked out her portfolio yet, let this post guide the way my friend.... The image in this post reminds me of Hollywood! I was once one the set of the television series "Touched by an Angel" and I specifically remember a scene that was being filmed inside a limo with intentions to be at night, however it was 2pm. The car was moved into a warehouse and all ambient light was completely controlled. I was amazed how the technicians set up this shot to work. The car never moved with the exception of a few guys on either side outside pushing back and forth, to give the perception of movement. The real trick with achieving perceived movement was all in the light setup! They had boom poles with lights that they would swing from left to right, turning lights on and off and then resetting them and going through different sequences. They even had rear headlight boom lights that gave the perception of cars approaching... Anyway, it was way cool experience. I hope I gave you enough of a visual on the experience to begin to "see the Hollywood possibilities" with your creative lighting. Anna Kuperberg was seeing the Hollywood vision when she made this killer image... Anna Writes: This is Maya and Boris. Their wedding was at a lodge up near Lake Tahoe. The room had two windows, one of them is not in the photo (it's to the left). I had my assistant pull the window shade out from that window and hold the flash behind, pointing it through the shade. After a few experimental photos I was able to get these amazing diagonal stripes from the blinds. It looks like there is a car passing by or something. I remember how excited I was when I was doing this shot, and how thankful I was for digital, because I could tell the light was working! I would never have experimented like this with film. The client was very happy with the photo, too. The technical: I was using two Canon flashes, a 580 and 550. One was on my camera and the other was in the assistant's hand. I simply used my on-camera flash to trigger the other one. Anna's blogs here Anna's website here

Sweetness Anna! Your work is exceptionally motivating. One must not forget about TTL off camera flash exposure...Thanks for sending me this submission, I love it! Wanna read about another amazing TTL shot previously discussed on FF... Check this one out. It too is absolutely amazing! Please leave comments for Anna, I'm sure she would appreciate some FF love! Cheers! mateo

simplicity + interest

Matt — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 09:50:47 EST

I was browsing around checking out a few websites that I stalk from time to time and found a photo that I really liked! I thought this was one of those images where I kinda spoke a little out loud "whoa"... Have you ever done that? Anyway, Dan & Anne Almasy have been rocking out some images in Atlanta. Check out their stuff, they are pretty rockin photographers... Dan writes: I think that this particular shot is pretty representative of the way we approach lighting at weddings, and that includes two elements, simplicity + interest. With every wedding we shoot, we make a concerted effort to show up early enough so that we have time to set up our lights, and do some test shots, that way when the ceremony is over, our lights are all ready to go - we just show up at the reception site, turn on the PocketWizards and get to work. In this shot we had a challenge that I'm sure most wedding photographers encounter at some point or another - lighting an outdoor venue, in the evening. Now, we've been through this before, but I have to say that each time is a little different. A lighting setup that worked for one situation doesn't always work for another, which is where the preparation comes in. Earlier in the day, Anne and I showed up and decided that we wanted to set up the lights in opposite corners of the dance floor. The lights we use are Quantum T2 models with Turbo battery packs. We had these set on 1/8th power, they were set up about 10ft. in the air, and triggered of course with PocketWizards. By the time the ceremony was over, we were at a point where daylight was becoming more and more scarce. I had already decided early on that I wanted to shoot the dancing shots with my shutter a little slower than I normally shoot (1/25th) to retain a little subject movement. I chose to use my favorite wide lens, Canon's 14mm f2.8L to really just frame out the dance floor and our lighting setup, and I was shooting at f5.6 at 400 ISO. The majority of credit for this shot really goes out to the bride and her dad. They simply provided me with an extremely well-choreographed dance number, and after watching them for about a minute, I knew that I was going to snap that shutter at a point in their dance that they had repeated earlier, and at just the right moment, they swung apart from each other, hands extended outward, and what we end up with is a graceful and dramatic shot from a very brief moment in this father-daughter dance. The light set up on camera-right acts as kind of a prop in and of itself, and while the moment itself carries some drama with it, I think including the light in the shot takes it up a notch. As I stated earlier, this shot exemplifies exactly what we're about - creating simplistic yet dramatic images for our clients. We use our lights to solve problems, and in some cases the light itself steps up front and center to enhance a moment into something much more powerful. -Dan

Great shot Dan! I totally agree, simple and interesting. I'd say that timing in that PJ moment helped a tad too :) After seeing this shot on their homepage, I recalled another shot that Dan's wife Anne captured back in 2006. Being that this is a husband and wife duo, I felt like they both deserved some spotlight for their flash lighting props! Anne writes: I shot this at a wedding in April of '06, and it was really the shot that got us excited about using lighting in a different way to enhance our wedding work. We were still pretty new to the industry at the time, so finding new ways to grow and improve were especially thrilling! I think the funniest part about this photo is that it was hugely luck. Sure, we triggered the flash to bounce off the tent ceiling in front of the bride, but there is no way we could ever duplicate this shot! The bride's arms are poised so beautifully (you can even see her ring shining on her left hand), and the bouquet is so perfectly silhouetted. We couldn't have directed it if we had tried! I didn't crop this image at all; this is what I got straight from the camera with just a bump of contrast. To get it, I sat down right behind the bride on the dance floor, and set my camera to burst (I don't usually shoot burst or I end up with 50 gazillion photos - ha). When she tossed the bouquet, I pretty much shot wildly, trying to track her arms and the bouquet backwards across the ceiling and to the girls waiting to catch it. This was the first frame I got of the toss. The others were pretty useless. ;) I've learned since that it's MUCH safer to shoot WIDE during a scene like this, but I can't regret the narrow frame in this case because I feel like it made for a really classic image. -Anne

So you think that shot was luck eh? How about some props for placing that as the top dog 1st place shot in the WPJA's quarterly contest for Bouquet & Garter toss? If anyone reading this blog is looking for a little inspiration prior to this weekend's wedding go check out their BLOG and their website too! Remember, we grow stronger with our own vision with the help and influence of our peers! Anybody else like these images? Give them a shout! Cheers, mateo

flash flavor accidents

Matt — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 12:04:51 EST

Have you ever been shooting and had this miracle blessing where an off camera strobe (not your intentional flash) just appeared from the background / foreground and illuminated your frame, thus delivering a magical image that was totally unplanned and seemingly excellently executed? If so, then you should be thankful to be LUCKY :) Well, in our few years of shooting we have been lucky enough to see a random strobe appear. In this photo example, Sol Tamargo squeezed off a pretty cool shot of the bride leaving the church and kissing her mother. You can see the camera toting dork in the background (me) with my associate just next to me, holding a remote flash. Sol was not intentionally triggering this flash when she composed this frame, it just happened. The resulting photo is....luck! I like this photo because it is a strong exit moment. Bride embraces mother prior to getting in the limo. I'll take luck :)

Accidental flash flavor can also come as a gift from the typical film shooting family grandmother or family relative. In this frame, our our associate Melissa. She was shooting the processional with a 24-70 when the mother of the groom squeezed off an award winner. Timing a camera shutter from a handheld P&S camera is impossible... try timing that to ISO 1250, 2.8 at 1/40th. I've been lucky enough to get a handful of frames with a shutter going off. I really liked the effect this one had on our image.

Lastly, I wanted to finish up with some humor. Sorry if this offends some folks, I laughed out loud after I shot it. The bride saw this photo on the LCD and just about made me show it to the entire dinner table. This was just some random golfer at a golf club. The groom was terrified to see this out of the corner of his eye...Anyway, my associate was using a flash and had placed the strobe on the top of the lockers. Having no idea that it was actuallly receiving a signal from my transmitter or that it was even there! I got this lucky nicely lit bounce light frame. Wow, sometimes when you dont plan things, they still come together! YEAY!

I've talked about a few other random accidents before... Accident 1 and one of my favorites Accident 2 Anybody else have any happy accidents to share that involve a strobe or some crazy flash moment. Please share your images with the Flash Flavor Flickr image pool