Light Painting
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Light Painting

Light Painting is a technique that I enjoy applying to still life images. I use a small, single LED pen light. One mistake folks make is using a flashlight with a beam that projects too broad of a light pattern. For example, the small LED light on your cel phone, though it looks like nothing…

PowerEx Batteries
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PowerEx Batteries

I use several Nikon SB-900 and SB-700 strobes for my photography work. Both these units use four AA batteries and the batteries drain like crazy. I was using your typically brand-named batteries for a while… and, well… they sucked. They wouldn’t hold a charge over time and they would drain rapidly when in use. I…

Small Flash Portraits
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Small Flash Portraits

Here’s a sample of various portraits I’ve shot over the years. The one thing all these photos have in common is they were all illuminated using small portable Nikon flash units: SB-900 and SB-700. Most of what I learned about lighting tools and techniques came from reading Joe McNally’s book: The Hot Shoe Diaries. It’s a must read for…

Nikon SU-800
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Nikon SU-800

I’m a big fan of the Nikon creative lighting system (CLS). I’ve been using it very successfully for several years now. In the past I was using an extra strobe (you know, because everyone has an extra strobe laying around) as the master strobe to command the remote units. That work ok, until I actually needed to…