Profoto Pro-7b

Few years ago when I started to take photos with off camera lighting (at that time with Nikon speedlights), battery powered studio lights were something that I though I would never purchase or want to haul around. Hunger grows while eating, and I eventually stepped more into the realms of studio photography. Because I started with speedlights that could be used anywhere without AC, natural choice was to get also some battery powered studio lights. I have been using some time now the AcuteB, 600 Ws battery light which have been performing well in all shoots, even when used outdoors in winter time. For some situations I have been needing even more power or battery that just last and last, pop after pop.

I found this used Pro-7b battery powered generator + heads from local Profoto reseller, and deal was too sweet to miss it. It has previously served kaupoi in active use, so hoping it has absorbed some of his good skills. Light is light, but hard to be not excited about the new lighting toys. Hopefully the table & information below is useful for photographers thinking whether to get or not battery powered studio lights. Of course there are many more alternatives in the market and also external power packs (Vagabond, Tronix etc.) that can be used with "traditional" studio lights.

Fixing the wizard

In addition of locking hot shoe mount, lanyard attachment loop is one of the parts that is probably the first one to break in PocketWizard PlusII tranceivers. I managed to break one some time ago when light stand with PW fell, but thanks to smart design in PocketWizards you can just change the small lanyard loop piece to new instead of replacing the whole body. Got the spare part from local reseller and it took about 3 minutes to change it.

Clean up day...

...after I found out that silica gel package was broken inside the lighting stand bag. Hoover FTW!

All about llamas

Llama agility by Saunalahti 2011



Llama agility by me 2008 (taken at Petexpo)



Llama font - say it in llama

Aputure Trigmaster Plus 2.4G review

After getting the new Aputure's Trigmaster Plus 2.4G tranceivers (for Nikon D300, D700, D3, D3X) from manufacturer to be tested I was waiting to put them under real use in studio shoot. During the shoot I took around 300+ photos without single misfire. Based on that one shoot I can say these triggers feel to have solid reliability for studio photography. Triggering can be done trough walls and even when the antennas are not in optimal positions or even partially hidden inside hand. I didn't put the triggers under extreme Finnish weather condition tests but one unit survived and still works after taking a small dive in meat soup plate. Note to self: don't eat & test triggers at the same time...

Berlin

Visited Berlin a week or so go. Great city to see. Our hotel was close to this Checkpoint Charlie tourist attraction.



See the full set from Flickr

Studio photos

Some blog updates after looong break. Going to start by posting some recent studio photos (below) and maybe product review or two later. Let me know what you think, and should there be more reviews or lighting diagrams how the photos were done.


Emma