Sedona

Taking our friends back down to Phoenix, stopped at Sedona for a little photo time.
I like the shops at the Tlaquepaque, because of the courtyard and lots of shadow.

Spanish Tile.

Sycamore in the shade.

Maximum security.

Caught.

New Links

I have added several links on the right hand column of this blog.

Most important are the ones take you to manufacturer's instruction manual download location.

I find it easier to reference the PDF files than flipping through the pages of a printed manual. Also, if you have purchased any used gear, you may not have the manual with it to begin with.

Some of the older gears are scanned manuals, for harder to find manuals, check out butkus, which has tons of obscure equipment manuals online, it is a free site, asking for donation only, if you find it useful, please consider donating to his effort.

Have fun, oh, and Happy New Year!

New Photo Gear

One of my Christmas present.

I have been looking for a light stand kit, so I can focus more on portraits. Found it while scanning through BHPhoto catalog. Very nice price, free shipping (heh heh, can't beat that). Ordered it on Wednesday, and arrived next Monday.

The kit consists of:

• 2 x 32" Convertible Umbrella

• 2 x Umbrella Bracket

• 2 x Air Cushioned Black Stand

The umbrella is white with removable black backing. After a brief test as bounce/reflector, I promptly removed the backing and used the umbrella like a soft box.

The flash bracket is made of pastic, but does not feel cheap. It swivels easily, and contains studs that will let me mount it on a light stand, and accepts the cold shoe mount. Strangely, my Nikon SB-600 will not slide in to the cold shoe mount. I had to use my flash stand instead. I might file that down later.

The biggest surprise are the light stands. They are light, air-cushioned, and reaches 8' high. They feel very well made, and sturdy (with the umbrella kit). Not sure if it can handle larger umbrellas.

I only used one of the set, and tested with the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS) using the Nikon D70. I really like the way it turned out. Setup the system as a makeshift light box, the light is really nice.

My quick setup.

And a quick portrait shot of a beautiful volunteer model, :~).

Shot with 18-70mm kit lens at 55mm. The camera is about 3 feet from Sarah, and flash is to my left, about 4-5 feet from Sarah. The D70 was set to Commander mode, TTL. I post processed because she didn't have the right makeup on for a color picture, :~)

Now I am scanning through EBay for another flash to add to my setup. The flash that I wanted (SB-24, 25, 26, 28/dx, 80dx) are way out of what I want to pay at this time, DAMN Strobist! :~). I might hit the local pawn shops this weekend, what the heck....

Overall, I am very pleased with this purchase. I guess this is just the beginning of my spending spree for more gear acquisition: let's see, Nikon CLS is nice, but it is an optical triggering system, which has some limitation. I'd invest in RF wireless triggering style system down the road. Once I get the hang of off camera flash.

Merry Christmas from Flagstaff!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All!


Rare oppurtunity in front of a camera for me, :)

Sarah - her hands are frozen by now...

AZ Snowbowl is OPEN!

It's been tough with the Snowbowl operator for the past couple of years. Snow making is not allowed at this time on the peaks, so it is important for natural snow to fill the slopes. With the storm from a couple of weeks ago (we had 2 feet by our house), Snowbowl is open for happy skiers and snowboarders. I haven't been there with snow, so this is cool to check it out. Now my wife wants to ski, and she would like me to accompany her......

Map of the slopes.


Bunny slope, I like it, since it is very open, you don't have to worry too much about bumping into others. I've only skied one other time, and it looks like my wife will talk me into going up there on Christmas day, hope I won't hurt myself, :~)

I like the open space, and it wasn't too busy for a Saturday afternoon, unlike our trip to the White Mountains - when Snowbowl was closed due to lack of snow.

This is the moderate slope. We didn't get to the black diamond, but I took the lift up this Fall, and it was pretty scary looking slope.