Monthly:August 2011
Pretty much every year, usually around July 4th, I head with my family back to the home country. As my children grow, each trip gets a little easier, the luggage a little less bulky. On the first full day in England, my wife set off to visit with a friend in London. Having waved her off on the train, my father and his wife took myself and my kids to Coate Water in Swindon. After a game of crazy golf, […]
Grand Rapids A few weeks back, my wife, son and I traveled to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Our trip did not get off to the greatest of starts since our connecting flight was cancelled as we waited at the gate. With a line a mile long at United’s Customer (dis)Service counter and already having been told by gate staff that the next flight was in the morning, we switched to Plan B. We rented a car, bought some clothes and toiletries […]
Traveling Lighting Kit In my traveling lighting kit I have both the 24” x 24” and 30” x 30” Lastolite Ezybox softboxes. “So what’s the difference?” I’m often asked. “6 inches” is usually too trite an answer, “324 square inches” is usually too involved. Of course, the real key lies in the quality of the light you can obtain from each. Take a look at the two images below. The image on the top was taken with the 24”x24” Ezybox, […]
Steam Engines My recent trip back to England seems to have been dominated by steam engines. I saw the steam engines that used to raise and lower the bascules (the road sections that open to allow tall ships to pass through) and the steam engines Crofton that used to pump water to the highest point on the Kennet and Avon Canal. On returning from the visit to Crofton, passing through my former home village of Aldbourne, I noticed a traction […]
OCF33 E-TTL Cords One of the tools I recently added to my lighting kit was an OCF33 E-TTL Cord and it’s quickly becoming my favorite lighting accessory. The standard Canon off-camera flash cord is the OC-E3. This is a coiled wire cord with a length of 2 feet (60cm). At this short length, it’s only really useful if you have your flash mounted on a flash bracket. Although I don’t have an OC-E3, I did have a predecessor and I […]
