Now Playing: Your Water Drop Photos

Here's a quick slideshow of some of the water drop photography already showing up in the Strobist pool since Friday's tutorial post.

(NOTE: If you are reading via RSS or email, you may need to click on the post's title to view the photos.)

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The Happiness of Those who Trust in God

I was reading this Psalm during our Prayer for Sanctification before Sunday Service and I was greatly moved that I started crying in praising the Lord. I was especially blessed when it said,

"The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing."

I really hope that this Psalm will bless you in many more ways than one. I prefer not to say anything more but I ask you to ask God to teach you what He wants you to learn through this.

Psalm 34 (King James Version)

1I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

2My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.

3O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.

4I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

5They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.

6This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

7The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.

8O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

9O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.

10The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.

11Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

12What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?

13Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.

14Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

15The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.

16The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

17The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

18The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

19Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

20He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.

21Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.

22The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

God bless you more!

A True Christian Perspective on Miss California Carrie Prejean

I'm sure we all have heard of her. It was her who refused to give up her godly convictions on same-sex marriage just to win the contest. It was her also who publicly and proudly claimed herself to be a Christian. But it was also her on those Magazine Pictures.

At first, the whole Christian "world" embraced her and accepted her as a role model and a one Christian everyone should follow. Right after she fell (with those pics out, everybody started to scorn and discriminate her even the ones from the Christian "world". Sadly, our nature is really a blaming nature. Remember what happened during the Fall of Adam and Eve?

With all the sites I have read and visited, one site had moved me and made me stop. I said to myself: Finally! Somebody spilled the beans!

It's a post from The Joyful Christian Wife, one of my favorite blogs that I follow and subscribe to. Please read her post about this topic: Finding Mercy in the "WHY" and be enlightened.

God Bless you!

We are a New Creation in Christ

First of all, I would like to apologize for not having been able to post daily as I usually did and should have done as one of my commitments when I started this site. There were just a lot of things going on in my life these past few days. I have been moved to a new schedule, new management and a new team to handle in the office I am working. A lot of things to do to adjust and keep up. But as they say, change is good. Change is for the better.

I can remember what Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Cor. 5:17

This is the main and basic reason why we are called born again! We are not just restructured and repaired. No! We are starting all over again. God is removing the old one and putting in place a new one! It would seem we are being created again.

With that in mind, CHANGE will always be present in our lives. Change is something we should welcome! This change can vary from simple as change of habits and change of words to as complicated as changing your friends, lifestyle and even work! Yes I know people resigning from work because they already understood they're not glorifying God with it. Change sometimes really takes sacrifice and letting go.

That makes me realize, a Christian must wonder if he's still not seeing "changes" in his life because there MUST be. If we're not experiencing it yet, we need to seek more and open more doors for God to come in and work. Try asking yourself, what has changed in my life? How different are you right now compared to before?

God bless you today!

peace out

originally uploaded by Yvette Inufio.

How to Photograph Water Drops with One Speedlight

Ever notice those cool water photos that drop into the Strobist Flickr Pool?

Water droplet photography is very easy to get started with, and you can get as complex as you want. There are three tricks to making beautiful, time-scultped water pictures with a single small flash: Light placement, timing and flash duration.

More, plus two videos, inside.
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Water Photography Basics

(Very cool water drop photos by Andy W., top, and Steve P., both from the Strobist Flickr Group pool. Click the pic for bigger versions.)

First tip: You are not lighting the water. Since water is a specular object, you are lighting what the water reflects. So you light the area (most likely the backdrop) that you see reflected in the still water from your camera position

As for timing, that one is easy -- just take the junk mail approach. Lots of water drops, lots of repetition, and something cool and unpredictable will come back. This is part of the fun. Just make sure you get your technical stuff down pat first, so when that perfect moment happens, you'll have a winner.

Last, and speaking of technical stuff, you will want shoot in a (relatively) dark environment so the flash pulse can effectively be your shutter speed.

The first video below (a basic how-to) suggests a setting 1/16th power. That's a pretty fast pop -- about 1/11,000th of a second for an SB-800, for instance. But you can get even faster times if you drop the power further. And when freezing a drop of water, microseconds matter.

The tradeoff? Aperture vs. pulse length. You will need enough power to get you enough aperture to carry the depth of field you want. But don't overdo the power to get excess aperture, as that'll needlessly stretch the pulse length of your flash.

In lighting, everything is a tradeoff.

Check out this excellent "how-to" video below, by Gavin Hoey. (RSS and email readers may need to click on the post title to view the videos.)




See? Easy, fun and cheap if you can get that flash off-camera.

And these same techniques can be amped up to yield more amazing photos. Artist Martin Waugh has built a career out of making art from drops of water. If you are into this kind of stuff, make sure to check out his amazing gallery to get a glimpse of just what is possible.

Just below, a video featuring Waugh from a segment of the Discover Channel show, "Time Warp." These guys are filming in 10,000 frames per second, which is Chase Jarvis Kung Fu territory. At the end, they actually have drops colliding with splashes in mid-air.




This is worth the wait for full-screen HD. Especially at about the 5:50 mark. (And I see my same old Nikkor 55/2.8 macro on the high-speed camera.)

Other than the obvious cool factor, the takeaway for me from this video was a look into Waugh's lighting. Background gets one color, and the top light gets another. This way, you get multiple colors in the water depending on the angle of the water surface being reflected.

A very cool project for a rainy afternoon, IMO. Or even better -- offer to take the setup into you kid's science class at school and let them try their hand at stopping time to study how liquids behave.

If you decide to try it and upload to Flickr, be sure to tag your photos with the words, STROBIST, WATER and DROP and upload it to the Strobist group. That way, they will come up in this search and we can all see them. (Check it out -- there are already some killer shots there.)

Or if you would rather blog your water droplet lighting exploits for the whole world to see, make sure to include the intact phrase "strobist water drop" (no quotes) and we can all see it via this Google blog search.

red hot

may we all be so fortunate and fabulous at any age.

fashion designer, pauline trige´re

one man's island, Clingstone

When I first saw this stoically proud house, it hushed me into a quiet reverence and swelled my heart with emotion. This, I thought, is how a house is really to be built.We should expect nothing less of modern day home builders. This mere construction, has borne forth over a century of family and friends uniting and building memories.

Commissioned at the turn of the century by J.S. Lovering Wharton, Clingstone was completed in 1905 at the tune of $38,982.00.

Clingston sits perched on its rocky outcropping in the Narraganaset bay of Rhode Island. The house with it's 4 stories and 23 rooms (10 of which are bedrooms) has a center hall design from which all rooms radiate.

the massive central hall today

Every room was designed with a window, offering each a different vantage point of the bay.

In 1961, the present owner, Henry Wood ( a Boston architect) bought the dear old house which had sat empty for over 2 decades, the price? a mere, $3,600.

a stair leads up to the roof top - caveats, posted.

As anyone who's had one understands, owning an old home means constant and consistent tlc. Mr. Wood holds an annual, Memorial Day clean-up where guests take part in tasks such as cleaning windows or refurbishing floors. The above floors were redone on one of these weekends by Wood's daughter in law (seen above )

A house should be able to withstand over a hundred years of New England weather, survive a battering sea and at the beginning of every Summer season, open it's doors wide like an old grand parent happy to have it's halls filled with laughter love and the warmth of family.

No matter where it's perched.

all photos, erik jacobs for the new york times.

Don't Be Anxious | My Life is In Your Hands by Kathy Troccoli

Philippians 4:6(NIV)
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

This is one song (My Life is In Your Hands) that had surely blessed me when I started my journey with the Lord. It had been instrumental to my growth as a young Christian. I hope you too will be blessed by it. I included the lyrics as well.

My Life is In Your Hands by Kathy Troccoli
Life can be so good
Life can be so hard
Never knowing what each day
Will bring to where you are
Sometimes I forget
And sometimes I can't see
That whatever comes my way
You'll be with me

My life is in your hands
My heart is in your keeping
I'm never without love
Not when my future is with you

My life is in your hands
And though I may not see clearly
I will lift my voice and sing
Cause your love does amazing things
Lord, I know, my life is in your hands

Nothing is for sure
Nothing is for keeps
All I know is that your love
Will live eternally
So I will find my way, yes
And I will find my peace
Knowing that you'll meet my every need

My life is in your hands
My heart is in your keeping
I'm never without love
Not when my future is with you

My life is in your hands
And though I may not see clearly
I will lift my voice and sing
Cause your love does amazing things
Lord, I know, my life is in your hands

When I'm at my weakest love
You carry me
Then I become my strongest love
In your hands

My life is in your hands
And though I may not see clearly
I will lift my voice and sing
Cause your love does amazing things
Lord, I know, my life is in your hands
I trust you Lord
My life is in your hands

UPDATE: Latest on the PW Flex/Minis

UPDATE: For those specifically looking to discuss the Flex and Mini -- especially Canon interference issues and workarounds -- the best place I have found is on the PW Flickr Group.
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For those of you interested the new PW Mini TT1 and Flex TT5 units, some updates on the Canon range issues -- and new features -- inside.
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Signal vs. Noise

First things first, there have been reports of interference shortening the working range with the new PWs and some Canon model flashes. It was surprising to me, as I did not experience any first-hand range issues in my testing of the units I had earlier this year. But I shoot Nikon, of course.

The range reports that were coming in were certainly enough to get PW's attention. And when they looked into them they found that the Canon flashes themselves were putting out some RF interference that shortened the range of the FlexTT5 and MiniTT1 units -- and significantly, in some cases.

Upon further investigation, it turns out that not only were some of the Canon units noisy (RF-wise) but there was also a wide range of variability when it came to the magnitude of the RF noise. Some individual units were moderately noisy, and others were more like front-row-at-a-Metallica-concert noisy. (FWIW, PW did not see the problem during development because while they bought a dozen or so Canon flashes for testing, those were relatively new flashes with similar serial numbers.)

"We should have just bought the the flashes off of eBay," joked PW's Jim Clark, noting that the noise range was all over the map depending not only on the flash model, but how long ago it was manufactured.

This radio frequency interference does serve to shorten the range of wireless TTL synching. But since the problems are coming from the flashes themselves, it is now the flashes that get the fix. Rob Galbraith has a very detailed post on his homebrew fix(es) for noisy flashes.



PW themselves have just annouced an "AC7 Shield" which should greatly extend your range if you happen to have a noisy flash. It also doubles as a flash umbrella adapter which gets the flash almost exactly onto the axis of the umbrella shaft. They are sending them out for free to Canon users who are experiencing problems with interference from Canon flashes. Nikon flashes (actually, all other brands of flashes) do not leak RF as do the Canons and thus are not affected.

(NOTE: The photo below actually shows the next-to-last version of the AC7 shield. Minor changes were made to the final version, renderings of which are available on the AC7 announcement.)



Long story short, if your Canon flash is spitting out RF noise, shielding it should bring dramatic improvements in wireless TTL range. PW tests are showing new ranges of several times the distance of unshielded flashes, all other things being equal. Rob put it through its paces, and wrote a very detailed review, here.

For the Nikon shooters, RF noise issues are reportedly nonexistent with the Nikon speedlights. And all seem to get along well with the upcoming Nikon PW models, which are due out soon and available for preorder.


It's a Platform, Not a Remote

If you are using the new Minis and/or Flexes, you definitely want to make sure to use your utility program and upgrade your firmware pretty regularly. They aren't just fixing bugs -- they are improving the feature set and providing new capabilities. (You can always get the latest firmware info at PocketWizard.)

You have to remember that these things are basically black-box Trojan Horses that allow PW to hack (in a good way) into all sorts of features and abilities of the various flash platforms.

Example: One of the more interesting new features is a little timing hack that shortens the length of the pulses that fire in FP mode.

This reduces the amount of energy used by the flash in FP mode, thus giving Flex/Mini users shorter recycle times and longer battery life. FP photogs who are used to waiting for the recharge at high shutter speeds (thus, more wasted flash energy) just got a little bit of their life back.

This is not small potatoes, either. Efficiency gains are reportedly as high as 70%, and this also translates to higher output in FP mode on the various pulsed shutter speed settings. Anyone who has ever pushed FP flash to its limits (not hard to do) will behappy to hear that some camera/flash combos are cranking out up to two more stops of light in that neighborhood. (More details here.)

Also, due to the wide range of max sync speeds and shutter delays of various models, some flashes are better suited to shift from HyperSync into FP sync at different shutter speeds. And PW has given control of that crossover point to the user. You can now choose at what point the remotes will toggle between HyperSync (increased max sync speed) and FP (hi-speed pulsed) sync. If you are hanging out in the grey area on your model, you might choose a different point to make the jump than staying with the previous 1/640th default.

It important to note that anything I write here may well be out of date and eclipsed by the next firmware update. We will not be hitting every update but may set up some kind of an archive table for info or something like that. Especially with respect to the different microsecond delay settings for various camera and flash models for the HyperSync settings.

Shortly after the Nikon-specific PWs are out, I'll put out a call for numbers and we'll set up a comprehensive table/matrix of settings. For instance, someone with a D3 and Profotos will have a totally different ideal sync offset than someone with a 5DII and a set of AlienBees.

This is important information, because it buys you the very best sync speed possible with your camera/flash combo. And higher sync speeds effectively mean greater effective flash range. We'll give the readers a little time to experiment, then crowdsource the info.


Of Mice and Men

Last but not least, remember "Newton," the mouse who invaded Jim Clark's house last winter? He was thusly named because he yielded to the laws of Newtonian physics in the process of being spectacularly captured.

Well, Newton is once again free, looking for another house to invade for next winter.

Freeing him wasn't easy - Newton knew a good gig when he saw it. But he was finally coaxed out of his comfy "jail" and headed immediately for the trees. Yep, he went for the high ground, running right up the side of a tree fast enough to impress Jim, who just might have to engineer Mousetrap v2.0 next winter.

shelf portrait

photo credit: chotda
trend setter.

This photo always makes me want to be a single, fastidious male in my 30s. living in New York

vintage curiosity.

teas.

would spend hours here.

more color coding

"unlock this door right now, I smell something burning!"

book mimes.

photo credit: Susan Moses, 3dblur design

beautiful, beachy, blanched and well balanced.

photo credit: covetable designs

the new kid on the block is covetable.

these are from a file of images I've amassed. If I've used a photo that should be credited to you, please let me know and I'll promptly, do so.

color match at a tap

I can't believe that I'm actually one of those people who casually throws about the term 'app' but, two pages of iphone 'APPS' later, I suppose I am.

Ideal to have on hand when at a cocktail party { the one where the hostess is very protective about the colors, fabrics, etc used in her house } and find the perfect color of deep charcoal blue in the powder room.

Now you can, slip out your phone and capture the color, sending it through the Benjamin Moore color finder and get a "match" at the tap of a finger . Not brave enough to go this deep with your color? The application also provides a range of colors darker and lighter on either side. With another tap, the colors can be saved to a file.

The Ben Color Capture, application for your iphone.

free and available June 1st

Variations on a Two-Light Theme, Pt. 2

Last in this series we looked at Riaz, lit entirely by flash against a darkish wooden wall. At left is Brett, who was lit right where he sat in a classroom chair in an unfinished commercial building with a primed drywall background.

This time around: High-axis key light with just enough strobe on the background to separate it from black. More inside.
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Start With the Key

I'll give you one guess as to what I used for a key light. It is really my go-to light mod for close-in speedlight portraiture now. Broken record, I know. But the not-hard / not-soft look, plus total control, in a small package is too much to resist for me.

If we come in high and in front of Brett, we create a shaft of "third-degree" -type light that you might see in an interrogation scene in a movie. The shaft is hard (-ish) and pointed straight down. Actually, it is even pointed a tad away from him and back toward me. Even so -- and even with the control you get with the SB-III -- his hair was still a little hot.

So we gobo'd the edge closest to Brett with two strips of gaffer's tape to make a quickie barn door. This gave the shaft of downlight a more defined edge. Which, in turn, created a more coming-into-a-shaft-of-light look. That's why the light gets darker as a crawls up Brett's head.

It is a crisp, 3-D look, IMO. Not nearly as out-there as what Peter Yang did earlier, but definitely on the same branch of the family tree.



Here is the setup shot, courtesy Syl Arena. The "boom" holding up the SB-800 / SB-III keylight is the flash arm off of a CSB Micro Mini. (I end up using that outfit chopped into separate parts just as often as I use it together.)

You really need some sort of boom on this -- gotta get that light right out front, and you do not want it moving. In that close, inches matter a lot.

So, our key is relatively powerful because it is in very close. Even dialed way down we will get plenty of aperture to hold focus through the face. Another bennie is that we have the ability to take that nearby white wall to black. This is all because of key-to-subject distance.

Now our white wall is totally black, which means we can make it anything with a second strobe. I chose to aim the second flash at the back wall, using a dome diffuser. This takes the flash pattern out of play and makes the tone of the wall a pure distance thing -- with a smooth gradient. If I want a fast-falling gradient, I put the light in close. If I bring the light away from the wall, the gradient gets less dramatic.

I can control the gradient's actual tone with the power setting on the flash, so the two variables can be adjusted independent of each other. I could make a barely separating grey wall by moving Brett and the light closer to the background wall, but I would lose this gradient control.


Variations on a Variation

And besides, I can do a lot with the rest of that key beam if I want. Remember, Brett is on the feathered edge of the beam, which means that we have a lot of lighting power being wasted out in the space in front of him.

I can catch that with a big reflector in low and fill those shadows if I want. Of I can put that reflector in front, just out of the frame and angled toward Brett's face for fill light very similar to that we used on Riaz. I can make the reflected light as bright or dim as I want by including or excluding the full force of the beam from the key light.

If I have Brett on the edge of the key beam, the reflected light could actually end up being brighter than where Brett is in the key. Lots of possibilities -- even maybe that pillow trick, à la John Keatley.

Long story short, the nose and chin shadows depths could be placed at any density you want. But the hard, toplight is also what gives the photo it's look. So you don't wanna rush in there willy-nilly and "fix" everything.

Just understand that you have complete choice in the tonal range of the photo -- even if you are just using two strobes and no ambient.

Drop and Give Me Twenty

For the last six months this site has been long on spoon-fed information and short on homework. The result: A bunch of soft, pasty, newcomers who have drifted in since the last time we did any real work around the place. You newbs have been coddled long enough.

So, coming in June ...


Boot Camp II

Are you worthless and weak? Do you cry for your mama every time you need to balance a couple of flashes with the ambient?

Are you still using TTL bounce flash?

We are here to save you from yourself. This summer, you'll have the opportunity to get off your arse (as Zack would say) and do something.


Worldwide Recession Edition

Yeah, we know times are tough all over. Quitcher bellyaching and use this time to build your skills, to make contacts -- maybe even help someone out.

And just to make things more interesting, we gots prizes coming. Each assignment will have a little bonus attached to it for the best butt-buster of the bunch.

But more than that, you'll get a chance to see what photographers from all around the world create while working with your exact assignment.

So, recharge those NiMH's, field strip your LP604's and bore-sight those home-made straw grids. Spread the word: Boot Camp II begins shortly, at oh-dark-thirty.

As you were, maggots.

Why did Jesus Come?

Here's a verse that is so close to my heart. If the devil came to steal, kill and destroy, our Lord Jesus came to do this:

"My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life."
John 10:10b (New Living Translation)

Indeed, Jesus came to give us just that! But people ask why are bad things still happen? Why are we still suffering? Why are we not rich and successful yet? I may not be able to give you specific answers to these questions but surely I can give you THE key. THE Key, the way, the truth and the life is Jesus Christ.

Let me share to you a story about a Father and a son to further explain this point.

TAKE MY SON

A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.

When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.

About a month later, just before Christmas,there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.

He said, 'Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art.' The young man held out this package. 'I know this isn't much. I'm not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.'

The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. 'Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It's a gift.'

The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.

The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.

On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. 'We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?'

There was silence.

Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, 'We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.'

But the auctioneer persisted. 'Will somebody bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?'

Another voice angrily. 'We didn't come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Gogh's, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!'

But still the auctioneer continued. 'The son! The son! Who'll take the son?'

Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. 'I'll give $10 for the painting..' Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.

'We have $10, who will bid $20?'

'Give it to him for $10. Let's see the masters.'

The crowd was becoming angry.. They didn't want the picture of the son.

They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.

The auctioneer pounded the gavel. 'Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!'

A man sitting on the second row shouted, 'Now let's get on with the collection!'

The auctioneer laid down his gavel. 'I'm sorry, the auction is over.'

'What about the paintings?'

'I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings.

The man who took the son gets everything!'

God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is: 'The son, the son, who'll take the son?'

Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, WHO SO EVER BELIEVETH, SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE...THAT'S LOVE

Published by YOUR DAILY WORD

peace out

found on apartment therapy la

MetalHead Makes Your Home Depot Boom More Functional, Less Embarrassing

This is is a MetalHead. At least, that's what I am calling it.

I first saw one while teaching in Paso Robles earlier this month, and it is a pretty neat idea.

It is made of solid, turned aluminum (or aluminiumium, for you syllable-happy UK'ers.) It converts the threaded end of a standard painter's pole -- of which there are many inexpensive and varied choices -- to a 5/8" male stud. And it does so without adding too much weight.

This makes it perfect for mounting speedlights (via the umbrella swivel) for your voice-activated-booming pleasure. It is perfect for when you wanna go all Nick Turpin on someone.

Working in manual (like Nick does) you'd want to keep your distances consistent. I am not a heavy wireless TTL user, but for event / wedding shooters this would also be a sweet combo with a RadioPopper or a PW Flex. Or plain old CLS / eTTL, of course.

You can read much more about it on PixSylated (including an ideal extendable HD pole to mate it with). They are available for $18.99, here, and $21.99, here.
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(Click on the pic if you want to know how it was lit with one, handheld speedlight.)

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Christian Guy's Random Thoughts

This blog as you all know is dedicated in becoming a devotional site where you will be blessed, encouraged, rebuked and even corrected through the Word of God and the power of Jesus Christ. And I really hope that it is serving it's purpose. I am praying, really. Do you pray for your blogs or sites if you have one? You should! It's after all God's blessing to you and God's way for you to bless and glorify His name in anything you do.

I have read this post from one of my favorite bloggers: 3 Tips for Not Sucking at Christian Blogging. Go over there after reading this. ChurchCrunch is one great blog for you to subscribe and follow. I really highly recommend.


Anyway, the post said this:

"Blog about stuff that isn’t obviously Christian. You must have other interests other than your faith 24/7, right? Being super-spiritual on your blog doesn’t prove anything to me and certainly not to the unbeliever."

And I think I agree. That's the reason I posted something about American Idol. And I was about to go that way but God reminded me on the purpose why this site existed. It is to be a site where you, my readers and subscribers can be blessed by the Word of God. Verses and Reflections that you can use for everyday life. I don't want to interfere what God is doing here with my own "interests". True, I really pray for each post here that the readers be blessed by each word of it.

With that, I had been directed to creating a blog where I can just say what I want to say. Not necessarily always about Spiritual things but don't take me wrong it will always have Christian and Godly principles. I started a new blog: Christian Guy's Random Thoughts. In here, you'll get to know me personally and no longer just a preacher of the Word or a blogger of the Word at that.

At the end of the day, Your Daily Word remains to be your daily devotional. But if you want to know me personally and the ins and outs of my Christian life, go and drop my personal blog.

That's it for today! God Bless you more!

509 Mount Holyoke Avenue

"First time available in over 50 years. Breathtaking, unobstructed views of ocean and mountains from most rooms."

You know how there are certain movie stars who are ugly-hot? Like James Wood {circa 1988} or Harvey Keitel {in the piano}

This little Palisades house has my, 'foxy ugly' vote. A fuxgly fixer upper.

{just save the wallpaper please}

2 bedroom, 3 bath

$2.595 million

509 Mount Holyoke Ave, Pacific Palisades