More Stuff: Whether I'm Ailing or Not

I'm still on a bit of a gear kick. I don't really have any excess cash at the moment to be purchasing much of anything in spite of there being so much stuff I need want. Yep! So much stuff, so little cash to buy it. (Note: I don't do credit purchases for my Wish Lists... well, rarely.)

My last post netted some informative comments plus a few emails. For instance, people are recounting experiences that seem to bear out the flakiness of the JTL battery packs. The last thing I want to happen is to be on a location shoot counting on portable power and it takes a dump on me. So a reader, Eduardo, steered me towards the Tronix Explorer XT.

Here's the XT's overview as provided by its manufacturer, Innovatronix:

"The Tronix Explorer XT is a portable power supply (pure sine wave inverter) designed to power flash and power pack units for location shoots. Compared to other inverters, it uses a 24V power source and it is rated at 350 watts continuous power, 1200 watts peak power and recommended up to 2400ws. Equipped with two (2)12V, 7Ah sealed lead acid batteries and efficient circuit design that generates almost a thousand full power pops for 300ws flash units. It takes 3-5 hours to charge the unit."

The XT sounds pretty cool. Here's something even cooler about it: The Tronix Explorer XT sells for $349. That sounds like a great price for a power supply with the XT's output and charging time. Plus, it only weighs 18 lbs. That means I could schlep it around with little effort. I love the concept of "little effort" when it comes to schlepping gear around.

I've also heard some negative things about the Ray Flash ringlight adaptor. For instance, Steve, of Team Rockstar Images, says there were more than a few (media) shooters attending the recent Exxxotica Expo (in New Jersey) who, altho using the Ray Flash gadget, were decidedly unhappy with it. Steve says their grumblings included claims they were intending on returning the units to B&H (where they recently purchased them) and were going seek refunds. In another email, a reader tells me he's already seeing Ray Flash knock-offs on Ebay. I haven't taken a look at them yet but it certainly doesn't surprise me. What products don't get knocked-off these days? (Ahh! Those clever Chinese.)

BTW, I recommend you check out Steve's site, Team Rockstar Images, for some really cool and awesomely captured pretty girl pics. He also has one of the most verbally-colorful "About" pages I've read in a long time. It begins like this: "Screaming like a big block Camaro on a late night beer run, Teamrockstar Images has been unleashed on the world." That Steve is one clever wordsmith, no?

The babe at the top is Gianna from yesterday's shoot for Vivid Entertainment. Easy to look at, ain't she? I was in fairly close quarters so I put Gianna in front of a small brick alcove in the living room of the Arts & Crafts style home we were shooting at and lit her with two lights: A 36" square, transluscent, Larson Reflectasol for my main--the link doesn't show the specific unit I've been using but you'll get the idea off the one shown in the link--and I also worked a small, shoot-thru umbrella into the mix. I set the shoot-thru off to the side, camera-left and against the wall, for some added, side-kick highlights.

Here's a shot (shown right, click to enlarge) that better reveals the shooting environment. This one reveals the full-frame (no cropping) and is virtually unprocessed. You can see where the wall's paint blows-out in the upper-left near where the shoot-thru was placed. Essentially, there was no easy way to backlight Gianna in the normal sense, leastwise, given the immediate environment I was photographing her in plus the limitations of the gear I had with me coupled with the pressure of time. (Run-on sentence. Sorry.) So, I opted for the lighting configuration mentioned in the previous paragraph. As you can see, that Reflectasol spreads out a lot of even front-light which many of my clients prefer for the naked chick photos I'm providing them.

BTW, I didn't' open the shoot-thru-- just let it remain un-opened in front of the flash tube to limit it's spread and keep it a bit more controlled. (I do that sometimes.) All I wanted to do was provide some subtle highlights to better separate her from the brick alcove and to add some punch to the lighting without lighting up even more BG stuff with the kicker. (i.e., that my mainlight wasn't already illuminating.)

Course, the art guys will probably cut Gianna out of the BG so, ultimately, illumination of the BG won't matter much. But it matters to me, dammit!!!

I've been using that Reflectasol quite a bit lately. I purchased it sometime back at a monthly camera show that takes place in Pasadena, California. (Sort of a photography flea market.) It was new old stock, meaning it was still new in the box but was manufactured, I believe, back in the 70s. I really like the look it produces although it's a bit hot in the center. (I might mess around with affixing a small piece of diffusion to the center of the Reflectasol.) This modifier is a bit more cinematic in its lighting technique, i.e., it's a simple, flat piece of diffusion in front of a light source.

Gianna captured with a Canon 5D w/ 28-135 IS USM (my trusty, all-purpose, utility lens) ISO 100, f/5.6 @ 100th. Not much post-processing on the image. I probably should have added a tad more digital manipulations. But then, as I've often stated, I'm kinda lazy and that condition doesn't seem to be changing much. Besides, I'd rather work harder at getting things right when I'm engaged in the process of photography then when I'm engaged in the process of altering fixing the photography in post.

P.S. Question for you: A reader complained suggested I change the color scheme of the blog. He says it's difficult to read the text. I originally chose the current colors because the black provides better contrast to showcase the images. But I'll admit the white-on-black text (as well as the other colors on black) sometimes bugs me as well. Anyone? Anyone? Buehler? Anyone?