John Flinchbaugh's Weblog

New YongNuo Gear

john — 2010-06-23T00:48:08Z

I had a serious photography job coming up, my brother's wedding, and I started to realize how much more reliable my lighting kit could be. I had 2 CTR-301 radio receivers and only 1 transmitter. If anything happened to that transmitter, I'd be stuck triggering optically or just shooting natural light.

I also only had 3 old Sunpak 4xx strobes, and I had already replaced one that had failed about a year ago. Sometimes the battery doors jiggled loose, I had broken one foot already, and sometimes they fired full-power even though it was set for less.

It was time to spend a little money on some new and some backup gear. I hit eBay and ordered 2 more YongNuo CTR-301P receivers, another transmitter, and 2 shiny new YN-460MkII strobes.

The radio trigger set tested out fine -- working through walls and across the house, and they inter-operated with my old CTR-301 triggers which have been serving me well for over a year. Once they looked good, I removed the batteries, and boxed them back up for backup.

The 2 strobes were a bit more exciting. I threw some random alkalines into it that were too weak to recycle my Sunpak 433, and it powered right up and I was seeing reasonable recycle times. It's good to know that it'll not be finicky about its batteries. With relatively fresh NiMH batteries, it's still recycling within about 10 seconds from a full-power pop. I had the strobes figured out and tested within about 3 minutes of opening the packaging.

Upon inspecting the user's manual a bit, I realized that these things could be fine-tuned more by pressing MODE and PILOT together, then I could adjust the EV up and down from the original setting in 1/7 stop increments. Nice...not that I'm used to having that level of control.

The S1 slave mode is esay and seems to work nicely enough triggering off bounced light in a small room. The whole thing is dead simple, since it only works with manual power settings -- it's the cheapest new strobe a Strobist could want, I think.

For my final tests, I took them outside, put them on the CTR-301's on stands, and played a bit with my shoot-through umbrella and this tiny flash-mounted softbox I had also bought. In the hand, these strobes feel like their made of thick-enough plastic, and the hotshoe's about as solid as plastic can be and still be thin enough to fit in a hotshoe socket.

I'm pleased so far, and hopefully, they'll hold up as well as my YongNuo CTR-301's are, and I'll still be saying good things about them in a couple years.

Catching Your Twitter Replies in FriendFeed

john — 2010-06-22T14:40:08Z

I use FriendFeed to aggregate all my content, and that echoes it out to Twitter for people who prefer to use that service to follow me.

I'm following many of my friends in FriendFeed, but I still need to see every Twitter reply without having to go check Twitter, so I:

Created a private FriendFeed group called jflinchbaugh-twitter-replies.
Went to Twitter Search, searched for @jflinchbaugh
Imported that search result page as a feed into my private group.

Now I can just watch that group as part of my normal feed, and it shows me any replies within a couple hours of them being posted, and I often end up finding or creating a FriendFeed user for contacts I didn't know lived on Twitter.

Note: While playing with my twitter search feed, I noticed that my FriendFeed comments on those entries weren't echoed out to Twitter, so I just switched it to a Standard group, and that allows for the comments to be posted to Twitter.

Four Year Photos in the Sand

john — 2010-05-11T16:35:31Z

Braden brought a couple of his trucks out to the sand court for his four-year photos, and we sat and played a bit while I shot. He also ran in circles a bit to get his mother a bit wound up, but we were still doing fine -- I only needed a few good shots, and I managed plenty.

From my gear bag, I used the small satin umbrella to bounce the strobe onto the scene, often crossing the sun which dappled into our mostly-shaded scene. For Braden, I also packed a bonus toy -- a real folding shovel, so we could do some real digging. This provided a good change of pace, and it was the perfect height to aid in posing his hands when he was seated on a truck.

Beth's New Portraits

john — 2010-04-30T16:46:51Z

I had the pleasure of photographing Beth and her family back in the Fall for the Images for a Cure fundraiser, so I was eager to shoot an update image 6 months later (and with her current, less extreme hair style).

Beth and her team will be doing the 3-Day for the Cure fundraising walk -- 60 miles in 3 days in Washington DC on 8-10 October 2010.

Events for the Photo Site

john — 2010-02-26T06:04:54Z

Way back in the day, when I used to shoot at clubs and raves, I'd always want a way to share the images with the people I'd meet, but exchanging email could be a bit cumbersome or just be a deterrent.

While I'm not out clubbing these days, I'm still often out at various events, so I still need a quick and easy way to point people to the images, so I just added the Event Code box to the photo site.

While I'm out shooting, I can create an event code (from imagination or using my phone), and then write that short code on my business card to hand out. Then it's really easy for someone to hit my site, punch in the code, and get right to the photos on Flickr or in the Gallery.

It's just one of those little things I've wanted for a while, and now I've finally added it.

Nokia Messaging on E71

john — 2010-02-23T18:52:32Z

I was confused months and months ago when I tried to load Nokia Messaging, and it looked just like the old S60 email client. It turned out it wasn't installing back then.

Just yesterday, I installed Nokia Messaging again from the Ovi Store, and it definitely took this time.

I connected it up to my mobile email account (which is sort of hard to tell the settings once it's done), and it seems to be working. It started on reboot, it shows the '@' indicator and new email on the home screen. It seems to be using a hosted middleware layer (which seems unnecessary, but we'll see), and I had to login to the email website to tune a few things. Most notably, I had to wipe the outgoing server settings to get email to send, since my mail server isn't configured to allow just anyone to send.

I still can't see anywhere in the configurations that I'm logging into mail with an account name different from what I publish -- it just feels like too much is hidden. It sends and receives a little slower (the middleware), but I'm hoping that the vast improvements in the UI make up for that.

I've found no show-stopper problems yet, so I've turned off my normal email notifications on the home screen to give messaging room to show its status, and reassigned the email key to the new Nokia Messaging. The old email client is still configured, but it's not set to retrieve email anymore.

Update (23 February 2010): Nokia Messaging seems to talk plain old HTTP to its middleware, so I can now let it use the locked down wireless at work to send and receive email, instead of always being on 3G. That should help with battery life.

2009: Photos For Others, Photos For Me

john — 2010-02-18T10:48:25Z

2009 was the year people started paying me for photography, but more importantly, each job was a new experience for me.

I started out a nervous wreck with a good game face to do senior portraits with Bridget in Spring, and then a first-year portrait with a friend's son. Both went fabulously, and I learned that I *really* like doing portraits, and this gave me confidence to pursue my personal portrait project later that year.

My Mom and I approached my grandparents about shooting some environmental portraits, and they readily agreed. Taking an afternoon to talk with my grandparents and get my grandfather to dig out all his shop toys he's collected over the years yielded some of my most valuable experiences of the year and images for a long time to come.

Over the summer, I decorated K-Prep Learning Center when they expanded with images from my Toy Project. Some of those images were made on-site or specifically for display in the classrooms. I still very actively contribute images to the toy project.

I also had a couple people approach me about decorating their homes with some of my previously made work, so I ended up taking some time to identify and think about Fine Art photos. By this time, I started to get the hang of framing and presenting images. It's interesting to have someone acknowledge my images of pretty things -- landscapes and macros.

By Fall, I could try anything, so I signed up to be a photographer for Images for a Cure after hearing about it from a podcast interview. I figured out some session fees (which were donated), booked 2 family sessions, and made some prints -- they trusted me, I got to make some more portraits of which I'm really proud, and the families liked my work enough to buy a good number of prints. Most importantly, I got to practice my craft in a way I would not usually had I not been pursuing it somewhat professionally. I love working with people and making portraits.

The final bit of craziness for the year came when I got to second shoot at a wedding for Steve and Sharon! I got to work on more portraiture and event coverage with a more seasoned wedding photographer in a setting I don't get to shoot every day. The whole event was one challenge after another, but we just ran with it, and had fun. I could not have asked for a better introduction to wedding photography.

I'm not sure what 2010 will mean. It'll be hard to match the pace of last year, and I'm not sure it would be the plan. I'll try to make it more of the same -- portraits, a wedding or two for family and friends, and I'll likely be presenting more work to be sold as fine art. I anticipate learning a bit more about design that happens around my photography -- I have much to learn there.

Why Pursue Photography?

john — 2010-02-09T01:47:18Z

I recently started wondering, "Why am I working my way closer and closer to professional photography?" I love my day job, and I don't need or want 2 jobs, so why am I so driven to pursue this?

The Craft

Practicing and mastering a skill is greatly rewarding, but I can do that without getting paid, so why do I feel like I need to turn photography into a legitimate job? Some of these jobs are really hard work!

Access

It's nice to have the hobby pay for itself (at least a little), but I realize that access has become most important to me. I get access to people and places -- when people see me as a photographer, I'm invited to make portraits or to capture events. I get to decorate people's homes or contribute to a larger project with my images. I get to practice my craft without having to recruit participants, and when I do recruit, maybe people are quicker to say "yes" having seen some previous work. People give me their time and expect good things.

I love the story of the guy who gets into the concert by offering images to the band in trade. He got in, and he got to shoot! (I hate that I can never get a camera into a show.) David Hobby even got into CERN. Sometimes, I just want the chance to shoot a friend or a stranger -- as long as it matters to someone, even if it's just me.

So, here I am, working to promote and price and show my work in any way that makes sense just to ensure that I'll be able to make some more interesting images tomorrow, and to hope they're worth something to someone.

Unloading Some Old Film Gear, Etc.

john — 2010-01-27T05:38:40Z

I've started posting this list around, so I may as well put it here too. I'm looking to sell a few things I'm not using. Offers and trades are welcome.

Nikon EM body ($35)

includes battery, meter works, auto, M90, and bulb mode, tested working.

Nikon FE body ($75)

includes battery, meter works, auto and manual exposure, tested working, very clean.

Nikon MD-12 winder ($45)

will test soon, fits FE and others (not EM)

Spiratone Pluracoat 35-105mm zoom f/3.8 with 1:3 macro, AI lens for Nikon mount. ($40)

Tested on Nikon D90 and D40 for manual focus and manual exposure, clean.

Soligor 135mm f/2.5 AI lens for Nikon mount. ($20)

a fixer-upper. Focuses noticeably short of infinity (to about 30m). I don't care enough to take it apart yet. Very clean and reasonably sharp at f4 in distances it can focus.

Promaster Spectrum 7 28mm f/2.8 wide angle lens for Nikon mount. ($15)

works fine, but front thread is dented, so no filters will mount.

Sigma 70-300mm DG f/4-5.6 with 1:2 macro for Nikon mount. ($80)

AF/AE on Nikon with AF motor in body. Clean, hood, box. I always used it at 300mm, so I replaced this with a 300mm prime.

Nikkor 50mm f/2 AI MF lens. ($60)

MF and ME on my D90. Very clean and smooth. I almost want to keep it, but I already have a couple 50 f/1.8 lenses laying around.