Kevin Cooley's Scrounged Light

Redux Pictures has begun dropping in some of the individual photographer promo videos that have been in the works for the last few months.

These are great viewing, on several levels. First, props to Redux for taking the initiative to brand its individual photographers so effectively. For a boutique agency, they sure are making sophisticated use of the web. The video series is the latest iteration of a spot-on social media presence.

Second, why doesn't every photographer have a promo video like this? It says so much more about a photographer than does a slideshow on a portfolio page.

Lastly, Kevin Cooley surprised me with several ways of using/exploiting light in the video above. To great end, too.

Redux is doling the videos out one at a time on their excellent blog, but you could blow a good hour viewing them in advance on their Vimeo page. Just sayin'.

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Twenty Questions

Some people have all of the answers. Today, none of those -- just questions.

What follows are some of the things I run down in my mind when I am deciding what to shoot, why to shoot it, how to shoot it, etc.

This is the more general version of the very specific post on pre-planning earlier. If that was a specific game plan, this is more of a general playbook.

Not saying that these are the same questions you would ask. But maybe there is something in this list that you might not be considering. Read more »

Know Your Sync

Pop quiz: What is your camera's maximum sync speed?

Much like the interstate highway at 3:00am, in some situations your max sync speed is not so much a law as a suggestion.

And by the same token, sometimes your instruction manual can lie: Your camera may not be able to truly hit its advertised sync speed at all. Read more »

OCF Mags at Imaging USA

Headed to Nashville this weekend?

Don't forget to drop by the ExpoImaging and/or Zenfolio booths. They have some of the last remaining easy-to-get OCF magnets. No code words needed this time -- but it is first come, first served.

The others are all distributed (either already placed or awaiting orders) at sleeper cells around the world.

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New NiZn Batteries Offer Lightning Fast Recycle

As you know, 1.2v NiMH rechargeable batteries recycle most flashes faster than do 1.5v standard alkaline batts. This is because the NiMH's excel at delivering current, which is usually the bottleneck in the flash's recycle rate.

But what if you could combine the fast current delivery of an NiMH with a voltage that is even higher than an alkaline?

You'd have a turbo battery disguised as a AA, is what you'd have.

Sounds great, huh? Well, there is one small caveat … Read more »

Lighting 101: Now in Hungarian

Thanks to the concerted efforts of Fisher, Fülöp Péter András, Gyurkó M. Dávid, Halmai Péter, Kiss Géza, Mészáros Tibor, Radványi Tibor and Ziegler Gábor, Lighting 101 is now available in PDF form in Hungarian.

Please feel free to link, host or distribute this PDF if you wish.

Nagyon köszönöm, Tibor!

New Year, New Index

After a few nights of burning some serious midnight oil, the Strobist Index is now live. You can reach it via the link at the bottom of every post. Hopefully, this will make some of the info buried in the archives of the site a little more accessible.

One Strobist resolution down for the site, two to go. More tk.

Happy New Year's everyone. Very much looking forward to 2010, with some cool plans in store.

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