What could that be?

      Photography offers the possibility to play with unusual perspectives of the, sometimes ordinary and mundane, elements of the daily world.

What this might be? Mayan pyramids during solstice? Perhaps... Or...



Actually it is just a pile of empty barrels stacked up in the Speyside's cooperage. When we first passed by the scene looked exactly as what it was: a pile of barrels in a flat, unappealing light. But the jiggered shape of the stacks looked interesting enough to come back for the sunset. 'Silhouette might just work better' I thought.
When we got back a few hours later I walked the scene up and down looking for an interesting angle - to cut any distractive shapes out and bring some more symmetry to the scene. After a couple of scratches on the barber wire I spotted the mall gap between the barrels: with a perfect alignment of the sun setting behind the barrels and a correct setting of the aperture to create a sunstar it could add some 'astronomical mystery' to the picture. The position to take the photo was extremely uncomfortable - but well worth the effort. A few more scratches and a cow's poo accident on the way back to the car were all well worth it!

Sometimes the secret lies in looking for the strange shapes, features or patterns of colours that look different, strange, unusual or even alien from a particular angle. Another example is a close-up of some patterns on a coast on Isle of Arran.

Travel flash

Traveling often means indoor photography or trying to take a portrait in a harsh daylight... One of the options is using a flash. We all know the limits of the build-in flashes - even on the most expensive cameras. And most of external flashes are intimidatingly big...

I started with Nikon SB600 - great but the incredibly unclear menu meant that changing the settings usually meant missing the shot. The off-camera function is great - though sometimes it is hard to make sure that the camera flash will reach the sensors on SB600 - not a match when compared to a wireless trigger.

The size of SB600 meant that 99.9% of the time it stayed at home and did not even make it to the bag. And if it did - it would often stay inside as the sheer size of the gun can often scared any potential portrait candidates away. It may be great for studio or portrait sessions - but not quite a travel flash. Complicated menu further added to the frustration as changing between different modes (e.g. on / off camera) often took too long.

The smaller option - NIKON SB400 - costs an arm and a leg for no controls. The Metz 24 (or 20 C-2) seems like a good value for money - but again, the design makes it still substantially bigger than SB400. But there is a hope: the Sunpak RD2000 Digital is incredibly small and yet still can produce decent output. The smart tilt design makes it much easier to add a home-made bounce card (all you need is a rubber band and a small white card). As the shoe rotates into the body the flash easily slips into a small pocket in your bag. The only downsides are a comparatively long - and NOISY - recycling times. But if that does not bother you - it is hard to go wrong for the price it sells for...


dark room, dark object - and reasonably even illumination

Sunpak offers some controls (+/- 1.5) and - unlike SB400 - still fires up when hooked up with a wireless trigger. OK - in the simplest "crude manual" mode (with the option of +/- some output) but even that will extend your creative - end especially macro - options. Some "quick" examples of possibilities that small little fella offers when hooked with Hähnel combi TF:




detail of pheasant's feather

So for the same price you can get an even smaller flash (it packs smaller than SB400) and a wireless trigger (e.g. hähnel combi TF). For the more demanding work you wold still need to get a more substantial flash (Metz 48 is on my list). And SB400? With both Sunpak or Metz 24 (or 20) you can simply do more whilst spending less.


backlit peat

 

backlit detail of a wine label for a desert...