Batter Up - Increasing Your Hits

Those of you who have been following my other blog - Here All Week at  hrhoa.wordpress.com will have read of my efforts to lighten the load when I go out and shoot motor car shows. I mentioned it here as well, when I ran afoul of Western Australia's harsh mid-day sunshine.

Well, a little thinking and a determination to keep my pocket money for beer, books, and toy cars has paid off. I rustled through the Hazel Leaf Studio cassette de junque and found a metal Metz 45 flash bar, a Stroboframe 300-405 locking accessory shoe, and a Nikon SB 700 flash. The Nikon goes on remote SU-4 and manual setting, and the Fuji X10 on the Metz bar fires it off - even in the strongest direct sunlight. Powerful fill flash results, and as the Fuji synchs at all speeds. you can leave it on M and play all up and  down the keyboard.

Children - TTL flash is wonderful for weddings, kids in the park, and infantry assaults when you really have no time to think out your settings. But you never learn to light with TTL. Go manual and shoot and look and think and shoot again.

So is it lighter than an equivalent DSLR rig? Yes, by a factor of several tonnes. Does it do the job? For web publication, brilliantly well. It is the answer for the Automotive Jimmy Olsen who wants to fly but doesn't want to have to do it in the bomb bay of a B-36.

Note to photos: the local team lost woefully at the baseball last night but the Fuji was a winner. Also, note the sticker on the back of the '60 Lincoln. I didn't know whether to be delighted or appalled...