I've seen adverts for Elinchrom Skyports and until recently, hadn't seen images from this system of transmitters until I ran into Jaco Fourie, South African photographer. Along with his wife Daleen, they are producing some amazing imagery that I felt needed to be seen here on Flashflavor. I have been keeping an eye on the Flashflavor flickr group and noticed his stuff along the way. His images are very romantic and his compositions are all very pleasing to look at! Not yet contributing to the Flashflavor Flickr Pool, please drop a few wedding shots off there! Jaco writes: Don't you just love it when it all comes together? This image was a bit of luck on the one side. I had the lights set-up on the dance floor as I normally do. I like to use off camera flash on the dance floor and have them pointing at each other to get some cross lighting. This creates a more 3D look. I kept on moving around on the dance floor and decided to move the 2 lights to the same side pointing at me. As luck would have it the DJ blew some smoke on the dance floor when the father and the bride started to do their dance. The groom and his mother joined them and I saw that they were moving in a circle on the floor. I lifted the camera and waited for the moment when both the couples where in front of my lights. I did fire off a couple of shots just to make sure I had it. The smoke added some real drama to the image. I think that off camera flash adds so much more drama to an image. I first started to experiment with it when I got my first D70. Using the Nikon creative light system I was able to create great images non wedding related but found it a bit limiting at weddings as you got unpredictable results with miss fires. So I left it there. Then I discovered the e-bay triggers and started to play with them as the Pocket Wizards are very expensive here in South Africa. I still had some problems with miss firing using those triggers. Then I found the FlashFlavor site and was amazed with the work Matt, Ed Pingol, DQ Studio and Sol Tamargo were doing with off camera flash. I upgraded to the Skyport radio triggers and the rest is history. Now we are only limited by our imagination. I have always been a big fan of video light photography. People like Jerry Ghionis had a big influence in my style of photography. But now off camera flash has added another dimension to our work. Thanks Matt for creating this blog and inspiring us to be better at what we do. Viva FlashFlavor. Nikon D3 | F8 | 1/125 | ISO | Sigma 12-24mm Here is another: Shot was done with 2 SB-800 and 1 video light in total darkness. Camera WB was set to tungsten, that is why the flash is blue. We used the video light to light the couple from the front. 1 SB-800 was pointing at the steel work and the other pointing at the couple. Both Speedlights where behind the couple. Nikon D3 ISO 2000 F-stop F4.8 Shutter 1/13 Thank you for making inspiring images for us to see! Check a look at Jaco's website if you need some inspiration this week: Jaco has also taken his time to give us a tutorial and a review on the skyport. Check his handy work out: Here is a link to his blog post where he has a few more video tutorials on the Skyports. Thanks Jaco! Any questions for Jaco on this system? I'm curious to see if anybody else has been using / experiencing good results with skyports? Cheers! matt

After reading flashflavor and seeing our work day in and day out, do you ever wonder what it is that we do to get the business that we get walking in the door week after week? Well, In this FF post, I am going to give you my true secrets. I'm telling you this because letting this secret out isnt going to diminish my "true fan" base. Hopefully, this post can be about some inspiration for you. For the last 5 years, we have been very client driven and have done all or everything to build a fan base. We have been doing everything we can to go ALL out do deliver the most amazing imagery, delivering tip top customer service, and separating ourselves from the rest!

 

The secret to success for the creative artist is finding 1000 true fans. The content of this article is 100% copyright Kevin Kelly Genius, Blog Author, Book Author, Wired Magazine Co Founder amongst other affiliations... Kevin writes about obtaining 1000 true fans: ...the gist of 1,000 True Fans can be stated simply: A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living. A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans. Assume conservatively that your True Fans will each spend one day's wages per year in support of what you do. That "one-day-wage" is an average, because of course your truest fans will spend a lot more than that. Let's peg that per diem each True Fan spends at $100 per year. If you have 1,000 fans that sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks. One thousand is a feasible number. You could count to 1,000. If you added one fan a day, it would take only three years. True Fanship is doable. Pleasing a True Fan is pleasurable, and invigorating. It rewards the artist to remain true, to focus on the unique aspects of their work, the qualities that True Fans appreciate. The key challenge is that you have to maintain direct contact with your 1,000 True Fans. They are giving you their support directly. Maybe they come to your house concerts, or they are buying your DVDs from your website, or they order your prints from Pictopia. As much as possible you retain the full amount of their support. You also benefit from the direct feedback and love.

 

To read the rest of this amazing eye opening and career starting article, please go read Kevin's Kelly's article about 1000 true fans...

 

Kevin nailed it here folks. This has been the key for my survival and the motivation behind all of our development since day 1. This article is only 1 month old however, it is the answer to any artists search in life to find clients. Flash flavor's motivation has been nothing short of a straight line down the path of finding 1000 true fans... My motivation with Flashflavor has the Karma approach in mind. If I give and give and give, if I'm lucky , on of these days what goes around comes around... I'm not selling anything (yet) on FF... However, I guess one of these days I'll be offering a workshop or selling some sort of software and hopefully, my "true" fans will shine for me :) I must be getting somewhere because as I write this post, we are receiving 1000 unique visits every day :) Hey!! thats a start!

 

Now take some time, and bookmark Kevin's blog on your RSS feed or write about him on your blog. While you are at it, bookmarking Flashflavor would help me out in many many ways, por favor!

 

Cheers & start finding your true 1000 fans! mateo

I am very excited to see the birth of the Radiopopper this year. This write-up will serve as a initial preview of my experience with this revolutionary unit. In order to give a full review, I will need this baby on a few of my wedding gigs. I hope to be shooting with them at my first few weddings in April. We haven't used TTL at a wedding with off camera slaves in a long long time. Heck, I can't tell you when. I love to change up my game, so the popper is an exciting new tool in my tool box! We spent an hour or so the other day with these units. Ordinarily, Flashflavor photo subjects will be wedding related. I ask for your forgiveness with this post as we didnt have time to organize any test bridal models during the short term planning we did to organize this shoot. I spent some time with a few other photographers to get some play time with Radiopopper (RP). We each got a chance to set up a makeshift subject and shoot each one of these subjects to test the strengths of RP. We tested firing 3 different flash groups TTL using the 580 EX II as the master unit and 3 remote slaves all in different groups, set to different ratios. Group A, Group B, and Group C. I didn't actually do any test shots with these flash settings but hopefully, I can get a copy of the images from Stillmotion to showcase here. When it became my turn to play with the flash, we found our way inside Battista's Hole in the wall, a rustic Italian food joint with some serious history in Vegas. I wanted to add a little life to my test subject and on the spot, I found a cute little old guy who made a SLAM of a subject. Sorry to bother you with the details but I believe if you add a story line to a test subject, the impact of the lighting efforts actually make a lasting impression. Call me a dedicated photojournalist if you will :) In these photo examples, I used 3 flash unites in 2 different flash groups, Group A + Group B. (Remember, this is TTL folks). Group A 1:1 and Group B 1:4. We had 1 Radiopopper transmitter attached to the ST-E2 and 3 Radiopopper receivers attached to 580 EX II's. In this setup shot, I was shooting a Canon 5d with a ST-E2 wireless transmitter on the hotshoe . I had a RP attached to the top of the ST-E2. Group A was set to 1:1 and Group B was set to 1:4. Basically, I've told Group B to fire with 4 times more light than Group A. Group B's units are placed behind subject on bench and camera right. I dialed my exposure in so that the ambient would hang out. What impressed me most about this is that we were limited here with time, with little or no actual test time to get ti done right. I shot 5 or 6 frames in this spot in the restaurant and I liked his expression best in these few frames. The RP allows you to set it and forget it. If this had been a Pocket Wizard setup (i still love my PW's), I would have needed more time to set each unit up and get the job done. I took 5 minutes with this guy. With this kind of pressure, I'm starting to love the RP!

 

Here are my frames (all shot at ISO 400, 1/100th at 1.4) Gordie has been playing the accordion at Battista's for an outstanding 27 years. His listeners range from hookers and prostitutes to drunkards and party goers to the occasional superstars. His favorite musicians were the Oakridge boys! Batista's ceilings are adorned with props and the walls are covered with their menus and wine bottles and different photos from the past. Battista is filled with low lighting and a moody atmosphere. I wanted to take a chance to add some light that would accentuate the mood that was plastered all over the walls. I love how the backlight has added some dimension here. Remember, set it and forget it mentality.

 

Initially, when we choose a location in the restaurant to shoot Gordy, we found a spot that seemed perfect. After my first several frames, I had botched exposures and misfires. After expressing my concerns that something wasn't right, Kevin King (RP Creator), pointed at the link light on the side of the RP and noted that it was blinking, indicating that there was some type of interference. The moment I started to actually test this baby, I found a circumstance that actually challenged its performance. Apparently, the link light on the receiver unit that indicates it has a link with the other will stay a solid yellow upon its initial link up. After a fire, it will turn off and back on to indicate that it has linked up. If it intermittently blinks then it indicates interference. The receiving unit may or may not fire, depending on the circumstance. We walked literally 15 feet to another location in the restaurant and the problem went AWAY... hey, that was easy enough. Ok, so now I've found a problem on the first frame I've tried to expose. In all honesty, this inst my first experience with Interference while transmitting to a slave flash unit... On numerous occasions, I have been using pocket wizards and experienced some sort of interference where my slave units WOULD NOT FIRE. I can recall one specific wedding where Sol Tamargo & I were both trying to trigger our Pocket Wizards. We each have 5 pocket wizards and 4 or so Slaves, each. So thats 10 pocket wizards, 8 slave flashes. In the heat of the moment, we tested all of our PW's and slaves, traded sync cords, did just about anything possible to make it happen... NADA. There was some sort of interference going on and we could not nail it down. I'm not sure what went on as we never figured it out, but the point is that interference has happened to me before when using a device that transmits via radio signals. The bottom line is that I'm not too worried about this potential problem with the RP at this point. I'll need some more testing time to give you more thoughts on this. After my turn was up, Ed Pingol stepped up to the plate and took the RP's outside. He wanted to test the high speed sync abilities and used 2 slave units. I don't have any of the TTL settings at this point, but I do know that he used a ST-E2 on the hotshoe and 2 groups on the slaves, A & B. One unit was 3-4 feet away, camera right and the other unit was 6-8 feet away, camera left. I was a spectator :)

 

Camera: Canon EOS 40D | ST-E2 set to High Speed Sync Exposure: 1/8000 sec Aperture: f/2.8 ISO: 100 - Focal Length: 17 mm The model is my wife, Sol Tamargo :) I'm loving the use of high speed sync with these RP units!

 

Well, for now, I'm going to close with those photos of my HOT wife...thanks Ed! Thanks Kevin for giving us a chance to play with your new toys! I look forward to working with these units at my next gig. I will be doing a writeup on what it is like to use the RP's in a live environment where the pressure is ON! Thoughts or comments about the TTL system and Radiopoppers innovative way to use Radio Signals.... please give us a shout or feel free to drop off your ideas. I'm really curious as to how many of FF's readers actually use Manual slave flash operation or TTL... Cheers! Mateo

 

**Update** I didnt have too much time when I originally wrote this post, so I've added one more image that showcases a long distance field test in "ideal conditions" meaning open range without any interference. In this photo example, i've added a field test shot at 300+ feet. I'm the spec off in the distance under the arrow holding the flash that is actually being triggered at that distance. We tried several frames where I would stick my hand in front of the antenna and some where Kevin would face the opposite direction to test if and when the slave would trigger. Anyway, here is the football field test... F3.5 1/4000 ISO 50 ST-E2 trigger on Camera. photo by Kevin King and a zoom of this frame to see the slave being triggered.

 

***Update 2*** I got a few frames from Stillmotion's tip top shooter, Amina Myriam Wojcik. We were all tag teaming along with the crew who was testing the RP's. Here are a few of her photos and her 2 cents... She shot these with a Canon 5d and a Tilt and Shift lens... She also has added a cool X-process flavor to her shots... Amina writes: At WPPI, I had a chance to check out the Radio Poppers. The group went on two shoots with them, one at a really cool restaurant called Battista's Hole in the Wall, and on in the desert just outside of Las Vegas. Because of the different shooting conditions, sometimes I was using one external flash, and sometimes more. I tested them at different ratios and groups, as well as channels and different levels of exposure compensation. I found that it was easiest to use the ST-E2 with the Radio Poppers, since the ratio controls are right on the back of the unit, and really easy to access. The 580 EXIIs are great for it too, but it takes a little longer to switch settings, so if you're in a time-crunching situation, be sure to have your "fit-in-your-pocket' ST-E2. The Radio Poppers worked at all settings reliably and allowed me to use high-speed sync in bright daylight without worrying about line of sight. It was awesome when I could light some guys playing hacky sack so easily. Now, focus was another issue! Ever tried shooting moving objects with a tilt-shift, at 2.8 in bright daylight with flashes behind your subjects? Not as easy as it sounds! But it was super fun, and we all got some awesome shots out of it Above four images credit: Stillmotion's tip top shooter, Amina Myriam Wojcik.

 

Thanks Amina & the still motion crew for your help!