8.27.10
What's better than shooting 1 bike? Shooting 3 bikes... lolz. Steve recently wrapped up his finishing touches on his honda cbr 600rr and needed poster quality pictures, and came to the right place. The shoot went a little too smooth, and after bringing my roomate Todd's gsxr 750 out ( www.solo-artist.net nice little plug ) and our friend Tyler riding my cbr 929rr out, we were able to stuff all 3 of em into the frame. Steve's was definitely the main attraction (we've already shot my 929rr and his 750) but a few friend shots were definitely in line.

I used a silver reflective umbrella on the main strobe and a bare 300w/s strobe on the others. The clouds were all real, they literally rolled in and kicked us out at the last minute. The set came out great, and if i didn't have a wire decide to be a brat I and rip itself out on my receiver, I probably would've used a 3rd strobe for a kicker...but two got the job done right. Thanks to Corey S. (dude nobody can spell your last name right so im not even going to try) for helping me re-solder the 3rd receiver when we got home! That's it, IM OUT!

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8.13.10


I've been thinking about performing this little mod for some time now and finally had the time to sit down and tinker with it.

If you're a BD like me and cannot afford PW or cybersyncs (aka still running cheap ebay triggers but they work just fine) but HATE how flimbsy they are this is the mod for you. When i first got my ebay triggers, I did a lot of studying about wireless signals and antennas. After a lot of research I was able to mod the trigger with a 433mz antenna with rg174 grounded line to hone in the EXACT frequency and REALLY boost it's range. I won't talk much about that, but the consistency and range has made these inexpensive triggers reliable for me. If you want to read more about that check this out

http://www.flickr.com/photos/btmlinedan/sets/72157610173957672/





here's an example of the range I am able to get:









BUT BACK ON TOPIC. The only thing I DO NOT LIKE about these little guys is the crappy little plastic case with a metal bracket. With the flash attached, and after regular use i've found the black plastic cases end up cracking or getting destroyed.






SO. what was my solution? Hardwire a cable out of the flash that plugs directly into the receiver, so I am able to mount the flash directly to any stand gaining stability while still using my same wireless receivers. A few of these have pc sync slots so I figured that would be the easiest route to go. I believe you can buy pc sync's at radio shack but I haven't been there yet so don't hold me to it. My receivers are $9 a piece new with a pc sync so i may just order a few spares. MIND YOU, I could've hard wired the flash to the receiver, but then I was afraid it would get snagged up on something and won't fit in my little flash case, so industrial strength velcro would have to do...ok let's get started.


Shown here is the Flash hot shoe, the receiver, and the cable that comes with the reciever. It has a 1/16th plug (that we'll cut off) and the pc sync cable. I HAVE noticed that the plugs need to be really tight in the pc sync for it to work.


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Shown here is the weak link where the flash mates to the receiver. Now with this modification I still wanted to be able to use the hot shoe on both units JUST IN CASE there something goofy happened on location and the hardwire no longer worked for whatever reason. It's always safe to have a backup plan.


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Here are the guts of the receiver. You'll notice the pc sync cable in the top right hand corner of the box. You'll also notice it's wired to the board WHICH THE HOT SHOE is also wired to. The positive terminal is on the south side of this picture and the negative is on the top. the outside of the hot shoe AND pc sync are negative while the middle of the hotshoe and the pc sync are positive. This is important to know because you'll be wiring the hot of the flash in this manner too and don't wanna switch em up.

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The cable will plug in to the side of the receiver here.

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Snip the 1/16th plug off the end and strip the wires. You want to make sure you don't have too much wire hanging out b/c it does get cramped inside the flash.

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These wires are basically going to take place of the hot/cold of the flash feet...inside. Start by removing the 4 tiny phillips head screws

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SLOWLY open the hot shoe foot and observe how everything comes out, it's tight in there and will need to go back the same way.

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Remove the 2 screws holding the infa red. I chose to keep this part just in case I wanted to use the flash on camera or sell it or something. you can ditch it if your only purpose is for strobist stuff.

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Here you'll see the wires and plugs of the flash. You can either tap into the wires or solder directly from the feet. I chose the feet b/c they are more stable. the Red white is the hot and the Blue wire is the cold.

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I used a voltmeter to verify that WHITE is hot and RED is cold. so you want to wire the WHITE to the RED of the flash and the RED of the cable to the BLUE of the flash.

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Make sure to strip the wires close b/c you don't have a lot of room.

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Once you've soldered everything securely, test it out to make sure it works.


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Now it's time to put everything back together. You are going to need to route a path to allow the cable to exit. You can either use a dremel tool or your soldering iron, i've done both. I did it on the hotshoe and the underside, but on other units only did the hotshoe and didn't have a problem. a quick piece of gaffers tape kept it in place. THen the fun part of putting everything back together.


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I used velcro to hold the trigger on the side. Now you can attach the flash SECURELY to the stand instead of worrying about the weak link of the plastic box and metal bracket.

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Sit back and enjoy! PS : i don't have a picture of it, but I can still slide the flash onto the hotshoe and it still fires. If you had a flash bracket with 2 flashes you could probably use 1 sync and 1 hotshoe ...basically 2 flashes off 1 trigger, but now that's just getting nerdy!

hope you guys dug. cheers.

08.09.10
I'm always up for challenging myself, and this week I tried something new with the possibility of falling flat on my face or coming out with something good enough to call my own. Well i'd put these shots right in the middle. The goal was to head out on the bike, with only what I could stuff in my bag and try and make something magical happen. After a few nd filters, a decent location, and some flashes on the ground I thought I came out with something pretty fun. Some of them literally look like a toy bike b/c the depth of field, which I LOVE! Anyway, enjoy the shots!


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and of course...the setup shot (what mosts shots looked like, or something similar). The little stands were hard to work with, but better than nothing!

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until next time, keep shooting!

06.07.10

I love it when a plan comes together. My good friend ( Chris P )and a prominent member of the m5 board, has been slowly building his 2002 titanium silver m5 to meet an elegant yet powerful theme that can be quickly overlooked, but easily distinguished. Chris has a strange obsession with carbon fiber. I'm sure as you are reading this he is probably standing in front of 10 or so strangers, having a cup of black coffee and announcing "Hello. My name is Chris, and I have an addiction" followed by a small round of golf claps.

Chris's recent addition was the carbon fiber sideskirts which were finished hours before TIMMAYFEST2010, a nationwide e39 m5 meet. He 'politely' asked that the photos not be posted until after the event, which I had to fight, because the set came out GORGEOUS. The beast sports carbon fiber roundels (still blue and white to keep the heritage of bmw alive..unlike some other bmw owners, cough cough, haha), carbon fiber kidney grills, carbon fiber splitters, carbon fiber eyelids, carbon fiber trunk spoiler, carbon fiber rear diffuser, carbon fiber roof spoiler, and the carbon fiber sideskirts. He also had custom made brake duct rings as well as fog surrounds, all powdercoated to match with the carbon fiber rear diffuser hardware. It's like all of this was planned out like a roadmap from day one.

After picking up the car from Fast Eddie's out of Cincinnati Ohio (who does PHENOMINAL work 513.381.2886 nice quick plug) we hunted around downtown Cincinnati for a location that would suffice while the light was chasing us out. Zues had blessed us with some slight overcast and no rain, my favorite.

Most shots were done with 4 canon 420ez flashes staggered around the car, my 1dmk2 (which was recently replaced with the N model, yes i'm a nerd I know) my trusty canon 17-40 F4 and the canon 70-200 f2.8 IS. Silver really gobbles up the light so I'm glad we got to use the flashes this go around instead of the strobes, it's also easier to move them around without having to worry about cables. I had a receiver mount break so luckily Chris turned into a HLS (Human light stand) for a few shots.

I'm sure Chris is far from finished with this car, but if he stopped today, he'd had one of the most crisp and unique m5's around. Chris : I salute you, with a golf clap, and a small black coffee. Enjoy your addiction my friend, I know I have.






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until next time...keep shooting!

05.25.10

Hey Guys!~

It's been a while since i've posted to the blog, but just been busy with a hundred different things, not that day ends today! This weekend I attended Timmayfest2010 which was a nationwide bmw e39 m5 meet. M5's from California, Texas, Pennsylvania, and everywhere in between were in attendance. The turnout was amazing, and Tim (the host) did an excellent job of putting everything together. I walked around for the first few hours shooting, grabbed some lunch with some friends, then brought out the fun lights and started shooting some more shots of individual cars...but those shots will have to wait!

I'll let the pictures speak for the themselves, enjoy!!




A wise man once said, always lead with your best foot forward


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until next time...keep shooting!