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By Todd, September 8, 2008 9:35 pm

Vivitar 285HV
I had a little photo job this past saturday night. The Wife asked me to take pictures at her 30 year high school reunion and, being the husband that I am, I gladly stepped up to the plate. I needed to get some things ready first, though.

I decided to put to use several of the e-bay strobes I’d been collecting, all Vivitar 285hv’s… I’d seen these mentioned in various places as a good choice for off-camera flash, most notably over at the strobist. Since I don’t have any wireless triggers, I needed to work out some type of wired-setup to use these strobes. I did a couple internet searches and found an article by Nathan Kerr over at shuttersnapstudios.com with a mod for adding 3.5mm plugs to the 285′s, effectively bypassing the proprietary Vivitar connector included on the flashes and the need for expensive adapters and cables .

Closer Views…

This mod wasn’t too difficult, but it did involve opening the shoe, drilling a hole and doing some soldering in a tight space. If you’re not comfortable with that, avoid the mod… I chose not to goop up the cable with epoxy where it leaves the shoe. I may pay for that later but I’ll take my chances with my soldering and careful handling. Ideally there would be room for a zip-tie inside the shoe, but it’s just too crowded…

I wasn’t going to need all the strobes at once, but decided to do all of the mods at the same time while I had the tools and parts out and ready… After working through all six of my 285hv’s, I made a few connecting cables with male 3.5mm ends and a four-way Y to join everything together. A few tests with the strobes and my wiring and all was ready.

The Funky Clamp: The screw turns, the clamp misaligns as it tightens…

Next I needed a couple of umbrella/shoe mount multiclamps. I’d seen some on ebay while looking for the 285′s and ordered a couple from some shop. These arrived and I found them to be less than perfect. The way these were designed left much to be desired, the shoe was funky with a clamping mechanism that didn’t clamp straight and didn’t offer a very secure foothold for the strobes.

The Photoflex Multiclamp. So far no problems…

After more research, I opted to purchase a couple more adapters from Adorama by way of Amazon. These were by Photoflex and much nicer: a better build and a far more secure shoe. I won’t hesitate to order more of these later. The others? I’ll chalk that up to the cost of education…

The night of the reunion went well. The affair was at a small restaurant with a lot of atmosphere… a great place for a meal, but awfully tight for setting up light stands. I did my best to wedge the lights in among the aisle and chairs, trying to keep any of my wires out of the way. The only downside was all of the memorabilia. Almost everything was in glass-fronted picture frames and securely mounted on the walls. With the tight space I couldn’t get my umbrella stands up high enough or at enough of an angle to avoid seeing the strobes reflected in all the glass. I decided to just live with that, having been assured by The Wife that my chimping-shots already looked better than those taken by the photographer at the last reunion. Aside from the reflections (I’m still unhappy about that!) the pictures turned out decently and the folks were happy with the results.

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By Todd, June 5, 2008 10:23 am

If you’ve been around here for any length of time then you know of my affinity for old signs. Today’s pic is from a local restaurant I frequent, an old family establishment that is a local institution. The sign really captures a different place and time. As so many things like this are disappearing fast, I didn’t want to take it for granted that it would always be here. I thought it best to get it now before it’s gone from our local landscape.

And yes, the food is excellent!

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By Todd, May 25, 2008 9:51 pm

It’s one of my favorite drives.

It’s long and desolate. There’s rarely any traffic. I mean to say that there’s rarely another car on the road to meet; indeed, make certain that you’re car is in good condition as I’ve rarely even seen another soul on the drive. There are faster routes, and certainly there are busier routes, over to the central coast from the San Joaquin Valley. But for a quiet drive, a drive for when you’re in no hurry, this is the one for me. There are curves a plenty while climbing up into the hills from the valley and descending out onto the Carriso Plains. Then the road is straight and long, built as if for a roller coaster with their rises and drops. In the middle of nowhere, the road makes a very sharp right angle turn. The warning sign says 15 mph and it means it! For a short stretch you drive along past a little country school, then it turns again, just as sharply, and you head off again in your original direction. It’s as if the builders of the road started on opposing sides of the plains with a plan to meet in the middle but all their calculations were off and, instead of fixing the mess, they decided to just build a short road connecting the dots and be done with it. The road takes you back up off the Carisso Plains, into the hills of the California coast and then dumps you quietly into the little town of Santa Margarita to connect with the coast’s Highway 101.

I’ve driven it many times since college days. Every car I’ve owned I’ve taken along this drive, sometimes when I shouldn’t have. I have fond memories of introducing people to the road. Almost every time I travel along this way with someone new I make a point of stopping near this spot in the photo. It’s near the halfway mark across the Carisso Plains. I pull off the asphalt, shut off the engine and get out of the car. It’s deathly quiet, with just the ping of the cooling engine and sometimes the sound of the breeze in the grasses. Every step is a decided *crunch* in the gravel, a step back in time when the world sounded this quiet, when the loudest thing ever heard might be the rumble of thunder or the crash of a wave on the shore. The ears ring with the silence. You’ve heard of ‘deafening silence’? This is it.

The vista is just as staggering. There are hills in the distance and vast grasslands laid out before you. Sometimes there’s a tractor tilling a field, sometimes there are cattle grazing. Off to one side you can see the ancient lake bed. You’re never really certain if you’re seeing water or if it’s just an optical illusion played by the heat waves rising from the floor of the valley. Overall it’s a thing of beauty and, if you’re lucky enough to have a few clouds in the sky, it can be dramatic.

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By Todd, April 1, 2008 9:05 am

So, after four years of self-inflicted Photo-A-Day (PAD), I posted my last photo on friday, the anniversary of my starting PAD. I didn’t pick up a camera on saturday or sunday, and I was fine. But monday came, and on my way out the door, I stood for a minute with my hand on my camera bag vacillating about whether to take it or leave it. I’ve been carrying a camera with me everywhere I’ve gone for four years now… I wasn’t sure I could just leave it now. But I did. I left it. On my way to work I must have seen half a dozen shots on the street and in my head. At work, I looked over at where my camera bag usually sat and saw an empty space. I felt naked most of the day. And when it was time to go to bed, it was an odd feeling, I hadn’t posted a photo…

I decided that four years of PAD was enough; at least, it was enough for now. I feel like a break is due. I’m taking this time for a little rest, time to recharge. Past that, I have a few things I want to focus on, things I promised myself I would do. First, I need to sort and reorganize my photo collection. Second, I want to collect my favorite pictures from these last four years and try to put together a photo book. Third, I want to spend time working on a some photographic projects I’ve had milling about in my head for a while. Lastly, I’ve been working on building up a good lighting kit, and I want to finish that.

Today, as I left for work, I looked at my camera bag… the tug was still there. I came to a compromise. I left the bag, but grabbed the Olympus Trip 35 and stuffed it in my  briefcase…

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By Todd, March 23, 2008 9:15 am

Both parts of a Garry Winogrand interview, by way of Youtube:

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By Todd, March 23, 2008 8:53 am

A great little piece about street photographer Gary Winogrand by way of Mentalfloss.com…

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By Todd, February 29, 2008 8:48 pm

I love wandering in the alleyways downtown for pictures. Seems there’s always something of interest. Often it’s a wall, or a bit of asphalt or some detritus that catches my eye. Tonight I found myself looking at a wall of windows on the back side of an apartment building downtown. It was just about sunset, the direct sunlight was gone. I stepped up to ISO 200 and f/5.0 and shot a couple shots. A little tweaking in Lightroom for my post processing…