I carry a bunch of seldom-used gadgets that rumble around the bottom of my gear bags. Some have been around for years. I can’t find the courage to remove them because they might come in handy one day. Last week, it was the Cardellini’s turn to come to the rescue.

I was shooting on location - 30 miles from my studio. [Read more →]

As flashmasters Joe McNally and David Hobby have proven again and again, the first step to getting an amazing photo with your strobe is to uncouple it from your camera and move it to the side/back/top/bottom of your subject. Combine a unique flash angle with TTL flash control and you have a dynamic duo.

TTL (Through-The-Lens) metering of flash is one of the amazing windfalls of digital photography. Not only can your DSLR figure out where to focus and what shutter/aperture combo to use, it can tell your flash when to fire and for how long. Wireless TTL works by sending a series of pre-flash light pulses from the controlling unit atop the camera to the remote unit(s). Both Nikon’s i-TTL and Canon’s E-TTL provide wireless solutions that enable the camera to maintain control of the strobe(s) if… if there’s nothing between the camera and the strobe, if the strobe is not too far from the camera, if there’s not too much sunlight, if it’s not raining, if… Enter RadioPopper, destroyer of the IFs.

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It’s great when a pro shooter will let you peak into his camera bag. It’s even better when he’ll unpack the dang thing and explain all the contents… on the web.

John Harrington is an energetic, editorial shooter based in Washington DC. I’ve read and highly recommend his book, Best Business Practices for Photographers. I heard him speak at Photoshop World in Vegas last fall and at ASMP Strictly Business 2 in Los Angeles this winter. If you get a chance to meet or listen to John, consider it a must-do.

To get a sense of the diverse environments in which John must shoot, spend some time on his portfolio site. Then think about all the gear you’d have to have to face so many different challenges.

Now click over to John’s Assignment Construct. Of particular interest are the 30+ short videos in which he unpacks and discusses the various gear kits that he takes on assignments. There’s so much to watch. Perhaps the best place to start is with John’s intro to the videos. [Read more →]