Crashing Icicles

Upcoming spring is a good time for icicles to grow. And take pictures of them.



This one is shot with the SB-800 + Full CTO gell fired directly into the ice from above.



Also learned a valuable lesson today- never put stuff in you pockets! Before prepparing the next shot I've put my flash together with the remote trigger into my lower pocket. Then kneeled down to the cammera and heard something sliding down the icy slope... Jep- my SB-800 was on it's way to a 3 meter cliff, pulling EL-Skyport receiver with it... I was so afraid to go and fetch it after the crash, that just tried firing the flash with the test button from the transmitter. And it worked! Beleive it or not- it still works! Hail Nikons hardcore build quality! ;)

Made in...

Good long vacation back home- doing nothing more but the good stuff: eat, sleep, take pictures. And enjoy the best peace and quiet nature can offer!

More wilderness pictures and technical details on the above image after the jump!


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The first attempt I had at this shot was in complete darkness, so I tried using a flash light to light-paint the house making it at least a bit visible. Made probably dozen of those pictures never liked one of them... So just left the idea until this beautiful moonlit night came. -20C outside with moonlight really does have it's own charm! And I did not need any more fill light- I had a perfectly good moon hanging exactly where I wanted it. Remembered what Joe McNally said in his book about the dark windows, but could not turn the lights on as long exposure time would have burned the windows, so I used natural candles. Works really well. 30 second exposure added the fairytale look to the image. It is a perfect place to grow up I tell you!

My Nikon seems to take the cold quite fine. I have two batteries for these extreme cold days. One is always in the pocket close to the skin. The first one freezes in 20-30 minutes. I guess it takes longer first time as the camera is still warm too. Afterwards I have to switch batteries every 10-15 minutes... Well, depends on how cold it is.

Enough babbling, forest is pretty back home:

All good things are over some time. Vacation too. Going back West! Harbour in Riga was different this time- all frozen as the rest of Baltic countries. Still looking good though!

Welcome back to life in 2009! ;)

Remote Flash at the Sea

Another walk with David after working hours (way after...). This time we were hanging out on the west coast of Sweden, having Lysekil night lights right in front of us. Came across this view with old peer poles in foreground:

Again a perfect time to pull out a wireless flash. And this time as David was here we had two SB-800 units to play with!

Click the link for the result and details!

So, one of the SB-800 was triggered via my Skyport. The other was set to the SU-4 Manual mode and triggered by the first one flashing. Camera on tripod, both of us become VALs and here it is:

Did not put any gels on the flashes in order to keep the light colder than the city, this way the old wood stands out much better.

A bit more life to the ghostly silhouettes, added their own reflections on the water and done.

Enjoy!

OK, a few days of digestion and here is the final image: