Wildlife Photography across the Water: Flash

Thursday 1 December 2011

Flash

Yesterday Nikon announced a new flagship Flashgun, The SB910, Looking at the specs its nothing more than a revised and tweeked SB900, There are very few differences, The main one being that people have been having problems with the SB900 thermal cut out, If you use the flash heavily it will protect itself from over heating by not working, Imagine that at a wedding, The new one changes this by slowing down, i still dont think that is the answer as you will still miss shots but i guess that you can turn it (the thermal cutout) off if you want, Other changes are that you can illuminate the back buttons which is a good idea for people like myself who shoot a lot in the dark and it has a couple of clip on filters instead of gels, Thats about it apart from a price hike, Now a top of the range flashgun is going to cost around $550, I currently have and use 4 guns and would like to add 2 more so it starts to get very expensive unless you use a cheap manual gun and put them on some kind of trigger
like radio poppers,pocket wizards or even cheaper ones like these, If you look on ebay you can buy transmitters/receivers for around $30, The benefits are that you can use them without line of sight which believe me is great and you are not stuck with any particular brand so you canon boys can use the great Nikon flash system, I know people that use very old and very cheap guns by using these systems and they work great,
Multi flash is great to use and for hummingbirds or night time animals its really the only way to get great images that have depth,
One thing i will say is that i dont know anybody who uses the cheap stuff off of ebay but at that price it may well be worth the risk
One thing that i like when using multi flash is the Nikon SU 800 transmitter, Its very simple to use and shows what your flash groups are set at on the LCD on the back, Its a huge step up from the Canon ST-E2 which works ok but is very basic in comparison, If you are a Canon user then take a look at the new Phottix sytem which is basically a rip off of the Nikon system, You can find it at the Naturescapes store, If i were a Canon shooter i would defiantly get one
Dave

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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.