Under the Southern Cross I stand

Day 62

Under the Southern Cross I Stand

A sprig of wattle in my hand,

A native of my native land,

Australia you little beauty

I'm not an avid cricket fan (runs madly for cover). Yeah, it's a bit of a thorn in the side when I am married into an Indian family.. actually it is probably just as well I am so impartial :)

This photo today was taken using 5 speedlights (4 x YN460II and a Canon 580EXII on top) on 5 stands with radio triggers, then adjusted in Photoshop to add the star effects. I think you can see the placement of speedlights in the photo :)

I wanted to test out my new Phottix Strato II radio trigger. I just bought a trigger and receiver today to match my old model Phottix Stratos. The new ones were supposed to be back compatible, and I was just testing that they indeed were. And indeedy they are! Just like the box says. Gotta love that.

I'm a big fan of Phottix. I'm a little sad they copied PocketWizard in the past, however their new range of gadgets are just amazing, and they quality is very professional IMHO, especially when compared to other Chinese manufacturers (no, I am not being prejudiced, I am being objective). So far my original Stratos have gone close to 18 months without issues. I almost just got another Strato transmitter, but was smitten by the extra functions and back compatibility of the Strato II. Anyway, I have a few bits of Phottix gear, and for a price to performance standpoint, they are exceptional value. 

However my Yongnuo YN460II speedlights have been my most used piece of gear ever, I think... well I guess that makes the Stratos up there too, as they are ususally underneath the YN460IIs. I did, for a brief period, use YN triggers too, but the ETTL pass through of the Phottix Stratos and the sold reliable feel to them have won me over, and the YN 602s are now on loan to various mates.

Which reminds me of the reason I got another trigger in the first place... I needed (wanted?) 2 cameras with a flash on board for a few gigs. and I often incorporate manual off-camera flash with an ETTL controlled on-board speedlight. Radio triggers are the only 99.99999% reliable way of doing this. So the Strato was a godsend, however, having only one meant that I had to change the trigger as I changed cameras. This was bulky. So I got another trigger.

The beauty of the Stratos is that the manual flash does not interfere with the ETTL metering of the Canon system, thus even if it shows in the image, it just forms a star (not quite as pretty as the ones above) in the image, and does not totally throw the metering off. Awesome for events where the room is too dark ambiently, but close up flash does not bring up the rest of the room, or if the room is so dark the shutter speed is very low and you are shooting people moving. Both these situations I am going to come across quite a bit in the next two weeks, so I am glad to have these little toys to play with.

Enough gadget talk. Time to charge my batteries (and the ones in my gear too).