FramingTheLight's photostream

Amateur enthusiast. Trying to get better. This past Spring 2008, I guided a high school class called "Practical and Artistic Photography."

The "studio" setup is in my Chemistry Lab, a very large room in the school. Studio lights consist of 4 lightstands with white umbrellas, each with 4 daylight-balanced compact fluorescent bulbs. White foamcore boards as reflectors. Background cloth from Walmart at $1/yard.

We seem to have done fairly well for such an "economical" setup.

Pretty much a continuous-light photographer until recently.

Over the last few weeks, I've been inspired by D. Hobby's Strobist blog to take up off-camera flash and all the challenge that comes with it. Since I'm on a limited budget, I picked up a few speedlights online, two of which have decent GN's and variable power (down to 1/32).

So here's a list of my "stuff":

2 Pentax K100D's, one for home, one for school (low-priced, and you can't beat the legacy Pentax mount lens prices on eBay)

Pentax DA 18-55 3.5-5.6 kit lens
Pentax SMC-A 50 2.0
Pentax Takumar-F 70-200 4.0-5.6
Sigma AF 70-210 4-5.6
Pentax FA 35-80 4-5.6

(I'm on a budget; I have inferior glass, but I have fun with it)

Soligor 30D flash, GN 108 at 50 ISO 200 (my test)
Minolta 4000AF, GN 128 at 50 ISO 200 (my test)
Pentax 240AF, GN 76 at ISO 200 (my test)

(On the week of Aug. 24, I bought 2 Sunpak 433D's and 1 Sunpak 444D, each less than $25 online, so I'll be switching around these various flashes, or getting more receivers for the Calumet trigger).

Calumet Wireless Trigger Set with 2 receivers
Wein Hot Shoe Slave
Wein Peanut Slave

3 lightstands with umbrella-hotshoe brackets
2 shoot through umbrellas (32")
1 silver bounce umbrella (32")
1 convertible umbrella (32")
30" collapsible reflector (white/gold)
Apollo mini-softbox

I guess that's it. I'm hoping to have fun with this Strobist adventure.

Please leave comments about my photos. I hope to improve because of your feedback. THANKS.