Here's hoping you had a nice Naked Fun Day yesterday.
:::
Thrill of the New
My new D200 arrived on Monday at about 2:15 in the afternoon. I took some shots
with it yesterday afternoon, and today is my second full day with it.
As much
as I liked the D100 when it was new, the D200 is a much higher breed of camera.
The build is solid, and the design is smart. I never realized how much lag
I was experiencing with the D100, until I started shooting with the D200. Even
the shutter action sounds different.
This afternoon, I had my mind bent, if not blown. I tried the wireless TTL
feature, using the camera to control two remote flashes mounted with umbrellas.
Two off-camera lights give a look that I find quite
useful and pleasing. I knew how to do it with Pocket Wizards; now I wanted
to do it
all-Nikon.
I pulled up the ‘commander mode’ for the camera's
built-in flash, and set it to no flash. I set one light at 0 and the other
one at 2
stops under.
I
focused,
and took a shot. It worked as instructed, though the exposure looked a tad
under. I dialed the camera's exposure compensation up about 2/3 of a stop,
and took
another shot. Bingo. [Though I preferred the first shot when I finally saw
both on the computer.]
No meter readings. No wires. I didn't even need my pocket
wizards.
I went back to the commander screen, told the ‘B’ strobe not
to fire, and squeezed the shutter again. Everything worked as expected.
It's funny how technology has the smell of magic when it just gets out of
the way and empowers you. Using the built-in ‘Creative Lighting System’ approach
gave me great results with very little effort — way less effort
than with studio strobes or using the SB800s in manual mode with the pocket
wizards.
Of course, CLS and pocket strobes don't do away with all that other equipment
— I'm having a great time with my Arri 650 Fresnel light, for example — but
it does open up some very nice options.
Time to go do some more shooting.
:::
Birdshot in the foot
A couple of days ago, Lou Dobbs expressed dismay that the press corps was
spending too much time on Cheney's hunting accident.That was before Whittington
suffered a ‘mild heart attack,’ that was triggered when one of
the pellets migrated his heart and irritated the heart muscle.
Yesterday, a New York Times editorial suggested that Cheney was acting like
a high school kid who thought that if he just kept quiet about it, things would
be OK.
I thought I heard a news report suggesting that Cheney didn't even have a
valid hunting permit. I haven't heard the NRA's reaction to all of this. I
imagine it's fascinating.
Today, Cheney is going on Fox, of course, to do some damage control.
I think Dobbs and the Times have both got it wrong. This is more of the same:
it's symptomatic of the attitude of secrecy and executive privilege that pervades
the White House.
The thing that I find hard to reconcile, is how the administration can be
so inept in so many ways, yet masterful in waging political campaigns; on the
domestic front, that is.
:::
Before long, it'll all be gone. Then, the next cold-snap moves in. With the
blizzard alone, we nearly broke the record for snowfall in February. The total
accumulation is about an inch shy of the record now. I'd say the record is
going up this year.
