I just discover this product on a website and thought it would work great with my SB-600 whenever I would need a lightstand but don't want to travel with one... If it can hold a compact camera it should be able to hold a small Nikon Speedlight SB-600... Leave it in a bag and if I encountered a situation where I need to set the flash somewhere I can just use that Monster Pod X and stick my flashgun virtually anywhere.

This could be really cool indead. But being sometimes spontaneous, I haven't done my research properly and did not see that article on Strobist.com  which mentionned that Monster Pod X won't hold a SB-800...

But well, lets hope it will hold smaller flashes...

Computer virii are a real threat to us photographers as they can crash your computer or delete hard drive content. You sometime need to completely re-install your PC in order to regain useability. This Sunday I discovered that my PC was infected by several virii while I was away in Norway. My wife must have been accessing infected websites or emails. But all attempts to access any website were redirected to another one. Windows has also detected the infection and so was my antivirus but it was already too late and the virus has downloaded several other ones including Rootkit and Trojans. I was very concerned as I did not want to go thru all the process of reinstalling my computer and risk the lost of recent work.

So after 2 days analysing the situation and running all sort of antivirus and spyware removal tools I've been able to regain a stable system.

Being also a web developer, I'm being sent to Oslo (Norway) for a training course on eZ Publish, a advanced Content Management System (CMS) that we are using at the company.

I left London from Heathrow T5 at 1pm today and arrived at about 4.30pm, Oslo time. There was still some snow on the street and obviously it was quite cold but not that bad though. I was expecting the sun to be still high as we are up north but I did not realize that in winter the sun goes down even sooner than in London. At this period of the year the sun raised at 8am and set at 4.30pm... That's not cool for evening shots as I'm hand holding my camera, but at least I don't need to wake up to early to try some nice shots in the morning.

Since about June 2007 I've followed on a nearly daily basis the evolution of Strobist, a blog setup by David Hobby , an ex photo journalist working for the Sun in the US. In a friendly and simple way, David Hobby is teaching you how to use small and portable flashguns to the maximum of their possibilities and achieve high quality photographs. The Strobist blog is reinforced by a Strobist Flickr Group where the blog readers could participate in the group discussion threads and posting their work into the group's photo pool and get comments and critics.

I remember going thru several pictures of skateboarders, cyclist... doing high jump with a great sky in the background. This made me want to get some similar photographs. So, with my wife, we started a serie on our trip to the Isle of Wight.

"Flickr labs have been hard at work creating a way to show you some of the most awesome content on Flickr. We like to call it interestingness."

Another of my recent photographs has made its way up to the Flickr Explore Interestingness page . Unfortunately Flickr Explore algorithm is still a mystery, but it looks like that if you submit to too many groups your picture is more likely to be dropped out, but it will get back in if you receive enough comments/faves.

This photograph pictured Frank Williams one of my photographer mates. I went to his place last weekend to practice and test new techniques. We ended up with an outdoor session trying a three speedlights setup in his residential parking. As the sun goes down, the sky was getting dark and dramatic. Playing with the aperture and the shutter speed, I could control the exposure of the ambiance and the one on Frank separately, this is really great as I can decide whether I want the ambiance darker or brighter when maintaining the correct exposure on my subject.

I would then in post-processing fine tune the colors, contrast and lighting and do some editing such as leaves on the face etc..

So you think good studio photography needs an expensive studio and expensive gears? Think again!

The portrait on the left has been taken in a little cottage up in Snowdonia (Wales). I've had a break there with my wife and her mum. On the day we had planned to go out shooting some portraits for them, it was raining cats and dogs! So we had to go back to the cottage and have some tea and biscuit. But I didn't want to end the day without any picture, so we decided to turn the cottage's living room in a budget home photography studio and use what is available as backdrop. So here I was using the doors, kitchen and white wall and my standard strobist kit.

I started with photography in June 2005, buying a SLR camera Canon EOS 350D to replace a lost Sony DSC-P71. I wanted to buy it cuz my parents were coming to visit me in Montpellier (South France) from New Caledonia.

At the time I only shoot in natural light, believing that was the only way to have very nice pictures with natural look, flash's light being to harsh. The only time I've shot with flashes were in a studio for one of my models, Bernadette Vong  thru a softbox to soften the light

Here I'm again with Bernadette Vong, yes I know again... But she is a wonderful model to work with and I enjoyed it. This time I went to a Paul's Studio way far to Reading with Frank Williams  a photographer friend of mine. That was my first time in a studio and I was shooting with a 50mm f/1.8 that revealed to be too long for medium sized studio so I ended up using one of Frank's wider lens.

The studio was setup for a classic high key session: a white backdrop, two background lights, one hair light on the ceiling pointing down and two front lights shooting thru big softboxes at 45 degrees from the subject. We were shooting at f/16 and I was a bit annoyed not to be able to shoot at bigger aperture because we could not change the strobes power and it would burn out the pictures.

Shooting in a studio is an interesting experience, you have so plenty of light that it is hard not to get a sharp picture. The light was wrapping all around the model creating none or very soft shadows. As the light source was huge, the specular reflection on Bernadette's hair is very clean.

I still prefer on shooting on location though, I find it more interesting and challenging. But in the UK, winters are very cold so you'd better have a studio as a plan B.

Austin Dinh

I've met Austin on ModelMayhem.com  (like most of the other models I've worked with). He needed to update his actor portrait portfolio and so I've helped him.

We went to Central London by the City Hall trying to get some urban portraitures. Austin is Vietnamese and has a strong look in his face. It was great working with him and we got some really nice pictures. I like the variety of scenery that Central London offers. Those different backgrounds helps to give different feelings and moods to the photographs.

At the time I was still using only natural light using a home made silver/golden reflector to fill the shadows. I didn't know at the time that you could also use it in some situation to create a nice rim light around the subject to separate him/her from the background. This came later on with the experience and that is why I've joined websites such as modelmayhem.com or supermodels.com, they allows you to build up a nice portfolio and your skills. It's a nice collaboration between the photographers and the models: pros meet pros, pros meet amateurs, amateurs meet amateurs... Highly recommended if you want to improve your portraits and PR skills.

Bernadette Vong

Back to that time, I was still using natural light (natural light is very good, but knowing how to use flash opens a wide range of possibilities and can help in some bad natural light conditions). One of my favorite photography location is Central London, it offers so much different places to use as a backdrop and shooting outdoors is much less boring than shooting in a studio. You have a wider range of backdrops available to you to play with for free from architectures to riverside sceneries. And it's fun to do a photoshoot with a model outdoors and see those curious people gathering around. It can be fun and boost the model but it can also intimidate her/him so depending on who you are shooting you may need to find a quieter environment.

For this photo session, I took Bernadette by the Thames for some urban fashion shoot. The tide was low so we were able to take pictures on the beach.

Some people think the bridge on the top right corner with people going by is a bit distracting and is cutting her head. But I find it interesting though...