Added more strobes to my collection

I recently won a bid for a set of strobes which will add support for my off camera flash work. I purchased a Vivitar 285HV and a Promaster 1700 Flash. I am looking forward to using these to help light my subjects better.

I recently built a DIY soft box for shooting small items. I'll be putting the pictures up on EBay for household items we wish to sell. I identified the need for the additional flash units based on some testing that I've done. I've also seen a lot of photographers list the 285HV as an inexpensive go-to flash possessing the ability to change the output power level.

I'll be posting some of my pictures with descriptions of the setup.

Philly Photo Equipment Resource

I work in Center City Philadelphia and have recently discovered a great camera store that's withing walking distance of my work. Webbcam, LLC is located at 241 North 12th Street Philadelphia, Pa 19107.

I was trying to find some hardware to allow me to use my older Canon 199A flash with my newer digital equipment. They were very helpful and knowledgeable and I purchased a Wein H-Prong receptacle and Micro Slave. Total cost was about $70 and will allow me to optically trigger the flash up to 120ft.

I'll be testing it out tomorrow for some Prom shots of my son and his date. The folks at Webb said that it shouldn't be a problem triggering it even in direct sunlight. My idea is to move both the SB800 and 199A off camera and trigger them remotely using the D80's built-in flash. I'll be posting some shots to my Flicker photostream.

I recently stumbled across the Strobist Blog with David Harvey. Wow, what a great site to learn off camera lighting. David has many years of experience that he's more than willing to share with all who wish to learn and at no charge!

I experimented with the D80 and SB800 in iTTL mode using the on camera pop-up flash in Commander mode. The IR suffers a bit in direct sunlight, but if you move into the shade and keep a clear line of site to the sensor it worked fairly well. I posted a few shots of my dog Niki to my Flicker photo stream. All of the shots were taken mid day with full sun. I was trying some of the suggested tips from the Strobist by using the flash in manual mode and adjusting the power settings or the aperature for some dramatic lighting.