VWGolf

Lovely picture - well done :-)

Thank you, Chris - I shall try that out nex time :-)

As you may know, I recently bought some Yongnuo flash triggers, also a Lastolite soft box that fits over my flash gun. I've practised using both on and off-camera flash with very mixed results. Photographing a children's party, where (some of the time) I could ask the child(ren) to look at me and stay still for a moment, I got some lovely portraits that I was very pleased with. But photographing my kitten has produced very good and very bad results. I have tried working in manual/aperture/speed modes with the flash on and off the camera. I thought I understood that although I may have the time set to, say, 1/200 sec, then the flash at, say, 1/1000 of a second, would freeze the action of the kitten, who moves faster than the speed of light! Does this freezing of action only occur if there is little or no ambient light? It's driving me mad - he is a joy to watch when he's playing with his toys and chasing around the house, but I'm mostly not able to freeze him in action. Any suggestions to help me sort this out would be most welcome. TIA

Great news - and well deserved :-)

Love the cat one :-) I had a mastiff at one time and at the end of our road there are about half a dozen steps down. He was a clumsy shambling puppy anyway, and the way he went down those steps, legs akimbo, then sat looking astonished at the bottom, is a sight I'll never forget! Pity I didn't have a camer handy then :-)

Cathy - what you're talking about, I think, is a double mount. You can buy mount cutting kits and learn how to cut your own with bevelled edges, which takes a bit of practice, but once you've mastered that, you have only the cost of the mount boards, instead of having to pay the high charges in framing shops. I learned how to do it at my local camera club - you might find the same if you have a local one. Good luck with it.

Great picture - well deserved for POTW

Not the flash thingy, but whatever was the latest version of TT at Christmas for my Nikon.

Has anyone used a Trigger trap? Bought one but I'm not over impressed with it. Using it with an iPhone (which is apparently better than using it with an Android) but it doesn't seem that responsive to me. If anyone has used one, I'd be interested to find out how you've got on with it. And any hints/tips would be welcome.

Hello :-)

Hmmm - £86 for pensioners, and I understand from our club talk that you have to remain a member, else you lose the letters after your name. Everyso often, a lecturer turns up to try to persuade us to join the RPS, but as mentioned above, for those of us on limited means, it seems to be an expensive luxury. I'd rather spend what money I have on occasions on kit instead. And there does not seem to be much for us Midlanders - hardly likely to go to Wiltshire for a lecture. Still, horses for courses, no doubt :-)

Tea - yuck! Drink of the devil! If it's weak, it is like drinking hot water and if it's strong, it just tastes of bitter tannin. :-( Herbal teas are almost as bad - they often smell delicious, but never much in the way of taste. Coffee for me every time, good and strong :-) Or a nice Australian red ...... ;-)

Buy a Nikon ;-)

Don't rely on finding a second-hand Nikon flash at a good price on eBay - they always go for silly money. I know - I've looked often enough, in the hopes of finding one that I'm familiar with. I use one SB600 and one Jessops cheapie - this latter had no manual and I cannot find anything online, so it's always a matter of guessing. I was relying on using the Commander mode on my Nikon, but I'm hoping that having bought some Yongnuo controller/receivers, life will become a lot simpler for me, and they do all the hard work and it doesn't matter whether it's a Nikon flash or not. Well, in theory - still getting to grips with them (as well as saving up for even more rechargeable batteries - a total of fourteen required for both flashes and three Yongnuo thingies!)

I'm impressed by how organised you are, Graham. I want to be like that when I'm grown up! ;-) I have a Lowepro rucksack and a Lowepro shoulder bag (plus a small Manfrotto bag for the little camera). I find I am always swapping stuff out from one bag to another, depending on whether I'll be driving or walking to my photo destination. And invariably, I'll have left something critical behind in the bag I'm not using! I have a carbon-fibre tripod (as my hands shake), which I take almost everywhere. I [paid extra to get the c-f one, but that is negated by having a Manfrotto adjustable grip head for it that weighs almost as much as a small family hatchback - well, that's what it feels like after lugging it around for a couple of hours! I too have arthritis - quite badly in my knees, to the extent I cannot kneel, and also in my shoulders. As often as I can, I take my nephew or niece with me and give them a couple of quid to carry some kit for me. Other times I just struggle. Which is why I take lots of pictures of the cat and people at home, where I don't have to carry anything and all my gear is here (just a matter of remembering where I put it!). I think I might join a dating agency and get myself another husband. A strong one who doesn't mind carrying things! :-)

Today was the first chance I had to play with my new Yongnuo flash triggers. My first picture is over in the Pets thread http://www.tipf.co.uk/index.php/topic/9450-first-pic-using-flash-triggers/ as for some reason, I couldn't post it in here. Do the settings on the transmitter on the camera override the flash settings both on the camera and the flash guns? I've turned off the commander mode on my Nikon, but if I set, say Manual on the transmitter, does it override the fact that the guns are set to TTL? Or vice-versa?

Thank you - I will have a look

I'm excited - my wireless Yongnuo triggers have arrived. I bought the more expensive ones that also (reputedly) do ttl - they cost £75 for one transmitter and two receivers (or whatever they're called). Hoping to find time for a play with them tomorrow. The translated-from-Chinese instructions look amusing! Or should that be 'bemusing'? What I must remember to do today is buy more batteries! Two in each of the trigger thingies and four in each flash gun adds up to 14! Think I'll get some decent rechargeables. I'm really looking forward to being able to go out with a small bag containing my lighting kit, instead of a massive bag containing my studio lights, stands, extension cables etc. So watch this space. Although perhaps not for a while, whilst I work them out :-)

I bought a Wacom Bamboo second hand from eBay. Think I paid about £40 for it. The drawing area on it is about A5 size and I find it more than adequate - it means you don't have to stretch for far with your hand. I use a Windows PC. It takes a little time to co-ordinate your hand on the tablet and your eye on the screen, but after a while, it will come naturally. I've started doing compositing and I find the fine detail of using the graphics pen is so much better than doing the same with a mouse. I expect it's horses for courses, but I'm glad I bought mine and use it a lot - hope you enjoy yours :-)

Sorry - I missed that, Phil. Tried that, but it's a bit hit and miss. Found about four out of twelve I searched on. But so far, not found them to be anywhere they shouldn't be :-)

I don't get that option although I get most of the others. Would I have to use Chrome as my browser? (I use Firefox)

I've tried on FB, Flickr and on here, but I don't get the google search option either

Well done - it's so exciting getting published, isn't it? I'll look out for the magazine when I go shopping at the weekend :0(

That's the one store Scott Kelby recommends in all his books. Must have shares in it.

Done, but agree questions could have been better thought out. Good luck.