Photographer Zach Bolinger was recently on assignment to shoot a group of surgeons celebrating the 40th anniversary of their practice. To quickly get eight doctors in and out of the session, he relied on his new PocketWizard radio triggers. Similar to the daily practice of doctors, Bolinger didn’t know what he’d encounter, and hadn’t used this particular setup before. You can read the full story on his blog.
When contacted about his post, Bolinger wrote us the following.
“For this project I wanted to try using the PocketWizard FlexTT5 and MiniTT1 with the AC3 Zone Controller. They worked flawlessly. Being able to control the flashes from my camera was a real time saver, especially with one Flex unit on a boom that could only be reached with a ladder. I divided the lights in two groups, Group A in the front and Group B behind the plexiglass. With the AC3 Zone Controller I could dial in the different sets of lights. This was my first time really testing the units and I was impressed on the ease of use. No cords or clutter and the time saved running back and forth to adjust the flashes was priceless. Physicians have very little time to wait around, so the ease of getting eight physicians done in a short amount of time was nice.”
Barker explained to Gardner why his PocketWizard FlexTT5 radio triggers are his favorite gadgets. He also discusses his AC3 Zone Controller and how it enables him to control flash power directly from his camera.
Shooting a Canon system, Barker uses Canon Speedlite 580EX II flashes both indoors and out. Of his PocketWizard gear, Barker concludes, “…they are the industry leader for wireless control.” Thanks, Stephen!
Bryan Butterfield posted last week about a session he did with skateboarder Shaun McBride in Layton, Utah. The gorgeous Utah at sunrise provided a dramatic backdrop for McBride’s moves.
The city of Memphis has learned what many other U.S. communities have discovered for quite some time. Greenways made from abandoned railways are a huge public asset for citizens to enjoy year round. They create a sense of community, better the local quality of life, and have the added and real fiscal payoff of curbing illness and medical costs as the populace gets healthier from more exercise.
Despite the objections of local naysayers who couldn’t learn from longstanding examples such as Seattle’s gorgeous Burke-GilmanTrail, the Greater Memphis Greenline is now a reality, and local walkers, joggers, cyclists and in-line skaters can attest, it’s a major hit.
Not to be left out of the fun, photographers have been actively capturing some of the folks enjoying this public asset. Possibly the most interesting project happening on the Greenline is a photo rig built and run by Joe Sankey of Sankey Photography. In a recent blog post, Joe details a bicycle rig which features, among other things
A bicycle
a tow-behind trailer
a camera (unspecified make and model, presumably a Nikon due to flash units used)
Sankey goes into some detail about how he set up the rig, and the video shows shots captured of fellow cyclists. Both our readers and ourselves love to see interesting ways PocketWizard technology is applied in the field, and this one definitely is not your typical off-camera flash set-up. Nice work!
Julian Bleecker’s book project, The Girls’ Skate Book is indeed what the title suggests: photos of women in the world of skateboarding. Bleecker has published a blog post about his use of PocketWizard technology on this book.
Using a combination of PocketWizard MiniTT1 units, FlexTT5 units and the new AC3 Zone Controller, these images capture young women in air-grabbing action for a book of their own—no skater boys allowed. Bleecker concludes near the end of his post, “High-speed sync? This is the future already.”
Can’t wait to see the book when it’s released, Julian! We’re betting many of our readers will feel the same way when they see these gorgeous images in print.
In 1980, Dave Black began photographing sports by working the Olympics that year. Since then, he’s covered 12 Olympic games and countless world championships, international competitions, and national sports championships in the United States and other countries. He’s also covered professional football, baseball, basketball, motorsports, and others. Tennis, golf, and college sports have also graced his portfolio. He worked for Golf Digest for five years, and has had long relationships with Newsweek, TIME, and Sports Illustrated. With thirty years of experience, there’s not many sports Black hasn’t covered.
Growing up in New Jersey, Cliff Mautner has the kind of professional photographic experience no new shooters get these days. When attending college in Southern New Jersey, he answered an ad in the local weekly newspaper. The ad read, in part, “Award-winning weekly newspaper seeks photographer.” At nineteen years old, he was hired, “just because I had a pulse,” he laughs.
Mark Wallace takes you on an in-depth overview of the PocketWizard AC3 ZoneController for Nikon where you’ll quickly discover the importance of adding it to your equipment list. Don’t miss this great video to get all your AC3 questions answered.
For the past three years, our local ski resort, Stowe, has hosted the East Coast Super Shoot, a photo competition for ski/snowboard photographers, which took place last weekend and is co-sponsored by PocketWizard. Five photographers are selected from portfolio submissions and teamed with a skier and snowboarder and given two days to shoot like mad. At the end, they presented slideshows in the brand new Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center in front of an audience of a couple hundred people and three judges. The overall winner received $1000 cash and a photo shoot assignment by the main sponsor, Orage ski clothing.
You can make your voice heard by checking out the SmugMug PocketWizard Gallery. Take a look at the range of images and let us know your favorites. Here’s just one of many images you can vote for.
