Silent Watch

I'm only posting this because this is my first attempt with off-camera flash(using a modded Canon off-camera flash with a piece of Cat5 cable connecting the two seperate ends of the Canon-brand cord). This has let me seperate the flash up to fifty feet without springing for the wireless radio triggers I crave. My first ever mod and my good ole tomcat Tom decided to hang out in the landscaping shubbery just long enough to let me set up my flash, umbrella, and light stand.

Tom appeared at our door about 6 Christmas Eves ago in the midst of a killer ice/sleet storm and he looked rough. He made himself a home and has never looked back. Tried to find his owners several times but gave up. He gets along with our three other dogs even to the point of letting himself be licked by some pretty big dogs.

Tom the cat. One of my clients had a cat named Tom. It passed a while back and they got another cat and named it Tom 2, but they call it T-2 for short. By far the laziest cat I have ever seen.

Bob, it looks like you use of the flash worked well. Very nice closeup with good detail.

Tom looks quite content in your landscaping - guess he'd have to be to hang around while you set everything up. Nice job with the flash - looks pretty natural to me.

This quiet little shot took about 20 minutes to set up and about 7-8 shots until I got it right. Just finding the cat in a receptive mood made the deal. and what I learned is that at least for me when you read about people who set up a shot in a certain way and this is how they did it and looks so great...when I try to duplicate that shot it never quite looks the same for me. I have been pouring over the Strobist site(where I got the idea to mod the off-camera cord)recently. Good place if you have an interest in that kind of thing.

Bob a nice shot of Tom and the lighting looks very natural. I have been to that sight before they have some good stuff on it to learn. Glad your new technique was a sucess.

Great first attempt. It looks like a nicely overcast day so your technique is pretty much perfect already.

I like your title here. Sounds like you're having fun playing around with flash Bob. I've done a small amount of off camera fill flash when shooting in the vineyard. I haven't had to go to the lengths you did here but I can see where there is a time and place for this type of set up.

Have fun and make sure to share your triumphs!

I did set up an umbrella for several of the shots but in reality what worked was the flash on a short stand on the ground about 4 feet to the left of me and and a bit behind and manually dialed down to about 1/2 power.