My New Wedding Photography Setup

I have always wanted to use a mixture of both on and off camera lighting when shooting wedding receptions. However, I never wanted to "experiment" while I was on the clock so I just kept it on the back-burner of something to research...

Then it hit me, I wasn't using my Pocket Wizards to their fullest potential. See, being a Nikon shooter, I have the bonus of all my Nikon-brand speedlights containing a PC sync jack. (Canon users only have it really on the 580EX II and most likely newer speedlights). Before, I was using one Pocket Wizard on camera triggering 1-2 Pocket Wizard equipped studio strobes or speedlights. These strobes / speedlights were mounted to a light stand and helped light up the reception hall. When I snapped a photo, the Pocket Wizard on my camera would wirelessly (via radio waves) trigger the other Pocket Wizards and tell the lights to fire.

The problem with my setup was that every once in a while I would get some bad shadows cast from people dancing and blocking the light from hitting my subject... It was annoying and required me to have a few "choice" places to stand and whatnot.

Then I read the Pocket Wizard manual and noticed that I could easily mount a speedlight on-camera, hook up a Pocket Wizard to that once and be able to fire both my on-camera light AND off-camera lights. I knew it could be done, I just never investigated it enough (Having two kids and crazy work schedule will do that to you).

Products Used:
- 3x Pocket Wizard Plus II Transmitter/Receivers (One for on-camera speedlight, two for off-camera lights)
- 3x PocketWizard PC-1 Miniphone to PC Cables: These connect your Nikon speedlights to the Pocket Wizards
- 2x Impact Sync Cord Male Phono to Male PC (16"): These connect my studio strobes to the Pocket Wizards. Your strobe's input jack may be different.
- Light Stand: Creative¤Light 8' Compact Light Stand
- Light Modifiers: Photoflex Convertible Umbrella-60" / Bare Bulb
- Camera: Nikon D700 SLR Digital Camera
- Lenses: Doesn't matter
- Speedlights: Nikon SB-900 AF Speedlight i-TTL Shoe Mount Flash
- Speedlight Accessory for D700 & Nikon SB-900Nikon WG-AS3 Water Guard for D700 Camera's Hot Shoe when used with SB-900 Flash (keeps your flash sturdy when mounted)



RTFM,
Mike

PhotographyBlogSites.com Review

Well I finally have a brand new website for my wedding and portrait photography business. I have been toying around with getting a "blog-site" (AKA looks like a website but is actually based around a Blogging platform - WordPress most commonly) and finally pulled the trigger on it. I have always had a love-hate relationship with my old Bludomain site (mostly hate). Apple iPads and iPhones don't like Adobe Flash so no one could see my site on a mobile device. Maybe it's just me but I use my iPhone and iPad a ton! Also, all you have is one splash page to try and optimize for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and it just ends up looking like keywords threw up all over it... Not too classy. Lastly, and most importantly, it seems like everyone and their mother has a Bludomain site for their photography business. The result is a whole lot of people with websites that look alike. Not cool. Now I have a programming degree by trade so I was contemplating making a WordPress blog-site theme myself but I never got around to it. I am busy as it is these days so needless to say it never got done. It was then that I found PhotographyBlogSites.com and I was in heaven. Awesomely unique templates and it gave me everything I ever wanted. So I ended up going with them and I couldn't be happier. My content is ridiculously easy to update so there will be no excuse for having old pics from years ago and I the best part is that it is all viewable on mobile devices! Within days I was higher on the Google rankings, getting more inquiries and on my way to getting the right kind of people to view my site.

So if you were like me and are looking to dump your current website, do yourself a favor and check out PhotographyBlogSites.com. Here is a link to my brand new wedding and portrait website: www.Buffalo-Wedding-Photographer.com. So take a minute and check it out. I'd love to hear your feedback! Thanks for stopping by!

~ Mike