No Wasted Moves

I spent a few minutes flicking back through my photo archives, both locally and on Flickr. Inevitably I was disappointed about how I had far less photos that I had thought.

It’s disappointing, because I try to take a lot of photos. Not of anything special or monumentous. I just want to take pics of what I see when I’m out and about. I try to take my camera with me as much as possible. I even bought an awesome little camera to take around with me so I couldn’t use the “don’t feel like schlepping around the dSLR” excuse. It’s true, I do take my G10 pretty much everywhere. But there’s a new and unexpected problem. Me. I’m going places, I’m taking my camera. I’m not taking photos.

It’s Resistance and it’s kicking my ass and it’s doing it because I’m letting it.

Enough.

Making pictures is something I need to do so it’s time I stop finding excuses and just do it.

Right now.

What better follow up to shooting the Mont 24Hr than to get out the very next weekend and shoot the 24Hr Solo Champs.

These crazy girls and guys slogged it out around Mt. Majura in sunshine during the day and rain during the night.

I’m pretty sure I managed to get a shot of everyone competing which I was pretty happy about. Of course this is much easier to do when it’s the same folks going around the track and not swapping out for team mates like in the Mont.

My next personal challenge is to not only shoot the riders, fun as that is, but also spend a lot more time around Event HQ finding willing subjects in the support crews. Action shots are certainly gratifying, but looking over the results of the last two weekends, there is a void in my coverage. The off track happenings are missing and my album is much poorer for it.

Here’s some highlights, and as always contact me with your rider number if you’d like to see any pics I have of you.

Last weekend I had a fantastic time shooting the Mont 24 hour Mountain Bike event at Sparrow Hill, just out of Canberra.

It was obvious that everyone was having a great time – despite the grueling physical challenge people were putting themselves through.

Highlights in this slideshow below, plus check the details in the set here to see if I have a shot of you or someone you know!

A few years ago I bought a Nissin 30iZ flash.

The manual was next to useless in terms of explaining how it worked as far as adjusting the power output went. My lack of knowledge at the time lead me to pretty much give up on it except for when I wanted lots of light.

Tonight I had another look at it, chucked in some rechargeable batteries (thanks Aldi, $10!) and tested it out. Turns out it’s not as sucky as I first though.

This thing has three slidey switches. The top two, DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. They are purely cosmetic, adjusting only the ‘display’ on the back.

The bottom switch is the good one. It has four positions, marked O, M, [green] A, [red] A. Useful huh? No, not really. But here’s the thing. This switch is the power adjuster. Here’s what it should be labeled:
Far left, O: OFF
2nd from left, M: Full power – 1/1
2nd from right, [green] A: Half power – 1/2
Far right, [red] A: Quarter power – 1/4

A quick relabeling with the Sharpie, and I’m in business. I have my 2nd battery powered, adjustable power strobe all ready to go.

Awesome!