I was pointed in the direction of the Strobist Blog, which you can also link to from the blog links over there–>>>
The author is David Hobby, a photographer for The Baltimore Sun Newspaper in the U.S. so the majority of the information is in reference to actual photo-shoots he has done for his day-job, and also some other “assignments” he has been commissioned to do.

Here is a small extract from the site to explain what it’s about,

This website is about one thing: Learning how to use off-camera flash with your dSLR to take your photos to the next level. Or the next ten levels.

Here, you’ll find everything you need to know about how to more effectively use your small speedlights. There are more than 1,000 articles about lighting. Over two million photographers from around the world have learned small-flash lighting techniques from this site. We’re thinking you can, too.

Given the need for the flash to be moved around, away from the camera, I have had to purchase some Wireless Flash Triggers. There is a vast amount of these on the market, ranging from $30, Chinese-made versions, right up to the top-of-the-line, $300 Pocket Wizards.
To begin with I have simply invested in some of the relatively cheaper units, and am currently awaiting their arrival. From reading a number of reviews, the quality and functionality of the cheap units has become much better over the last year or so, and for a lot of users, are quite adequate. The professional photographers will still use the expensive Pocket Wizards for their bullet-proof reliability and extra functionality.

Have a read of the blog, begin with the “Lighting 101″ tutorials for an insight into how photographers achieve the results you see every day in newspapers, magazine, advertisements, etc.

Also I’ll add some of my own work once I take delivery of the units and get some shots under my belt.

It’s a professional quality lens in the Canon line-up as designated by the “L” in it’s description and on the lens itself by the distinctive red band around the lens itself.

This type of lens is well suited for a lot of sports photography due to it’s ability to zoom up quite close to the action. However, sports that are played on a large ground (such as AFL Football) an even longer lens is frequently used. I also plan on using it for my surfing photography.

It is also regarded as a great portrait lens too. Either for tight, head and shoulder type portraits or any length portraits outdoors or where you have the space to work a little further away from your subject.

Here’s a few shots from the weekend when I attended a close friends “puppy-warming” party. (don’t work with children or animals….)

The most important addition being a new Canon EOS 40D dSLR body.  This is the bigger brother to my previous body, the 400D.  While i won’t bore you with technical specifications, they can all be found HERE, including a detailed revie, there are a number of differences which make is simply easier to use and can help produce better images.

Here’s a short list of relavent differences.

The 40D has a newer generation image processor which is capable of capturing more image detail, colour and range of tones compared to the 400D.  It can also do it all at a faster speed.

It is a physically larger and heavier unit than the 400D, which aids in stability when using long lenses and flashes, as well as being more comfortable to hold on to and operate.

It has more “steps” is some of it’s main settings, which allows you to make finer adjustments to the image controls, for cleaner and crisper images.

It’s image capturing sensor has some minor differences which allow it to produce sharper images with less “digital noise”.

And finally, it has more controls available via the dedicated buttons on both the top and rear panels. While this may seem a little daunting to someone not used to using a digital SLR, it makes adjusting the settings a much more intuitive and speedy process. Rather than having to dig through menus to find the control you need, it’s right there at your finger-tips. This time saving can be the difference between capturing that special or exciting moment, that you would have otherwise missed while searching through the maze of menu’s available on modern digital cameras.

Hopefully over the coming year I will be doing more and more work on progressing my skills and techniques and actually beginning to do some “real” photography work, outside of taking photo’s for my own enjoyment.

My other major purchase, I have just collected today. It’s a “Standard” Zoom Lens, the Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 it’s main purpose it to be a very versatile lens, that can be used for a variety of different types of photography.

It it wide enough to be used as a lens for taking landscapes, it’s mid-range is suited to taking group portraits at indoor or outdoor functions or parties, and with the zoom fully extended to 50mm, it’s a great lens for classic 3/4 length portraiture.  The actual optics of this lens are of very high quality, and it has the ability to be able to be used in a host of low-light situations (indoors with no flash, for example).

I’m yet to take any real test-shots, but i’ll add some to another post once i’ve had a chance to get out and shoot with it.

Hopefully it meets my expectations.

Preview at www.Dpreview.com CLICK HERE

Luckily I got in before the coming price rise and also managed to bargan a substantial discount from the salesman at the time too.

The “External” type flashes (as opposed to those that are built into the camera body) are far superior units, as they have a number of great features such as.
-The flash is physically further away from the lens, which eliminates the “Red-Eye” problems as seen with compact cameras and even the built-in flash on SLR’s
-The Speedlite has much greater lighting output power to cover a much larger area and distance, as well as giving you the ability to “bounce” the flash off a ceiling, wall or other reflector for a much more diffused and natural light.
-The speedlite is also able to be swiveled and tilted away from the subject to give much more “dynamic” looking images, as opposed to the flat and washed out images that are ususlly assosciated with flash photography.

Anyway, for further techincal info and techniques, I found this link the other day, which i found very interesting and helpful in understanding the basics of flash photography.

Flash Photography

She will heave her first serious outing this weekend, when i’m shooting a wedding for some friends of mine so i will be very intertested in the results that i achieve.
Watch this space for some sample shots from the wedding.

All in all I’m very happy with how the images turned out. Very minor post processing was carried out (using Picasa. grrrr!…) and the images here were jpegs to begin with (some dopey person forgot to switch back to RAW after taking happy snaps!..).

The only thing i can pick is some slight colouration in the shadows of the second image, but the sun was directly behind the top of the building.
I have been warned by other users of the 10-20mm lens that this can be expected when pushintg the lens into the sun such as I have done (on purpose to see the extend of the “flare”/ colouration??). None of the same colouration was seen in any of the other images that I shot.

So for the intended purpose of this lens, it’s overall cost and my skill level, i’m happy with my purchase and look forward to using it much more in the future.
It’s sturdily built and feels nice and rugged in the hand, AF operation is fast and silent and the manual AF override works well.
Highly reccommended for those who’d love the Canon EF-S 10-22mm, but can’t justify $1K+.

So I set about hunting out a great deal on a good quality lens. I read countless reviews and lens lens tests on all the major players, such as
Canon’s EF-s10-22mm USM
Sigma’s 10-20mm EX-DC HSM
Tamron’s 10-24mm F/3.5-4.5 Di-II
Tokina’s 12-24mm AT-X PRO DX
and also a number of different Canon EF Prime lenses.

I even went as far as taking my own body into a couple of stores to see how each lens felt on the camera and in my hands.
At the ned of the day I decided on the Sigma 10-20mm for it’s all round quality and build along with it’s intended purpose, a landscape lens.
I could have paid a lot more for a “faster” F2.8 Tokina but for the intended use, that speed is not really needed.
It was basically left to the Canon EF-S and the Sigma, but for the difference in price I could not justify the small difference in performance between the two, so naturally the cost saving gene took over and decided for me.

Now I just have to wait for it to be delivered….

“EF Lens Work III, The Eyes of EOS”

it’s a publication by Canon, which details the entire EF lens range as well as a world of information including -Choices of lenses for different types of photography

-Full Technical specifications on the EF and EF-S lenses

-Theory of light including, reflection, refraction, optics and lens theory

-Construction and technical operation of the IS (Image Stabalisation) and AF (AutoFocus) systems.

There is also a downloadable version (in parts) available for those unaware of books!!

It can be found HERE

From what i’ve read so far, it’s a brilliant learning resource combined with an array of Canons marketing material. It is even very beneficial for the non-Canon users out there who would like a little more depth into the how and why’s of lens operation and science.

We used it on a trip to Bathurst in 1997 and it took some amazing quality shots, for a man and his son,  not knowing anything about photography, and also being unsure of the physical condition of the camera itself.

Since taking up photography as a more serious hobby recently, I have begun a process of teaching mself the finer points of using this piece of photographic history, and also shooting with film. somthing i probably haven’t done for 10 years.

The camera itself is an Exakta Varex VX (unsure of what series) built in East Germany, post WWII.

It also has a range of Carl Zeiss Lenses

-35mm F4.5

-50mm F2.8

-135mm F4

as well as Macro extension tubes, light meter, and different (interchangable) prism eyepiece.

Over the next few months, I hope to get my hands on some decent quality film and see what I can do with it.

But for now I’m just running off a few random shots on cheap film to get a feel for the settings and the machine itself.

I’ll keep you posted with the results when I have some that are worth sharing.