Ghetto repeater: Using my Cybersync trigger to fire poverty wizards... two separate brand radio receivers fired from one trigger all in sync

I started off using "poverty wizards" when I followed Strobist.com and played with off-camera flash as cables got in the way. I had problems like everyone else and started doing the mods ie. adding an antenna to get more distance and adapting a AA battery pack to the receiver. Then I found myself with 4 flash units and dying radio/trigger units. I knew I'd eventually have to step up to something more reliable but Pocket Wizards with 4 receivers, ouch! Then the dreaded day came when doing a fashion shoot for a magazine and my poverty wizards failed and I was running three lights. With two MUAs, two models, two stylist, the magazine editor all on-site I started to sweat. I had to think quick and used a pc cable to fire my main speedlight and put the other on slave and add a optical eye on the last light as it didn't have built in slave function. We were indoors so it worked out. But the next day I ordered what my limited funds allowed as I just bought a 35mm 1.8 for my Nikon and upgraded my Pentax body to a K-7 so I did some research and got a Cybersync trigger and 2 receivers.
Now back to the story... so I am shooting tomorrow and have one of my lights getting a firmware update. I would like 3 lights but will be shooting into the sun and optical slaves won't work in bright light. So how can I make this work? I have several poverty wizards sitting around so I thought how can I use my reliable Cybersyncs and maybe use a poverty wizard as a psuedo-repeater and make it more reliable ie two lights closer to each other away from the main/key and camera trigger.


Here is my Seagull adapter, MOD, and in this case using a PC connection to the 1/8 into the Cybersync receiver as I will need the 1/8 on the Seagull for the other half of this mod.
You could use the cable that came with the poverty wizard "micro to PC" but I had cut one already and spliced in a 1/8 for another project. Yes, I do tons of projects :)
The final mod: the Cybersync trigger on the camera hot shoe will trigger the same brand receiver, Cybersync, which is connected via PC cord to the flash (via Seagull adapter) which will be light #2 for the upcoming shoot. The PC and 1/8 share an electrical connection inside the adapter so it causes the 1/8 cord to micro, connected to the poverty wizard, to fire. The poverty wizard receiver will fire light #3 which ie acting like a pseudo repeater as it will prolly be out of range if just used on camera or from the main/key light.

AC/DC: powering my hotshoe from the wall

Okay, so now that I am switching gears and shooting more indoors and don't have monolights yet I wanted to devise a way to power my hotshoe flashes via AC (the wall outlet). With no adapter plug on any of my units my first thought was to add a plug. But I don't want to drill into my 2 new flashes that are still under warranty. So how do I hook up AC power to this DC powered unit?
Note: I am not responsible for any damage that may occur to your equipment. This is a demonstration of my hack/mod of how I did this using my equipment. Do not perform this on your own unless you are trained in electricity and electronics and willing to take a chance of ruining your equipment. I AM NOT HELD LIABLE.

STEP 1: POWER. In my trial, I am using a generic "battery eliminator" power adapter that you can pretty much pick up anywhere. It has adjustable voltage and in this case milliampere. Some also have a polarity switch.

Completed unit

STEP 2: How to connect it and basic electrical design.

So this is the inside of the battery compartment. Basically there are four AA batteries lined up giving us power. They can be in a straight line but it wouldn't work for the design of the unit so they are arranged in such a way to fit into the container and connected via little metal tabs pos to neg, pos to neg, etc, etc.


So our first job is to find out where the positive and negative terminals are inside the flash and viola, they are the ones that are the beginning and the end of the trail ie not connecting to anything else. See second photo


And by looking at the sticker for battery orientation, we can deduce the positive and the negative terminals.
So now that we know where we need to connect the (+) positive side of our power supply and (-) negative.. how do we hook this up?

STEP 3: DUMMIES As I said as I am not drilling any holes (yet) I opted to make dummy batteries to make an electrical connection. Since we only need to apply power to 2 terminals (tabs) (all the other stuff is just used to connect the batteries together) I just need to make something that will connect our two wires from the PS and fills the space like batteries would and still be removable so I can still use batteries when on-location. So I took a AA battery to the good ole hardware store and found that a 1/2" dowel is pretty darn close.

I cut up four pieces the same length as a AA battery and grouped them together to fit into the battery compartment and since wood does not conduct electricity well I took the wire from the power supply, trimmed back the insulation and wrapped it around these screws that will function like the "nipple" on the battery for the electrical connection...


and yes I know the negative post does not have a nipple but I need to make the connection so am using it in my case. Now to make sure that the orientation of the wires and screws will connect to the proper place in the battery compartment as seen in the second photo.
Now I have a way to connect my DC powered hotshoe flash to an AC wall outlet and shoot as much as I want without worrying about batteries :)

My First Cover

So the nice people over at the Isthmus chose my pic over gazillions to be on the cover of the 2010-2011 Annual Manual of Madison, WI.

Photoadventure 1 and 2

So much to shoot in summer and haven't been updating my post. Larry Chua (iloominimages.com) and I have teamed up to go on "photoadventures" outside of Madison. The first trip was to Parfrey's Glen. It started off just being a landscape shooting trip but decided it might be fun to get some models involved. We have so much fun we decided to continue the series.

Our second trip was to Devil's Lake to shoot at the unique geological features (Devil's Doorway) and incorporate the unique vistas from atop the 500 foot bluff.

The dress... and trashing it!

Just about every photog's dream. Beautiful special dress... let's do some crazy stuff with it! I met Amy at a promotional event for the spring edition of Fashion Fridays - Madison's biggest fashion event, which I have shot for 3 shows now. Anyways, we were talking and she mentioned she had done a trash the dress shoot and my eyes got big. She said the dress was still fine so we could use it to shoot another. Yay! But she lives 2 or so hours away. We'll have to plan for the next time she's in town after the fashion show. Our first attempt ended quickly as a massive storm was moving in. Just fired a couple and then watched the city start to flood. We debated but with her long car ride home didn't feel it was worth it as she said she'd be coming back down soon. The idea bombs started exploding but what would I actually be able to pull off without ruining the dress and not being able to shoot anymore knowing we'd end up at my favorite spot in the lake. Since it's such a special event, I decided to use the video function on my K-7 and whip up this little BTS video for ya. Enjoy!

The eye mind of a photographer

I was asked to make a piece or two for the Olbrich Gardens Art Invitational for early 2011. Quite an honor as it seems they don't ask many photogs. I was excited then it hit me. My work will be next to some of best artists in the area. Then the next blow. This place is one of the most photographed places in the city if not county (not talking about dad's point and shoot pics at graduation on campus). So I have to create, or "capture" since photographer's aren't "artists," something unique that people haven't seen before that will still represent the essence of being there. I have the rest of the year to figure it out so let's start shooting. First choice, this unique Thai Sala and garden. Boasted as the only one of its kind in N. America. Well, that's unique! There is another in Hawaii, which I have seen, and one in Germany which I have not. People come from all over the world to see it... and photograph it.
Step one: Perspective. There are reflecting ponds on both sides. So those kind of shots have been done. Nothing too original but they have been done with standard lenses and you really can't beat that aesthetic. So I slap my fisheye and bam, something new. The perspective is interesting and especially in vertical mode as the pool's corner is 90 degrees. The fisheye gives it a weird acute angle and some nice framing to lead the eye which you won't get with a standard lens.
Step two: Details. The Sala has a gorgeous ornate ceiling but is lost in shadow. Photographers need to be ready to add light since their job is to "capture light." When you can make, add, subtract, modify and shape your own light, you are really onto something. Otherwise, you have what everybody else has. So I decide to pop a light from the bottom of the center of the Sala up toward the ceiling. Of course I have to do this wirelessly because of the distance and it being out of site/line. I run back and forth a few times to get the right setting on my flash and kablam, I drop it. Don't know how many more tumbles this thing is going to take. Widest setting @ 28mm and full power will do. Now to get this shot before my batteries drain. Look at that gorgeous red and gold contrast. Oh, the Sala is gold plated so now it's glowing from inside and out making it even more magical.
Step three: No blown out skies. First shot exposed for bright spots in clouds fails. No reflection in the water, foreground goes dark. Now what? Could use a graduated ND filter but not on my fisheye. Would have to put it on my 18-55 losing the unique effect from my fisheye. I put a light on a stand and pop the front. I get the pool edges back but still not a good enough reflection but I like the detail I am getting in the cement so I leave it. OK, so I'm going to have to shoot multiple exposures and do an HDR or blending.. which is a slight problem as there is a slight breeze with moving clouds as a storm is coming in and some rippling in the water which may cause problems for my main attraction - the reflection. Luckily my Pentax K-7 has a burst rate of 5.2 FPS which is way better than what I am used to on my K200D which has 3 FPS. I begin to spot meter the bright spots in the clouds and the dark spots. Whoa! A typical 3 exposure deal won't cut it. I meter around and make sure I get one for the reflection as well as darks and brights. 20 minutes or so later since I got there, I push the camera and blast the 6 shots. Phew! That was a lot of work and the mosquitos are fat and happy. I'm just fat and sweaty :) and it's starting to rain so I'll also be wet in a few
Step 4: post/editing: I do my HDR merge and adjust for my liking. Not happy with the sky so I bring up blue saturation in Photoshop. And there you have it. Not sure if it'll make the final cut but it's a contender.

Point and Shoot like a pro

A photographer shares his pictures at a dinner party. The hostess says, "My, you must have a really expensive camera to get such great pictures." He smiles and replies, "you must have really expensive pots and pans to have made such a great dinner."
This is a continuation of my wireless point and shoot trigger and how to achieve dramatic photos using a cheap little camera. I get asked what kind of camera I use quite often and I'm here to show you that it's not so much the camera. Unedited photo taken with my little ole Canon A570 IS
Part I: Water & Sunset
Part II: Land
Part III: Set up and equipment video

Shadows and Surf and using one hard light

I've been doing a lot and I mean a lot of water shoots. It's risky taking your gear into the water. I've had two hot shoe adapters snap now, used to connect my Cybersyncs, and luckily both times I wasn't in the water so the flash unit has fallen on land and has not broken. Yes, it rattles a bit now but still works A-ok. Nice to trust $300 of equipment on a $5 attachment. Always have to consider the weakest link. I've made some mods and have tethered my flash to the stand and rigged a more stable connection between flash and umbrella holder. I use one light, hard, because I can't risk having anything that becomes a sail with the wind and have it die in the lake. I've recently thought about getting a water proof bag but worry about the heat from the flash and shooting in 80+ degree weather and high humidity. Hopefully soon I'll do some underwater shoots after I get my waterproof DSLR bag. So the natural light portion of the post. I've started a shadow project inspired by ANTM. Hold a drape, patterned fabric and let the sun cast shadows onto my subject. I made a behind the scenes video for one of my shoots. The second half of it is one of my water shoots. It doesn't show when we venture further out into the water but you get the gist as far as variable shooting conditions and shooting without an assistant. Enjoy!

Hot rods and muscles cars and trucks! Oh, my!

Headed up to the Automotion car show in the Wisconsin Dells. It's really too bad I can't put a polarizer on my fisheye to help out with the reflections. Tried some motion pan shots also but wished I had a monopod to steady it a bit. I didn't want to lug my tripod around my shoulder and have to deal with it when I crouch down or lie down for shots all afternoon around the expensive paint jobs. Enjoy! Full slideshow.

Wireless point and shoot trigger?

The most important thing to not getting those flat deer in headlights type of pics with your point and shoot (PS) is to use off-camera lighting. I will not go into all the details as this is not a lighting class, you can find those online anywhere just do a search. I am going to talk about the setup I will be using and explain other setups in other posts. They will all do the same thing, allow your PS to communicate with an off-camera (OCF) or external flash. The setup I will be using is just the most convenient, efficient and failsafe. Since there is no hotshoe on the PS here is my Mod.

A: My modification uses an optical slave and a wireless (radio) trigger. By attaching the two together, it allows my on-camera flash to trigger the optical slave which in turn triggers the radio unit that triggers my off-camera flash (OCF) to go off. The OCF is placed somewhere, usually 45 degrees from the subject, to produce some dimensionality and not flat lighting as seen in the test shot below.

B: By placing the optical trigger as close as possible to the oncamera flash, I increase the reliability of the light trigger signal, which will help out immensely in outdoor day shots.

Normally, the optical slave is attached or built in to the external flash and can just be triggered by the onboard camera flash. So why not just use that? I will explain that in my most basic of setups and it can work in most common situations. However, as I stated earlier, this setup is the most failsafe and also will allow for some shooting that you can't do with the easy set up. This also allows me to dial down the onboard flash to it's lowest setting which will save on batteries and not affect the main picture by adding extra direct light.

Test shot: The image below was shot using the above setup. Tripod mounted Canon A570IS PS, self-portrait, on 10 second timer. Flash on lightstand camera right.

Hey, what kind of camera do you use?

That is the most common question I get. My favorite story involves a photographer sharing some of his pictures at a dinner party. The host says, "you must have such a great camera to get such wonderful pictures." He thanks her, smiles and replies, "you must have such great pots and pans to have made such a lovely dinner." So I'm starting a "look what you can do with a point and shoot" and a mediocre one at that series. The following posts will explain how to achieve pictures like this with a simple point and shoot. The picture above was a test shot self-portrait using a ten second timer. Later I will be using a model to show various lighting techniques to use with your point and shoot camera to get better pictures.

Toy Students ala tilt-shift

With all the buzz that my Miniature Madison Faux Tilt-Shift collection has gotten, naturally the next step is to try it with video as my K-7 has video functionality. Granted it's winter time and things may not be as conducive to the effect (I like the way trees look when miniaturized) and the set up for shooting wasn't what I wanted. I shot this from the upper deck of the Van Hise building on the UW-Madison Campus. When I got there, I had found that the unremoved snow had drifted waist high along the balcony wall I wanted to shoot from. And given the recent below zero temperatures we had, I was no way going to be able to shoot where I wanted. I found a spot by a planter that was knee to thigh-high and set up my tripod there. So here's my first attempt at a tilt-shift video shot during class break.

The Magnificent Trees Of Madison is a GO!

My personal passion project and perhaps the whole reason I got back into photography after a 10 year break from film, was to photograph the amazing landscapes and trees I have discovered after moving to Madison ten years ago. I was working as an arborist for UW-Madison and a conservation ranger for the city prior to that. I've discovered so many amazing settings that hardly anyone knew about. Summer of 2008, I bought a Pentax K200D DSLR. Why? I could use my old glass and it was weather sealed. My photographic journey began. My first collection, Madiscapes, was part of PhotoMidwest and showcased many of my favorite natural areas of Madison. Next, was my tree project. How can I capture the majestic nature of these amazing natural works of art. I shot and shot and well, was never pleased with my results. The green foliage blends into backgrounds so how do I separate my subject. How can you create depth of field shooting something that can be as tall as 100 feet? So I thought about different aspects as I honed my photography skills. What makes this tree interesting besides its massive girth or immense stature? I focused on flowering or branching patterns. Still not happy. As I started learning on the strobist site and working with off-camera flash, I thought why not use these techniques for trees. My first attempt was a large swamp white oak on the UW campus. A beautiful specimen. But attempt after attempt, my pictures failed to do it justice. Due to its location, nothing I did could serve it well. What can I do? Go at night and use lights to separate my subject from the building in the background. But I was just going to focus on the branching pattern so I needed to shoot this tree in its dormant state sans leaves.

After setting up one light camera right on the famous lower "U" limb of this tree, I decided I needed another light, camera left behind the limb to get the trunk and maybe some separation. As I've said before, setting up lights while get you noticed. Dozens of people asked what I was doing :) The first problem. Being night time, the building behind it had its lights on and was quite the distraction. By this time, I had purchased a Nikon D40 as a backup camera. Because of its unique electronic shutter, I had to use it and not my Pentax. My Pentax has a lousy 1/160 sync speed but the D40 has a 1/400 when using poverty wizards, which is all I had at the time. I dialed it up to 1/400 to kill the ambient, the opposite effect of my last post where I wanted to keep the background ambient, and was able to blackout most of the distracting lights behind it. The rest was eliminated in post. Not bad, for first time strobing, I'd say :)
The first picture on this post is of a magnolia tree taken springtime at UW-Madison arboretum's Longnecker garden. It's a magical place when the cherry trees, lilacs, and magnolias are blooming. Along with the fragrances, you feel like you are in a fairy tale. If you haven't gone, go this year. By now, I had bought a fisheye zoom for my Pentax. My focus now was on the flowers. I started shooting and of course, washed out skies. So I busted out a light on a stand and put it behind me as I was working in macro mode with my fisheye and max out the shutter speed to get some sky in the background. I had fun experimenting that day as well as many of the other photographers shooting out there which was as far as the eye could see :) Some came up to me and asked about my lighting setup and how they'd never thought to do something like that. I think it created quite the image :)
Today, I got word that my tree project was accepted for 2010 City of Madison ARTspace exhibit. I want this to be more than just a photo exhibit and am going to include stories about each tree whether historic or optimal time to view, location and create a little guide pamphlet so people can see these majestic wonders on their own and maybe even give them a hug as I have.

Shooting we we can and where we can't... Guerilla-style!

Where we can't: I've been dying to shoot at this one particular location. It is usually really crowded so had to do it during a down time. Anyone who has seen the One Light dvd knows that someone (security) is always there to ruin/end your shoot. And of course it happened to me. I was asked to leave. But I managed to get a bunch of shooting before that. I wanted to shoot a short instruction vid for my blog but when I got to the location, it was set up for an event. I had to shoot and I had to shoot fast. Not having a voice-activated lightstand, setting up lights will catch more attention. I needed to have a separation from subject and background as it would wash out the warm ambient background I wanted.
Some shots could work knowing the inverse square law and having distance for fallout but that's not always possible.


Shoot through umbrella, camera left. Not what I wanted.


Gridded snoot, camera right. What I wanted :) But you have to watch the harsh shadow it will leave cast on the wall. So you have to plan for cropping it out or shooting it out of frame.

We went and shot at some other places in the building for variety. Couldn't have lightstands so I used my Cybersync Mod to get some off-camera lighting. Shooting with the right hand and lighting with your left doesn't allow you to have the softest lighting but with my foamie diffuser, allows for some great Guerilla-style shooting.

Where we can:


I had back to back shoots planned at the location above. Since I was asked to leave had to go somewhere that would work with a vintage wedding dress. Being a Sunday afternoon around 3, we dashed off to the Capitol building as they allow shooting. Closing at 4, we had little time to get ready/dressed. And even less time to shoot, under 20 minutes. I was working with a wardrobe/stylist so she had to step in as a voice-activated lightstand. I used a portable 15x15" softbox as I wanted to minimize spill and have controlled lighting as opposed to an umbrella. Is it the ideal choice, no. But most of my shooting is done without assistants and on location so I need portability and ease of use. I can put this on a lightstand, hold it myself, or in this case, have someone else hold it.

Pentax K-7 Video

Got my new Pentax K-7 yesterday. I got the camera since I shoot in manual and need the controls on the exterior. Didn't think much about the video functionality until a friend of mine recently asked me about it and I honestly don't know much about it. He told me it was a huge trend that more filmmakers, assuming amateurs, are making the switch to DSLRs that shoot HD video. After some quick research, I found they are supposed to be great in low light and you can shoot through all sort of great lenses. So I have a fisheye that would be fun to shoot with but what else? It's way to cold out to be screwing around so for my first vid shoot I wanted something I could do around the house. Anyone who knows me knows that sunsets are my thing. Now how to translate that to video and use a unique lens. Lightbulb! Shoot some ice on my window with my macro lens with a sunset in the back. As I experimented for the first time with the camera, I noticed some changes and went in a different direction. As I waited, the ice started to melt from opening the inside window. I then focused on the melting ice and saw this cool close up version of what happens when ice melts. As water droplets formed and separated, the top part of it would refract the sunset light behind it and turn a golden color. It was way cool. So I added some music to accompany it and now there is a story. This is a raw video file, not cgi, of ice melting using my 70-300 macro lens. Time hasn't been changed, colors haven't been added. It has only been rotated since shot in portrait mode. Volume is low so may have to turn it up.


As the winter ice melts the journey to spring commences. Each change of state from ice to water is brought upon from the warming sun. Its energy is captured and transferred. With every melting drop formed, we are one day closer. Sunset after sunset go by, drop after drop until the ice is no more. Like sand falling from an hour glass until it's final destination. The end of winter.

Club Photography

I gave club photography a try at Leather & Lace at the Inferno which always has interesting and great attire. I wanted to try out my new Cybersync Mod made for the style I was going after. I wanted the cool background ambient of club lights, lasers, etc. I felt if you use on-camera flash, the light is projected out like a headlight and either washes out or kills off too much of the ambient. So I used an off-camera handheld hot-shoe flash with my mod mentioned in a previous post at 1/16th power. For a diffuser, I used the built-in bounce card as I didn't need to totally light my subjects. I decided the light high, camera left as I was shooting with my right, and aim it down like a spotlight allowing the background to show but it depended on what I was shooting. After some experimenting, from what I could see on my LCD, I liked the results best at 1/5 sec, 800 iso, with rear curtain sync. More pics.

New Years Fashion Extravaganza @High Noon Saloon

This was my 4th fashion runway shoot. All were under different conditions. Dark nightclub, expo hall, outdoors, etc. Shooting runway offers many challenges. Poor lighting, crowds (people wanting to take pics from where you are shooting), varying skin tones, weird angle of shooting and a very fast pace. Sometimes, more exhausting than wedding photography. You have one chance and only one chance to get each end of runway pose. There is no redo.
This particular show was an extremely low-level (ambient) lighting. Most fashion photographers I've talked don't like to use strobes for runway and I've wondered why. I mean you are there to capture the designers collections. Poor ambient lighting will not show off colors, details. I applied what I've learned from David Hobby's amazing Strobist site to my style for runway shooting. Each show needs a different style of lighting depending the venue, space, etc. This show was happening in between two bands to add to any set up problems.
I always show up early that day during runway coaching and get some BTS shots and scout out the place to see what I can do for lighting. This event was going to be a challenge. The elevated stage was 3 1/2 to 4 feet. That puts me at shin/knee height with the models who can be 7 feet tall in heels. I was skeptical about a ladder due to a crowd that is drinking. I decided to go with a milk crate or small step ladder to get some elevation. Now for the lighting challenge. The shooting angle was lower than I wanted so I definitely didn't want my light to shine upward giving the spooky campfire flashlight feel. I decided to try out my new Cybersync hand-held mod from the previous post. Shoot with my right and hold my flash off-camera statue of liberty style with the left to get some height. And to get some sort of diffused/softer light, I went with a DIY foamie thing like this. After some test shots the night of the event, I noticed a blending of subject to background due to the black curtains behind where the bands played. I decided to stick a second flash with a colored gel to provide some contrast. Wasn't the best placement but I literally had a minute or two to set it up after the drum set from the first band came down and the next set was put up for the band that was playing after the fashion show. Designs by Hoi Polloi, Silversark and Gypsy Couture. More pics.