Dave Benham

I’m not sure if Santa reads my blog, but on the off chance that you do Mr Claus I’ve been a very good boy this year (so far). And if you want to get my present organised early this year I’ve got a suggestion…

Despite now having a fantastic camera that shoots brilliantly in available light you can’t help but be enthralled by the creative possibilities of off-camera flash. I’ve made no secret of my desire to focus (ahem) on portraits. I have limited available space indoors, and wonderful forest outside – I think you can guess what I’m thinking.

For the uninitiated, PocketWizard have been producing radio transmitters to trigger flashes for some time. Nikon’s equivalent works on line of sight, and the PocketWizard range is far greater. This new range of units adds TTL capabilities to the mix.

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Isn’t it daft how the computer industry can standardise itself with the USB connector, but all our mobile phones use different power adaptors – sometimes even within the same brand (you reading Nokia?). Well it looks like being a problem no longer!

According to an article on the Guardian website yesterday a new universal charger has been agreed amongst the major phone companies. I notice that Apple is missing from the list at this point though, I wonder if we’ll see interfaces arrive to get round this?

I finally got round to clearing out a couple of my camera rucksacks on to Ebay (apparently having three rucksacks is excessive). They’re both nice bags mind, but my Kata bag has taken the place of both of them.

If anyone’s interested check out the auctions (99p start with no reserve!) for the Lowepro Mini Trekker AW and Tamrac Adventure 6.

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Thanks to @JasonDPG on Twitter for this spot – an underwater housing for the Nikon D700 is on its’ way. Although I’m not a diver and rarely even get near the beach (criminal considering we live so close!) I really, really want one of these.

Hold on, they cost $4000. Perhaps I can wait. Here’s what the housing will look like:

Credit on this article, and more details on this and many other aspects of underwater photography can be found at DivePhotoGuide.com. Check out their excellent articles section for a selection of other underwater housings for Nikon digital SLRs.

D700, 24-70 f/2.8 at 28mm, 1/400th at f/5.6, ISO 200

D700, 24-70 f/2.8 at 24mm, 1/800th at f/5.6, ISO 200

Harry persuaded us to take him to the local park on Saturday, the first warm(ish) day in a while. As Mum was around I didn’t have to watch too closely as he clambered around and instead the D700 got an airing!

These two shots were amongst my favourite from the day, the converging lead lines up the slide work well for me. The second shot is using the Awesome bw Lightroom plugin, I don’t normally play around too much with shots but this effect and the gaze into the horizon is effective.

On Sunday I took the camera down to get some shots of my neighbour’s son playing football, but was roped into running the line. C’est la vie!