On the old front (well, not too old) the limited edition Stephen Shore placemats are being shipped to Nancy C. from Nova Scotia. A very cool way to dress up you table. Or hang on your wall.
The signed Larry Fink book went pretty darn quick this week and Yvonne F. of Houston, Texas will be checking out his work in the comfort of her own home.
Congratulations to you both!

On the newer front we wanted to make sure you heard about this cool site called The Strobist. A blog run by David Hobby. Easy to understand lessons in using your portable strobe/flash. To check it out go here or here.

[photopress:Skaters_127.jpg,full,centered] © Damon Webster

Timing being everything, the other day the folks at Nikon took a bunch of us out to photograph skateboarders, while we used D300’s and a variety of lenses and strobes. And the exact kind of affordable strobes The Strobist discusses on his site.

The Nikon’s SB -series of strobes with the ability to easily work WITHOUT WIRES, folds perfectly into the digital age. The unknown factor of shooting with a strobe, has always been what the heck is that light doing?

Years ago you would shoot a polaroid to see what was going on. The professional strobes have quartz modeling lights in the strobe head to help you set your lighting.Of course with digital, you see immediately what the light is doing. And the more you shoot, the faster you’ll be able to set your lighting.

But until these cool wireless strobes (or flashes) brought the pro lighting effects to those on a budget or were space challenged, it was a spaghetti mess of wires and cords and plugs.
Thanks Nikon.

More on the skateboard shoot later, including a full review of the Nikon D300.By the way, we couldn’t get ANY info on the rumored D3x from the Nikon reps. We’d look for an announcement on that at Photokina.

Make sure you stop by the Strobist if you’ve been searching for some portable solutions to your lighting. He’s blogging away with some great lessons. Congratulations to Mr. Hobby.

In the world of Green, you know that using all of these portable strobes/flashes use TONS of AA batteries. And what do you do with them with they are all used up?
Have you been disposing of them in a proper recycling manner?
Well, how about switching to rechargeable batts ,instead. More of an investment now but huge savings for you and the environment.
Here is a full article on some rechargeable solutions.

We’re hearing that the Powerex batts are making lots of folks happy. Available here. Some people prefer the Sony batts, some the Energizer. Just go rechargeble.
And when you can’t, dispose of the used batteries properly.

With the credo of “Take only Pictures, Leave only Footprints” make sure your footprint is a small as possible. Especially the carbon ones.