Form submitted successfully, thank you.

Error submitting form, please try again.

Add the winner is…

I got 29 entries that qualified (no multiple entries and not me) and I went to random.org and got a random number between 1 and 29 which was:

20 – Jon Narong

Congrats Jon!! Check your email and send me your address. I will get the triggers in the mail this week.

Check back Monday for a chance to win something else fun!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Giving a little back to Strobist – Free Stuff



, originally uploaded by ZingShots.

The strobist “movement” has inspired me a lot lately. Doing big things with small lights is something that did not seem possible just a few years ago. I was used to using big studio strobes to do serious work. David Hobby changed all that for me and inspired me to not only do really cool stuff with small strobes but to also give back to the community.

So here it is. I am doing a little spring cleaning and found my old “Poverty Wizards”. These are Chinese made radio triggers you can purchase cheaply on Ebay. When I saw them I was reminded about all I had learned and how much fun it was to get these triggers and really start exploring off camera lighting. I wanted to give that to someone just starting out. You can own this set of 3 receivers, 1 transmitter and 3 Vivitar 285 (not HV) cables just by posting a comment. That’s right post a comment and I will pick a winner at random on Sunday April 19th.
If you need cables for other flashes Lon at FlashZebra has everything you need! I have not used these triggers in a while but they worked flawlessly when I did use them.

Good luck!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

April 13, 2009 - 8:04 pm Alexis Mejias - Thanks a lot for this opportunity Best of Luck to you!

April 13, 2009 - 8:13 pm Ken Smith - Hi, Hope you randomly select me for the PW's. Thanks for the oppurtunity. I am willing to pay shipping to Australia. Ken

April 13, 2009 - 8:19 pm Giedrius - Hi, I want to check in the line for the triggers, they would be really helpful for the begining. I'm just about to purchase my first lighting set up and eager to dive into "strobism",so I'm spending my nights at strobist.com. Can't wait till weekend then I'll get some stuff from Adorama. Thanks for your support :).

April 13, 2009 - 9:05 pm john - hi, im just starting with photography and im enjoying it. i really want to learn off camera lighting. im stuck with the built-in flash and cant afford nikon flashes. im going to get a vivitar flash. Thank's in advanced. here's my flickr photostream feel free check it out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23922769@N00/

April 13, 2009 - 10:09 pm Mike K - Thanks for the opportunity!

April 14, 2009 - 12:12 am Ady Mace - Just getting in to off camera lighting myself. It's a bit more expensive than I thought but real good fun!

April 14, 2009 - 1:56 am fac73 - This is great! It's not easy learning photography techniques if you don't have the tools for them. So Help like this is greatly appreciated. I am sure who ever gets this will enjoy them.

April 14, 2009 - 3:07 am Charles Verghese - Hi Bill, Not saying this for the remotes but wanted to convey my appreciation to guys like you, David Hobby & Zack Arias for sharing & giving so much to the newbies, learners & just general knowledge seekers. I will retweet your post for the sheer satisfaction of showing off the positive side of human nature! ...and all the best with your shooting. Charles

April 14, 2009 - 3:21 am Charles Verghese - DONE - Retweeted!

April 14, 2009 - 10:27 am Carey Friedman - first of all, thank you for paying it forward. i think you guys are doing great things here and i hope it continues on the strobist pool. i am starting out. i have two Nikon flashes, umbrellas and stands. that tapped me out and i have not had any luck with buying triggers. i can use the CLS system for some of my shots, but am running into problems with the line of sight issues. i am just starting to get some commercial gigs, but not enough to pay for triggers yet. if you pick me, i promise to pay it forward as i upgrade my gear as well. even if you dont pick me, thanks for doing what you are doing. i know how hard it is struggling in this economy to get work. anything you can do to help out one of us struggling start-ups will be greatly appreciated and you are banking some great karma.

April 14, 2009 - 11:55 am Kory Johnson - Very nice of you to pay it forward Bill, please enter me in the running. I will also be adding your blog to my RSS reader. thanks again!

April 14, 2009 - 12:07 pm Robbert Dijkstra - Thank you for this opurtunity, I hope the one that gets this set has a great time with it. I would like to say to him (perhaps even myself) that he/she should pass it along when he/she bought better gear, this way we can even help the less fortunate with strobism!

April 14, 2009 - 1:06 pm Nathan Freitas - I would love the opportunity to use these with my new Vivitar 285HVs. Thanks for the opportunity to win them.

April 14, 2009 - 2:19 pm Jake - I would love these, very nice of you. Wouldn't be a bad birthday present for me, the 19th is my birthday! Good luck to everybody

April 14, 2009 - 2:31 pm Borja Mendez - Wow, this is such a wonderful idea. I wish there were more like you that bring us begginers the chance to improve our skills without worrying about the budget...Thank you many times for being so generous.

April 14, 2009 - 3:22 pm Rudy - Hey if you pick me I'll spring for the shipping since I'm in Canada. And the 285HV cables would really come in handy since I have a couple of 285HVs without cables.

April 14, 2009 - 3:57 pm gerald - love to get these as my first step into being a strobist.

April 14, 2009 - 8:13 pm Huey - Popped over from the Strobist group on Flickr... been reading and experimenting for a while now and ready to make the jump into off-camera lighting. Very impressed by the "pay-it-forward" philosophy. Good Karma to you.

April 14, 2009 - 9:54 pm Daniel Turner - Very generous of you. I just wanted to get myself in on the drawing. Thanks.

April 14, 2009 - 10:25 pm Martin - I would like these to get into off camera photography :]

April 15, 2009 - 12:50 am jon narong - great idea, bill! i'm really just building up my arsenal now and one of the next things I'd love to get are some wireless transmitters. i've been stuck using a single flash setup with a sync cord so far, so need to take it to the next level. best of luck to whoever wins this!

April 16, 2009 - 10:59 am Quentin Hartman - These would be fun to experiment with!

April 16, 2009 - 12:20 pm Laquel - Thanks for the chance to get the free triggers! Im just getting started in the prof photography arena and they would be great. thanks again!

April 16, 2009 - 1:34 pm Yiannis Oikonomidis - This is a great gesture, especially in times like these. I'm also starting to build up my system and it's not easy at all with all that crisis going on. I'd love to have a wireless transmitter too. This would let me expand my potentials!

April 16, 2009 - 3:30 pm Shan - What a nice idea! Will they work with canon 580? I'm in the UK so I don't know if I qualify... Thanks for the opportunity!

April 16, 2009 - 3:48 pm Bill - You are going to need to order a specific cable from them to work with the 580. You can get the cable from http://www.flashzebra.com.

April 17, 2009 - 2:24 pm ruthdeb - Ooo! Ooo! Pickmepickmepickme!

April 17, 2009 - 10:16 pm Adam73 - Nah don't pick those guys pick me. I am a learning sponge.

April 17, 2009 - 10:23 pm Wolfdagon - Just throwing my name in the hat. Great thing that you are doing here.

April 18, 2009 - 1:19 am Alex Yang - saw this from SooCool, would really appreciate this if I won! but good luck to everyone else!

April 18, 2009 - 7:25 am thomaszli - Cool! I'm crossing my fingers!

Montserrat’s 4th Birthday Party

I had a blast at Montserrat’s big 4th birthday party and I got some great images. Kids dressed in ladybug wings are just the cutest things ever.

Hit the play button below to see a slide show of my favorite pictures from this wonderful day.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Fun with the Fortinet Gang

Had a great time hanging out and photographing the Fortinet management team today. Photographing executives can be a challenge, not so much with the photography but with the egos. The Fortinet team was great though and made my job really easy. Special thanks to Jennifer Leggio of Fortinet for helping me wrangle people and for being my lighting test model.



The Result

If you are interested in my setup here it is:

Head shot setup

Click through to see all the notes.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!