Speedlight

I have been waiting for my second amaryllis to bloom so I can take macro photos of it. Thursday afternoon inbetween staff coming in to ask me questions (I had been out of the office all week) I took photos with my camera on the tripod of the beautiful amarylli in the bright afternoon sunlight. I downloaded the pictures into my computer, and they were lovely -- except for the distinct hair marring each one.

So Friday afternoon Theo and I headed to National Camera Exchange. They sold me my camera and someone from church works there so we went to get my camera cleaned. While the errant hair was being removed Mike gave me a tour through all the lenses I might really like to have. Sigh.

Then a guy who works there wandered over and started talking macro lenses with me. I quickly discovered he likes to do the same odd little thing that I do -- take macro shots of flowers. We talked about Como Conservatory and how great it is to shoot there. I complained, though, of the no-tripod rule, and the breeze that is always running through there. "I can't get the camera to hold still enough to make it work," I said.

"You need a speedlight!" he insisted. I protested that I hate flash. "What flash do you use?" he asked. I pointed to the little dowitchit on the top of my camera. "No, no, no!" he said, and off he went, rummaging through the store. He came back with a cord, a diffuser, and a SB-600 Speedlight. "Now you have the sun in your hand," he said. I attached it to my camera and looked around for something to shoot. I turned around and there was Theo, doing the pretty-good-little-boy-waiting-for-mom-to-finish-to-go-buy-the-promised-cookie routine. "Here, Theo, I said."














Sold. I bought the flash on the spot.














So here is the amaryllis, with the speedlight held at different angles. I have a whole new variable to play with now.