Nikon 24-85mm f.28-4 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Friday Morning

Spring Break ends today. I go back to work tomorrow. Friday, a friend came over around sunrise, and we headed out to the local open space, Wildwood, which encircles the city where I live. It’s a wonderful place, especially in spring when the flowers bloom. As I have said before, California has had a drought for the past 6 years, but this year our rainy season was phenomenal (by desert standards). The result is that things are green and growing, instead of the dreary brown, brown, brown. The fields and hills are covered with a lot of wildflowers, in yellow and purples primarily, with so many different ones it is hard to remember all their names. Some, though, include wild morning glory, mountain sunflower, allium, fiddleneck, red stem filaree, lupine, lacey phacelia, and blue dicks.

People

I don’t tend to photograph people, preferring the outdoors and flowers. However, people watching is a great past time, and getting portraits, candid or otherwise, of family or strangers, shows the diversity of the world in a face.

Enter the MagMod

MagMod 2

For Christmas, there were a few photography accessories on my list, one being the MagMod 2.0. I must have been a good girl, because I got one. It is an attachment for your speed light, and allows a grid to be added to the flash, along with colored gels, to focus and change the light of the camera. It is made of rubber – or a rubbery substance – that stretches to fit the speed light. I put it on my SB600 as well as the SB400 (which is smaller than the SB600) by stretching the MagGrip.

From there, using the MagGrid 2 and the MagGel 2 systems, I could change my image’s character. Coupled with extra lights from the side, or backlighting, the results were rather nice. What I liked was the fact the MagMod 2 is very easy to use and is modular – hence the “mod” in MagMod. The grid reduces the divergence of the light spread from the flash and focuses it to 40 degrees, per the MagMod website; add another, and it reduces it to 20 degrees. (Will a third halve it to 10 degrees?) In looking at this site, it appears they are now developing a bounce and a diffuser, but they are not yet for sale on the MagMod web page.

Images taken using the MagMod 2 Grid and Colored Filters

The MagMod 2 is easy to use – and rather fun! The magnets do have north and south poles, and they will remind you of that when you line them up wrong. Quality seems to be very good. I am not sure how the filters are made. There are air bubbles in them, which move around, but they do not affect the image at all from what I can see. Also, a few months back, I emailed them with some questions, and I was very pleased with the promptness of their replies. For the price, some people may find this an expensive item, but the kit is a good place to start, and from there, you can add what you want. Modular they are, and you can buy pieces individually.

Finally, here is a video done by someone in the studio, using a number of them.

And here, you can see all their products in production and available for pre-order. Altogether, this is a rather exciting product, I think, and look forward to the continuing development of the MagMod system.

The Path Less Traveled

There is always something seen before that, seen again, is totally different. Normally when I head out to Wildwood for an evening photo shoot and walk, I go toward the open spaces. Last night, I decided to head toward the little creek that runs through a small oak wood, and went in both directions. As I perambulated (isn’t that a great word?!), I looked ahead, and I looked back. The sun was lowering in the western sky, and as I looked, the light was shifting and changing in beautiful ways. The light was fun to capture as it bounced down the hillside and into the small canyon. Click on an image to start a slide show.