All posts tagged: review

2015 Year in Review

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2015 began with a quick trip to photograph the snow monkeys of Jigokudani Onsen, Nagano. Back in Okinawa I continued to document the karate masters and the people of the Ryukyu Islands. A few weeks in spring were spent in the UK where I hung out with family and took pics of some local icons. Back in Okinawa I had to update the Okinawa and Kyushu chapters of the Fodors Japan travel guide.  I popped down to Iriomote to check out the options for visitors. And up to Kumamoto for a bit of history. Around the same time I was  working as a location manager for the Okinawa episode of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown. A cool experience introducing Okinawa to a huge new audience. On March 25th, I bought a house in the morning, then in the afternoon Yuki and I got married at the town office. A good chunk of the summer was then spent renovating the house and making it weatherproof. Yuki and I got some wedding pics done by being models for …

Profoto B1 Review

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What is it? The Profoto B1 500 AirTTL, a powerful flash you can take on location. It’s like a cordless version of the Profoto D1 monolight.  Power comes from a lithium battery pack. 500Ws makes it approximately 10 times more powerful than a speedlight. Clever electronics allow you to control the output accurately over 9 stops (full to 1/256). The lithium battery gives enough power for 220 full power shots. It’s also capable of operating in TTL mode with certain cameras. Flash duration is also rapid. A Profoto radio trigger is integrated into the head. Accepts Profoto’s light shaping modifiers. Why did you buy one?  Power and a fast recycle time so that on location I can balance ambient light with flash to create both the shot I want, and also capture the moment after. The high capacity of the lithium battery means I’m not going to run out of juice during a standard shoot. As with all Profoto equipment the head is designed around a cylinder approximately 10cm in diameter. This means all my heads from …