Click on the diagram for a larger version.

For the simple reason that second curtain sync is easy to achieve with Nikon, I borrowed a D700 and an SB-900 from the photo department. I only took out the 24-70mm, knowing that 90% of what I had planned could be done with that one lens. First, I went to the Hulett House mixed martial-arts gym, the subject of a longer-term group project, to practice with the technique. I set up one light on a stand, gelled CTO, and bounced if off of the ceiling.

After only a few frames, I captured this image, which is one of my favorites from the evening:

Kevin Croom tries to place Kristin Rambo into a headlock during a sparring match at the Hulett House Gym on April 22, 2009, in Columbia, Mo. Croom, who is yet undefeated in his mixed-martial arts career, is helping to get Rambo ready for her first Midwest Fight League contest on May 25.

Two more images after the jump…
After the Hulett House fighters wrapped up practice for the night, I called up Calin Ilea, one of my partners in crime at the j-school, to see what he was up to. He suggested I could drive up to the rooftop of the Hitt Street parking garage as he was shooting bicycle polo with some of our other colleague from class.

Eventually, I set up two lights (both gelled CTO to try to play along with the sodium vapor on the rooftop). I triggered my Canon 550EX with an eBay “poverty wizard,” and set the SB-900 to “SU-4″ mode, which makes it act like an optical slave.

This way, even when I lent Calin the radio trigger for the 550EX and he gave me his SB-800, I could still trigger two flashes at once thanks to the optically-slaved SB-900.

OK, enough geeking-out. Here are my best images from bike polo:

Content © 2009 David Kennedy | View Original Post | Comment | Filed under J7558, Updates | Tags: Advanced Techniques, light, lighting, lit, photography, photojournalism, rear curtain, second curtain sync