Night time cats.

Some of you may be aware that there's a stray cat that frequents our compost heap. Tonight, the mother cat and a kitten came to the back door. It was dark, but I thought I'd try a few shots anyway. Lens wide open at f1.4 and ISO 5000 I thought I's get some reasonable shutter speeds and avoid blur.  Just a few quick snaps, but I quite like a couple of them.  Perhaps let me know what you think :-)

Mum approaching me obviously thinking the camera is a food dispenser!

Kitten waiting to see what happens to mum.

Very shallow DoF at f1.4, but look at those eyes!!

Ever hopeful there'll be some food!

Interesting light on the kitten keen not to miss out on any food!

Always wary of any move I make and ready to run for cover.

Flash :-)

A long time ago ... perhaps before a number of you were born ... in a land far away from where I now live, I bought a flash gun.  Yup, 1980, Coventry in the UK, I bought myself a SunPak Autozoom 3600 Thyristor.  In those days, to get a flash with enough power to let you bounce light around the room required what was referred to as a hammer head flash.  It didn't attach to the hotshoe, but via a bracket under the camera and wire to the x-sync socket on the camera.  I loved it.  It served me well whilst shooting film with my Pentax MX.

The shot you see in this post was taken back in 1982.  Kafka the cat.  Sigma 80-200mm lens on the Pentax MX and shot on Ilford FP4 monochrome film.  What you see here is a scan from a 10x8 print I made in the University darkroom the best part of 30 years ago!

I'd mount the flash on a tripod and use extension cables to allow me to move away from the flash.  It was great.  I didn't get the horrible shadows behind the subject and there was a lovely even light to the shots.

Move on to the present and the Autozoom 3600 is still in working order.  Problem is the Nikon D300 isn't warranted to connect to this flash due to the high voltages returned from the flash.  The solution?  A Phottix Aster Wireless Flash Trigger Set.  I got mine from Progear in Newmarket.  I needed an adapter from the old x-sync connector to the 3.5mm jack used on the Phottix receiver, but now I can shoot with flash ... without wires!  Pleased?  I'm stoked :-)  After the frustrations at the Mangere Arts Centre the other night it's great to have a combination with which I'm familiar and works!  Watch this space for a few more flash shots over the coming weeks.  Oh, and let me know what you think of Kafka :-)