Mono Monday: Choosing the Right Big Lights
Normally, I try to balance lighting technique, trends, gear and a smattering of general silliness on this site. Apologies for fact that that Strobist is in somewhat of a gear-oriented spate of posts. There is a reason for that -- namely that I have gotten a little ahead of myself.A few On Assignment posts are in a holding circle because they were shot with larger light sources. And before getting to those, I wanted to take a look at the process of how to go about choosing a big light system in the first place.Recently, I revamped my kit after spending 20 years using the same set of well-worn monoblocs. I thought it would be a pretty easy process, but it t

Shedding Light on the Gender Gap
I am getting ready to hop on a plane to Mexico, where I will be teaching for Santa Fe Workshops next week. So if emails go unanswered, or comments are a little slow to moderate, thanks for your patience.Interesting fact: My SFW class, whom I have already met via email, is 75% female. This is interesting only in that the readership of this site is overwhelmingly male. Ninety-four percent, last I checked.Which brings up a question that has been bouncing around in my mind for over a year now: Why

This Finn O'Hara Shoot Probably will not Fit in the Conference Room.
Holy crap. I am at a loss for words after looking at the scale of production involved in this Finn O'Hara shoot of the Toronto Maple Leafs.You see work by guys like this all of the time, but you rarely get a good look behind the scenes. And granted, he did end up shooting 53 people. So when you amortize out a "civic works"-size set, it actually starts to make sense.But still. Just … wow.Check out his blog for more his cool, eclectic work.__________[EDIT: Fully expected in the comments: "How can I do this with a D40x and an SB-600?"]

Brain Food: Three New Offerings
Over the last two weeks, three new educational items of interest have popped up on the radar. There are new video tutorials from Dave Honl and JoeyL, and John Harrington has evolved his Best Business Practices book into a magnum opus, 500+ page second edition. More on all three, and which ones may or may not be for you, inside.__________Best Biz 2.0

A Filthy Language Primer, Courtesy Chase Jarvis
At first glance, this appears merely to be a very cool behind-the-scenes look at the high-speed flash shooting Chase did last month in New Zealand. Lotsa high-tech flash talk, impossible sequences, killer pics -- yadda, yadda, yadda.But the real takeaway here is of the etymological variety.To wit, the adjective "sick." Which, of course, means "good." (Back in my day we went with the much less confusing "bad" when we meant "good.")But what if something is really sick. As in, sicker than sick? That calls for the word, "filthy." And if it is filthier than filthy, then of course you'll want to