When I started photographing back in middle school, I learned on my dad's Canon AE-1 film camera. Since then, I've gone through most of the major brands and formats including Nikon, Hasselblad, and even a Zone VI Field Camera. Today, I'm excited to say that I'm shooting with Sony Alpha Equipment. I use Sony's a9ii camera body and their amazing lineup of lenses, flashes, and accessories. The reason I use the word, "excited" is because I've never used a camera system so advanced, powerful, fast, and light that makes for such crisp and colorful images.

Back when I was photographing with Canon and then Nikon, off camera TTL flash was difficult at best. I tried a variety of Pocket Wizard models, inexpensive third party knock offs, as well as the name brand flashes and controllers. None every really nailed the flash output, sync speed, recycle time, nor the guarantee that each time I'd press the shutter--a flash of light would emit from the strobe! I can say that problem is now over with Sony's off camera controller, FA-WRC1M Radio Control Wireless Commander, and their F60RM (newer model is the F60RM2). The ease of using these two accessories is basically plug-n-play. The high speed sync is incredible, guide number output is astounding, and the TTL sync is phenomenal!

These images are from my first time trying out the system. I was at Grand Targhee near Driggs, Idaho, photographing some mountain bikers at dusk. There was enough light to mountain bike, but, I was able to stop down my aperture to basically take out most of the ambient light for a few of the shots and let the flash light the scene as per my vision. If you've not experimented with off camera strobe photography, give it a whirl as it's really fun.

The quick and dirty of using strobes (off or on camera) is to keep in mind that you're blending two exposures: 1) the camera controlling the ambient light, and 2) the flash and it's output. Set the camera first for the ambient, then use the stobe's +/- if using TTL to control output, or, if using the flash's manual mode, increase or decrease the power. Then, there are the nuances you'll need to master like which aperture suffices to keep the D.O.F. enough for your subject, how much shutter drag you'd like/can get away with, how far to push the ISO to keep either of the aforementioned working for you, whether to zoom the strobe, use a small softbox, bounce the light, etc. etc!