The Phottix Aster is a new product from the Asian Phottix, and it has some interesting features not found in the Phottix Tetra (I reviewed the Phottix Tetra several months ago).

The Phottix Aster is designed for triggering one or more off-camera flash units, either wirelessly from the transmitter, or optically from any other flash.

Thanks to HK Supplies for providing a Phottix Aster for review purposes.



A wireless flash trigger is designed to trigger one or more flash units that are located away from the camera, without requiring a wired connection between the camera and the flash units.

Off-camera flash allows a photographer to get much more creative with lighting, and the Strobist website has served to educate many more photographers in the use of off-camera flash lighting.

Aster receiver (left) and transmitter (right)

Features:

• wireless mode - remotely trigger receiver with transmitter on camera hot-shoe
• light mode - optically trigger receiver from another flash
• 4 wireless channels
• PC sync input on transmitter
• PC sync output on receiver

Molten metal is poured at an industrial plant in Tasmania. I could feel the heat, even though I was standing well back!

hot pour

Bell Bay, Tasmania
Canon EOS 350D, 17-85mm IS @41mm, 1/320 sec, f/5, ISO200

Here's a list of free resources to help you learn how to better pose people for portrait photography.

1. The Zeltsman Approach to Traditional Classic Portraiture
   Sixteen chapters containing lots of detailed information on evaluating the face, posing men and women, groups, children, and much more. Each chapter contains many photographs demonstrating the posing techniques being described.
   This is a great resource, but it'll take you a while to read through the entire guide!
   
   
2. The 1-2-3 Posing Technique
   This is just one section of the comprehensive Benji's Studio Lighting and Posing Tutorial, and looks at the 1-2-3 posing technique for females.
   
   
3. The Portrait Photographer
   This blog contains many valuable posts on many different aspects of posing for portraits, and is worth browsing through.
   
   
4. Portrait Photography Tips
   A list of 22 posts from Digital Photography School on portrait photography, including a number of articles on posing.
   
   
5. Portrait Photography's Power Posing Part I: The Components
   This post looks at the various components that need to be considered when posing people, including the hands, feet, arms, head and chin, etc, with some comments on how techniques that can be used for each component to achieve different results.
   
   
6. Portrait Photography's Power Posing - Part II: The Poses
   A follow-up post to the one listed above, this time looking at a few different poses.
   
   
7. Simple Posing Tips for Better People Pictures
   This page provides a list of recommendations about posing a subject to provide natural-looking poses.
   
   
8. Posing the Question
   A brief look at the impact of body language on portraits, and how it should be used to ensure the pose portrays the correct context.
   
   
9. Portrait Photography - Posing the Subject
   A useful list of suggestions on posing a subject's shoulders, head, eyes, hands and more.
   
   
10. Posing Samples
    An 18 page PDF containing hundreds of sample poses for an individual female, individual male, and a couple.

And finally, just a quick plug for Digital Photography School's The Essential Guide to Portrait Photography eBook. While it's not a free resource like the others listed above, this USD$19.95 eBook is a collection of great tutorials and articles looking at many different aspects of portrait photography, and includes many articles on posing.

Are there any other free resources on posing people for photography that I've missed?

I recently bought a Canon ST-E2 wireless flash transmitter, and have been enjoying the convenience of E-TTL for off-camera flash photography.



The Canon ST-E2 is Canon's dedicated wireless flash transmitter, designed to be mounted on a camera's hot-shoe, and can trigger one or more Canon flashes wirelessly in E-TTL mode.

That's right - the ST-E2 provides remote E-TTL functionality. The ST-E2 communicates with the camera via the hot-shoe, and the ST-E2 communicates with the flashes via infrared to determine the flash power required.

B&H Photo and Video are offering free shipping on selected items, and have rebates available on other items.
They also have a Holiday Deals page, as well as a Holiday Gift Guide.

Team Digital are offering 7 days free hire on all photographic equipment hired over the Christmas break. That's 10 days for the price of three!

Phottix are offering a 5% discount off all items purchased before 24 December 2009.
I have reviewed a number of Phottix accessories in the last few months, and can recommend them as being very good value for money.

Chromasia is offering a 15% discount on all subscriptions to their Photoshop tutorials and digital photography training until 1 January 2010.



Many people will be taking some time off work over the Christmas season, so here's some reading material to improve your photography:

• 50 Fantastic Open Lectures for Photographers
• 100 Websites to Teach Yourself Photography
• 50 Awesome Opencourseware Links to Effectively Get Your Photography Degree for Free

Here's a list of some of the great photo collections I've come across in the last few months:

• 45 Beautiful Motion Blur Photos
• 50 Beautiful Winter Wonderland Photos
• 25 Beautiful Macro Photography Shots
• Beautiful High Speed Water Photography
• 11 Fun Lego Photos
• Dead Flies Art
• 25 Spectacular Light Painting Images
• 11 Extraordinary Black and White Landscapes
• Breath-taking Silhouette Photography: 23 Incredible Photos
• National Geographic's International Photography Contest 2009

Taken in my shed last week while replacing bulging capacitors in an LCD monitor. I thought the smoke from the soldering looked interesting enough to warrant some photos.

I put the camera on the bench, with a bit of scrap wood under the lens to lift it up slightly. A 580EX II was on a light stand at camera left, firing into a reflective umbrella, and a 430EX was at camera right, bouncing off the shed wall. Both flashes were triggered with a Canon ST-E2.

soldering smoke

back yard at home, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @45mm, 1/100 sec, f/5, ISO250

There's another photo taken from a slightly different angle here.

Here's a view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, as seen from Blues Point. The bridge and the Opera House are not lit up as much as they were in previous years, but a long exposure provides some nice results.
On the evening when this photo was taken (31 October, a Saturday evening), the biggest issue was trying to achieve a long exposure without one of the many boats on the water intruding into the frame!

Sydney Harbour Bridge from Blues Point

Blues Point, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @45mm, 20 sec, f/8, ISO100

While on a recent shoot, my backup camera, a Canon 350D, completely locked up and stopped working. I briefly removed the main battery to attempt to reset it, but the 350D still failed to turn on after a freshly charged battery was inserted.
The lens and memory card were then removed, and the main battery was pulled out for a few minutes, but after re-installing the battery, it still failed to turn on.

I had been using the camera out in the sun on a hot 37 degree day, and thought that potentially the heat had affected it. After cooling the camera down for a while in the air-conditioned coolness of my car, it still refused to turn on.

I gave up on the 350D for the time being, and had to resort to using a single camera body for the rest of the day. I like to have a wide lens on one body, and a long lens on the other body, allowing a wider variety of focal lengths without having to swap lenses. Being reduced to a single camera body was an inconvenience, but it wasn't a show stopper, and this experience emphasises the need for a backup camera body when doing an important shoot!

That evening, I removed the main battery, as well as the internal date/time battery (a small 3V CR2016 battery used to maintain the camera's date and time), and left the camera overnight. The next morning, after re-installing both batteries, the camera still failed to turn on.

While googling for information on the problem, I found this thread on dpreview.com that described the same symptoms.

In that thread, someone suggested the following sequence as a potential cure for a lockup:

1. Turn off the camera
2. Remove both camera batteries
3. Close battery cover
4. Turn on/off switch to "On"
5. Let camera sit for at least 15 seconds
6. Turn on/off switch to "Off"
7. Re-install both batteries and turn camera on

Following this sequence caused the 350D to come to life again, thus saving me from having to take the camera in for repairs.

Setting the on/off switch to "On" with both batteries removed appears to be the key step that I had previously missed. I'm guessing it's required to ensure any residual power in the camera's circuitry is completely discharged, thus allowing the camera to completely reboot.
(Closing the battery cover is also important, as the camera's on/off switch is disabled if the battery cover is open.)

Note that removing the date and time battery will predictably reset the camera's date and time. However, it won't cause the camera to lose any other configuration data, such as custom function settings.

Have you ever had a camera fail at a bad time during a photo shoot? How did it fail? Did you have a second camera body with you at the time? Did the failure impact the photo shoot?