Bambi Cantrell delivers a seminar in Scotland for the Master Photographers Association, April 3rd 2008. Bambi was an exceptional speaker and delivered more words in the day than anyone I've heard (I doubt many could lecture for six hours without losing their voice - especially only two days after doing other seminars on March 31 and April 1). I post this here to show the use of the Sony Alpha wireless remote flash. My old (Minolta) 5600 HS (D) flash was placed on top of a loudspeaker matching one the pair visible on the right, but out of shot to the left. It was placed vertically, with the head in 90 degree up position and the wireless sensor/red active light facing the camera. The idea was to produce a narrow band of light skimming across the speaker and front rows, not catching the projection screen too much. Manual exposure was set to 1/30th to yield a good image of the screen, the room was blacked out entirely. Bambi was in darkness too, but the Alpha 700 had no problem focusing without any focus aids. The internal pop up flash was used only to control the wireless flash, and the remote flash power was adjusted for this and other shots using compensation set on the camera.

The distance from camera to remote flash was about 35 feet. Due to the fairly long signal-flash involved, Bambi had blink problems on many shots and it was necessary to check each and reshoot until the right expressions were captured (I could not see her facial expressions at all, as she was in total darkness silhouetted against the screen much of the time).