dc chavez – the BLOG

I am proud to announce that I will soon be starting as a guest blogger for Profoto.

For those of you that do not know who/what Profoto is- they design and manufacture photographic flash equipment. Essentially, they are the Ferrari of lighting- top performing equipment. They are based in Sweden, and have been in business since 1968. I am VERY excited to get the opportunity to work with and be associated with such a great company.

A couple of months ago I went to an event where I got to demo the new Pro8 Air generator. I pitched the VP of the MAC Group on the idea of a new series of blogs. After a bit of dialogue, we worked out a schedule of shoots and educational blogs to demonstrate how some of their gear works.

Last week I went to Samys Camera and picked up some gear for this series of shoots. The guys over at Samys were a great help as usual in getting me the gear I need for this project. Some of the new goodies I have managed to get my hands on include:

Pocketwizard MiniTT1- the latest from Pocketwizard, a much smaller transmitter that when used with the new FlexTT5 can deliver ETT-L metering to a remote flash. I have also been told that this little guy can also bump the flash sync speed of the camera as well. Last but not least, it is MUCH smaller and lower profile than the original Plus II’s. I was shooting with it today and basically forgot it was even on the camera!

Pro-B2 1200R Generator- I have used this on many shoots before and this thing kills it… 1200ws of power with an 8 f-stop range, it recycles between .04-1.8s, asymmetrical or symmetrical distribution, up to 250w modeling light and ITS WIRELESS!!! Works flawlessly with the MiniTT1- have to test out the high-speed sync. When I used this kit I was able to get over 200 full power flashes before I needed to worry about changing the battery.

Pro Heads w/ new Zoom Reflectors- Solid lights with consistent color output. Pretty much the only lights I have ever and will ever use. These new reflectors are pretty cool- they are redesigned to provide a more even falloff, increased dynamic range and they also directly accept Profoto grids. This means no more grid holder or adapter. One less thing to carry and worry about.

Ok- my rant is over about how great all these products are. Pardon the jargon-filled rant, I am just excited about the new gear and the new project. This is going to be an amazing opportunity and I KNOW some incredible photos are going to come from all of this.

Thanks to Profoto for giving me the opportunity and for Samys for getting me the gear I need to make this happen. More to come…