Updating An Old Technique

One Big Umbrella: In 2015 I had great success using a Westcott 7' Parabolic Umbrellas on a photo assignment in San Mateo's Japanese Garden. By placing the shoot-through umbrella in a path of the morning sun, I was able to produce an enormous softbox effect with no flash enhancements. 

Parabolic umbrellas were all the rage back then, as they supposedly provided the photographer with a more efficient design to concentrate the light more effectively. The dream was that speedlight users could get more "bang for your buck" when using their little flashes. While skeptical, I bought two, one shoot-through and one with a silver reflective interior, and decided to see if the hype was true. Right out of the gate I found the umbrellas difficult to control even in the most gentle of breezes. After some experimentation, I determined that the best way to secure the umbrella was to use two light stands clamped as far apart as the umbrella shaft would allow. While stable, I need a bunch of sandbags to keep them from swaying. Certainly it was effective, but so darn clumsy.

The only way this could be made to work (legally) in a public venue was to have Cissie hold the umbrella aloft on a monopod and  manually align the umbrella for maximum effect. I hope you'll agree that it was worth the effort, and I still consider this photo shoot one of my best efforts. As lovely as the shot was, I couldn't help but think that proper exposure for my subjects resulted in an overexposed background. Nobody has ever commented on it, but I know it's there, and find it very bothersome.

Fast forward to 2026. The assignment was to photograph the District Manager for California Water Service Bayshore District. (Cal Water). I knew Cal Water had a new facility just two blocks from where I used to work, and since there was an inner lot for storing emergency vehicles and equipment, I suggested that we make the shot with an outdoor background. I had scheduled the shoot for early to take advantage of the breezeless morning air, so I pulled my mega-umbrellas from storage and brought them, along with two twelve-foot light stands in case they both were needed. 

It was about 9:15 in the morning, and the air was relatively still. Ross, my subject, suggested that we lay out the contents of a typical "go bag", and use the San Mateo "Water Wagon" as a background. As luck would have it, the morning sun illuminated the wagon perfectly.

I started out by mounting the translucent white  umbrella on a light stand and aligning it to produce the largest possible shadow on the ground. You can see the shadow of a second light stand that was used to hold my speedlight key light. Notice that the props are placed well within the edges of the shadow. I purposely left a gap between the trailer tires and the far edge of the shadow (below left).

Next I positioned my subject so that his entire body is within the shadow. Notice that the fill lighting from the shoot through umbrella is very even, but a bit underexposed when compared to the background (above right).

This final shot was made with a small Lumiquest Softbox mounted on a lightstand about two feet to camera right. This gave the subject some three dimensionality and added some sparkle to the supplies in the foreground. His right foot has now been positioned within the shadow provided by the umbrella. If necessary, the umbrella could be moved slightly, but it is so much easier to position the umbrella and arrange everything else.

This technique can also be applied to making a headshot where the background needs to be handled differently. Had a head shot been required (sample, left), I could have used a smaller aperture (the shutter is set to 1/250 of a second (the fastest convention flash synchronization speed) and the key light moved closer to the subject to brighten the subject without any other adjustments. 

Never Let The See You Sweat: Behind the scenes there was a bit of unseen drama. My flash trigger failed to communicate with my key light, so I was forced to switch for the key light's radio receiver to an optical trigger which would be triggered by a shoe mounted speedlight. Some position changes had to be made, but once all of the adjustments were made, the session went smoothly. It turns out it was a depleted battery issue, and instead of changing them out, it was faster to revert to the optical mode. All this was done while keeping up the chatter on how well the session was going, while under my breath I occasionally muttered,  "That's odd".

Elapsed time from first test exposure (8:18 AM) to the last photo (8:31 AM) was 13 minutes.

 It was a good day.

Godox IT32 Flash

Everybody's Talking At Me: Internet influencers have pounced on this new flash and have proclaimed it the greatest advancement in flash photography since powder. Likes and followers allow them to directly benefit from their evaluations, and presumably make a living doing it. Unlike influencers, I present products that I actually purchased, and write on how they might positively affect my flash enhanced photography. My newest flash happens to be the wunderflash  Godox IT 32. So what about it got everybody excited?

Compact Form Factor: I wanted my next flash to be compact and pocketable. While I still believe the Nikon SB800 was the GOAT speedlight, it's a lot of flash to carry on a casual jaunt. The IT32 is comparable in size to  the Godox TT350, and larger than the LightPix Q20 II  Volumetrically, all of these flashes have from half to a third of the volume of an SB800.

Buy yours here.

Built In Batteries: I wanted a compact flash that had a built-in rechargeable battery. I checked the printed specifications and the IT32 packs a 7.4 volt rechargeable battery, while the TT350 and the Q20 II rely on a pair of AA batteries which provide about 3.0 volts. Almost twice the voltage than the TT350 in a comparable package.

Rotating and Swiveling Flash Head. As you can see, the IT32 has a very conventional form, just slightly smaller than the full sized speedlights. The separate head allows for elevation and rotation, albeit limited to 90 and 270 degrees respectively. A diffusion panel and fill card can are also present. The separate head also permits the use of a slide-on diffusion dome. You will find TT350 has similar capabilities. The Q20 only elevates, and lacks a diffusion panel and a bounce card.

Zoom Flash Head: Only the TT350 can change the output angle of the flash. 

TTL Automated Flash Exposure: Both of the Godox flashes have TTL flash metering while the Q20II has manually selected output. And even if I never use it, it's nice to have it as a backup. I have not used it extensively, but it appears to work well, and would be just the ticket for some low power,  fumble-free outdoor fill illumination.

Off Camera Remote Triggering: This is the big one. Until you've tried it, you can't imagine how useful this feature is. Now radio flash triggers have been around a long time, beating out light-based triggering in terms of distance and reliability. Normally you'd buy a compatible pair consisting of a transmitter you mounted on the camera and a receiver attached to the flash itself. I believe the big breakthrough was the Q20II which incorporated a transmitter in the hot shoe when it was separated from the flash body. Super convenient, but manual only in this first integration, and deployment required that the shoe be "turned on" to establish communication. The TT35 was compatible with the larger Godox flash trigger, but it was compatible with the large family of Godox (and Adorama branded Flashpoint) flashes. The IT32 not only gave the photographer an extremely compact trigger built into the shoe, but engineered it to automatically turn itself on when the shoe and the flash were separated. 

 

Output: Back in the day, the Guide Number was the accepted measure of flash output. It was provided by the manufacturer, so you can be assured that the number would be "optimistic". To use, you calculated the shooter aperture by dividing the Guide Number by the flash-to-subject distance. These GNs were suggested by the manufactures:

• IT32: GN = 59' at ISO 100
• Q20II: GN = 65' at ISO 100
• TT350: GN = 118' at ISO 100 and 100mm zoom equivalent.

At first glance our IT32 appears to be trailing the pack, but there's more here than meets the eye. First, the IT32 recycles to full power in a third of the time it takes the Q20II. And the power lifting TT350, the only member of the trio equipped with a zoom flash head, achieves this by zooming the head to concentrate the light into a much smaller area.

Colored Gels. The Q20II comes with an assortment of semi-ridged plastic gels in a variety of pretty colors. Installation requires that you insert the gel into a tiny slot on the face of the flash head. They also came in random colors, and I admit to having used the blue gel to make this photo.

The TT350 has no easy way to attach a gel. It would be a simple task to cut some gels in the shape similar to the ones Nikon used for the SB800 speedlight. Each had an additional tab that slipped into the diffusion screen slot while the screen itself held it close to the face of the flash. For a better look at how Nikon did this, click here to see an earlier post.

The IT32 has integrated four tiny magnets into the small colored filters which are easily attached to the flash face. It is interesting the the two filters that come with the flash are not random colors, but consist of a CTO (color temperature orange) filter to tint the flash to simulate a 3200K incandescent photoflood, and a 1/2 CTO filter, which tints to flash to provide a warmer, more flattering light for portraits, or to simulate late afternoon lighting. The photo shows the gel assortment's colors. If you're even thinking about getting a IT32, you can order the magnetic filter/gels here. If you don't mind losing a ton of light, you can mount one filter on top of the other.

Reason To Own: The off camera capabilities make this a great lens for experimentation, and the addition of the TTL feature makes it an easy lens when you don't want to worry about exposure. This little unit will never replace the versatility of my bigger kit flashes, but that's really not what it's for. I think anybody should believe that the IT32 can step to the plate and knock one out of the park, It's a compact flash that fits easily in a pocket and has a surprising feature set. 

I made this pair of photos during my morning walk. The left photo was made with the flash off-camera and overhead, while the right photo was made with the flash extended arm's length to left of camera. Flash output adjustments were easily made with the thumb wheel. For the few minutes I spent on the session, I was very pleased with the results. No adjustments were made in post production except for minor cropping.

Brightin Star 10mm F 5.6 Pro Fisheye

By the time you read this, I will have already purchased, and lightly tested, both of the a Brightin Star fisheye lenses. I took out the Pro Fisheye because of the adjustable aperture, just to see how the lens would perform. I used my first Fuji mount fisheye, a Pergear, and enjoyed using it. After getting past the silly distortion of my facial features being distorted by the lens, I decided to take the lens seriously and try to find some happy compromise between the uniquely wide angle of the lens, and the uncorrected circular distortion.

Note: Contrary to some of the online evaluations, the lens aperture ring does have clicks, but they are soft and only at the full stops.

I took the 10mm F 5.6 Pro model lens, mounted on a Fuji X-E2 body, with me on a walk along the Sausalito shoreline. I parked beside the San Francisco Bay Model, as its location allows me to walk past a variety of boats at rest in their slips.

Doors to the San Francisco Bay Model in Sausalito. The windows are indeed round.

This photo is the entrance to the San Francisco Bay Model in Sausalito. I tried to position the doors as close to the center as possible, and did my best to keep the camera level. From an exposure perspective, the photo is "out of bounds", but the I believe the placement of the round windows so close to the center of the photo creates an interesting juxtaposition for a fisheye lens.

This cute little sign has a circular graphic that when centered, gave me a fairly normal looking image. The placement of the horizon line minimizes the distortion, while the randomness of the foliage on the right minimizes the visual impact of the edge distortion.

Post Production Corrections: One could say that a fisheye lens is just a wide angle lens with under corrected barrel distortion. It follows that some post production software can correct these errors. In Elements  I used the Spherize Tool to see if any meaningful correction could be applied. I was able to pull the "bulge" in slightly, and render the vertical edges of the sign a little straighter. With no discernable reference points on the left and right thirds of the frame. the finished rendition doesn't shout "fisheye" but could pass as a conventional wide angle lens photo. That is much more grief than I care to endure, as I could just as easily installed a conventional 10mm wide angle lens.

Blue Sky Exposure: In earlier posts about the fixed aperture Brightin Fisheye, I  had complained that the fixed aperture setting of F 5.6 wouldn't be small enough to provide some outdoor flash capabilities with the Fuji camera bodies I favor. I made three blue sky exposures with the highest possible synchronization setting for an X-E2 body (1/250 second).

Fuji X-E2 Body. From left to right: F 5.6, F 8.0, F 11.  Camera Settings: ISO 100, 1/250 second exposure

Based on these three test shots, I could basically set my lens to F 8.0, my ISO to 100, and my shutter speed at 1/250 of a second and get a very nice blue sky. Not ideal for recording fluffy clouds, but the information is useful.

Sun Stars: This flag photo was made with an emphasis on the sky and letting the flag exposure go along for the ride. I was surprised by how nice the sun star turned out. If I had an important subject in the near foreground, I could have used a flash providing it was close enough to me, and that the light falloff wouldn't be objectionable. This is probably the only time that the "sun star", the effected created by the aperture design, held any interest for me.

I noticed this mural painted on a retaining wall behind a smog station located in the Castro. While the damaged sofa seems totally appropriate for the mural, the tableau seems out of place in the Castro. I was attracted to the comic detail of the cars, especially the Volkswagen station wagon with the old-fashioned room skylights. The camera was set to Aperture Priority, with1/3 F stop underexposed. I purposely cropped the right edge of the frame to minimize the presence of the pile of boxes at the left edge. There is not significant detail on the left edge of the frame.

My observations beg the question: Why use a fisheye? Nearly all of these shots could have been replicated with a 10mm rectilinear (non-fisheye) lens. I suspect that because the lenses are essentially zone focused (focus set my distance), it frees me to concentrate on the unique perspective the lens provides. Fisheye lenses require an appreciation for the roles the frame's left and right thirds play (or don't play) in keeping the viewer's attention at the center of the frame. That can be challenging, and for the moment, that's reason enough.

Fisheye Double Take

Pergear (Brighten Star) lens. I bought mine here.

For whatever reason, I seem to be behind in the times when it comes to what's new in    photo equipment. Granted, I am quite content with "living within" the capabilities of my existing equipment, and only when I am confronted with some new challenge will I be motivated to look for, and possibly purchase, some new piece of equipment. Lately I've been giving away seldom used pieces of kit when they become at best irrelevant, or at worst, boring.

In an earlier post I replaced my older Peargear 10mm F 8.0 pancake fisheye lens with a Brighten Star (a.k.a.Pergear)  10mm F 5.6, fully aware that there were some features I was less than pleased with. As I mentioned, I considered the change from F 8.0 to F 5.6 would make it more difficult to control my "blue sky exposure" to obtain the interesting skies I prefer as my background.

Brighten Star 10mm Pro. For a more detailed description click here.

Now I will be the first to admit that I didn't stop looking just because I purchased that lens. I knew it wasn't the perfect solution to all of the exposure problems that I encounter, but was intrigued by the challenge of making it work in challenging situations.

My wandering eye fell upon another Brightin Star fisheye lens. It was a 10mm F 5.6 lens, specifications identical to those of the pancake lens I just purchased. I  noticed that this lens replaced the petal lens hood with two rectangular "wings". On closer examination, I saw some real innovation in the design. I liked that there were separate distance scale in both feet and meters. I'm sure the extended focusing knob would make it easier to select the proper distance setting. The icing on the cake is the placement: Both scales are visible when viewed from above. Closer examination shows multiple aperture settings ranging from a wide-open F 5.6 to a minimum aperture setting of F 22. 

Photo Source: Click here.

As you can see from this photo of the chrome variant, both  scales are visible when viewed from above. As I wear progressive bifocals, I can appreciate that I wouldn't have to squint at both scales being crowded into a tiny viewing window. I wonder if anybody will see fit to adding this twin-scale configuration to a lens more suited for casual street photography. It would certainly get my attention.

I have to admit, based on features alone, I must own this lens. I'm going test the first Perger/Brightin Star lens first to see how it performs. If it passes some basic sharpness tests, the innovative Pro version will be on its way.

Shopping For Another Fisheye Lens

Photo Source: Click here.

I spent another morning with my Pergear 10mm F 8.0 Fisheye Pancake lens. It's compact, lightweight, and scaleless focusing makes it a carefree lens. It can be fun just guestimating the sensor plane to subject distance, but this fisheye is especially forgiving when it comes  to setting the proper distance.  If you're really off, the results can be a less-than-sharp masterpiece, but sometimes even the errors in judgement can be fun.

As you can see, the focusing scale is lacking in suggested distance markings, giving you basically two marked settings: .0.3 meters, or infinity. If I wanted to take the time to establish some known distances, I could easily file a small grove in the knurled body to identify specific distances, which would give me a more accurate way to achieve sharp/er images. There would be one problem: To see the marks I would have to invert the camera as the focusing lever in on the lower half of the lens body. Frankly, I'm surprised that I thought of it.

Photo Source: Click here.

While idly screen-shopping for a new fisheye, I found that Astrhori was making a reboot of my old favorite. For all intents and purposes it's the same lens, but has a "focusing scale" on the side of the lens. This appeared to be a more convenient placement for the distance scale, and I was about to purchase one until I took a closer look at the photo. Yes there was a side mounted distance scale, but I couldn't find an index mark of any kind to align with either of the two precisely determined distances. Maybe I'm a bit of a nit-picker, but if I'm actually going to use this lens, these things matter. For the moment, my enthusiasm has cooled a bit, but I'm still glad I found it.

I bought mine here.

The New Contender: I continued to search for viable alternatives to the original Pergear, even though my idea for marking the focusing ring with predetermined distance marks made a lot of sense. However, this new (to me) lens just popped up. It's a Pergear 10mm F 5.6. As it stands, it has a log going for it. It has the distance scale on the side, just as I wanted. It has a cut four-petal lens hood for additional style points. In short, it's a petite hottie of a lens. There is one puzzlement. I found a similar lens under the Brighten Star brand.

Ah, but there is one flaw, at least on paper. While its fixed aperture isn't really an issue, the aperture diameter is. Here's why.

This photo's exposure settings were F 5.6, to match the fixed aperture of the Brighten Star lens, 1/250 of  a second to match the minimum flash synchronization exposure setting on my Fuji X-T1 body, and ISO 100, the lowest native ISO setting available. The shot was made just before noon, and it tells me that I would be unable to render the sky any darker. This could be a problem when trying to use flash during the middle of the day. Due to the design of the lens, there is not way to attach a neutral density filter in front of the lens, and no provisions for mounting one behind it. 

Shots like these, taken before sunrise, would still be possible, but as the sky got brighter, I couldn't duplicate the effect. I may yet push the Purchase Button on this lens, and see how it fits into my normal shooting schedule.

By the time you ready this, my Brighten Star branded lens should have arrived. At under $60.00, it a bit of cheap fun!

Woke Up It Was A Fisheye Morning

The local heat wave has finally broken, and to celebrate, I resumed my morning walk with a camera on my shoulder. I mounted my small  10mm F 8.0 Pergear Fisheye lens on a lounging Fuji X-1 body. I also had a Flash Q20 II. Whether conscious or  not, I brought the flash because I knew that I'd be looking for interesting foreground subjects juxtaposed against a wide expanse of background. With a flash in my pocket, I could use it whenever an interesting foreground subject was conveniently positioned in the shadow of something much bigger. This particular flash has a unique trick; The "foot" serves as a wireless controller when detached from flash's main body.

For most of my shots, I was able to just keep the flash head pointed straight ahead, which was the case in this shot.  Now the lens has a fixed aperture of F 8.0, so if I choose to use a flash at the minimum sync speed of 1/180 of a second, I may need to adjust my ISO setting to get the desired exposure of the background, which in this case is the sky. Then I can adjust the flash illumination by increasing or decreasing the flash output, or by increasing or decreasing the flash-to-subject distance. In this case the flash was mounted on the camera, so output adjustments were made in the flash.

When working at distances as short as one foot, this tiny flash can have an enormous effect on your exposure. And due to the rotating head feature, you can achieve a different look by rotating the flash head straight up and bouncing the light off of one's open palm. This may not improve the quality of the light significantly, but will effectively position your light slightly higher above the lens axis. Notice that the light in this photo is still quite harsh, but the higher angle improves the highlight slightly. Before my next outing, I am going to find some place to stow a sheet of aluminum foil to serve as a better, more color neutral bounce surface.

Order your replacement here.

Kaput: I had not used this particular FlashQ unit (I own two) for quite a while, and when I attempted to use it off camera, the detached foot/controller refused to communicate with the flash itself, in spite of my resuscitation efforts in the field. My luck was no better when I tried it with a different flash, so I must assume that it just died from unknown causes. Luckily for me the foot/remote was available separately, and I just ordered one. Having a spare controller can be advantageous if you have two cameras and to give each one the ability to trigger you off-camera remote flash, a tactic I've used many times. It galls me to think this component would be fini after only four years of infrequent use, but it was, and the solution will cost me about $30.00, a small price to pay to get this show back on the road.

The next day, I carried the same camera with my other FlashQ that would work off camera. In this shot there are few vertical lines, and therefore few hints the shot was made with a fisheye lens. These shots were made by my taking a wild guess to the subject-to-film plane distance, since the lens only had two defined distances: .3 meter, and infinity. Halfway between these points is halfway between those two delimiters.

I'm starting to get the itch to buy another fisheye lens. There are three newish APS format 7.5mm manual focus lenses that are available at a good price. There are several full frame fisheyes that could potentially make my Sony A7 much heavier and less wieldy, and are a bit more expensive. Perhaps this Pergear Pancake Fisheye's days are numbered.

Lighting Twin Planes

My circumstances don't always allow me to experiment with lighting on the grand stage. So when an opportunity presents itself, I take advantage of the situation. In this case, the subject was the director of a local theater production, and my editor wanted a photo to accompany an upcoming article.

Sometimes the Ghosts of Past Assignments come back to haunt me. In this case, I photographed a theater coach who was maximizing the visual impact of a fight scene in a modern urban remake of Macbeth. As it turned out, I couldn't achieve the look I was trying for, and my placement of the subjects (three total) looked ungainly and contrived. I scrapped the image and went instead with this photo of the Combat Coach isolated on the stage. I made the photo during a lighting test, and was never meant to be submitted. It turned out to be a lifesaver when my planned group photo failed to deliver. I learned a valuable lesson: Always make a second shot with a different pose in case the planned image doesn't deliver.

For the record, the lighting on this shot was complex. For the subject in the background I used two gridded speedlights, one serving as the key light and the other the kicker from behind. Once the output was locked in, I alter the exposure by simply moving the lightstands nearer or farther from the subject. In this shot I was able to conceal the particular key light by aligning it behind my main subject's head. For the record, I could have placed a low-output speedlight on the floor in front of my secondary subject and given  her some "legs to stand on", My main subject had the usually gridded kick light, in addition to a silver umbrella collapsed around the speedlight to give a more directional key light. Finally, a speedlight with a small Lumiquest softbox was placed at my eye live to provide some fill light.

When it came time to make the solo shot, I simply opened the umbrella and used in a  conventional manner. Normally I do not use umbrellas as a reflector, and did not expect the hard highlights on my subject's head. I could have eliminated one of those hot spots by re-positioning the kick light more to camera left while keeping it out of the frame. The lights that were used to light the background were now positioned to provide a wrap around highlight to my subject's head.

For this shot I located one of the rolling storage cases and pushed it onto the set. To simplify matters, I kept my subject in the same place and rolled the case up to meet him. This simplified the placement of the lights, since they were already in position from the first shot.

I was able to salvage some of the "double exposure" shots by changing to a square format and completely cropping out my second subject. Some of the shots had some empty space separating the binders, so the cropping  borders were pretty obvious.

Homework: My lighting equipment is still in the trunk of my car, so I may take my main lighting kit to a quiet parking lot and do some serious experimenting. Among those points to ponder:

• How much light do I really lose when using single or multiple grid spots? I had always used them to contain my light spread, but  never thought about how much the grids decreased the flash output.
• How bad (or good) are umbrellas used in the conventional reflected manner? I have several silver umbrellas, and frankly, I never use them because I much prefer the light provided by a shoot-through umbrella. 
• Finally, I need to better organize the contents of my main rolling lighting case. The zippered pockets in the case lid are really helpful, but I may need to organize the contents for the umpteenth time.

Martin Luther King Day - 2026

All Aboard! I've covered the annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration and the boarding of the Freedom Train for many years now. I did miss the event in 2025 when I arrived shortly after the Train left for San Francisco and the presenters were packing up. The train's early arrival , the passengers early boarding , and subsequently early departure conspired against me.

This year the makeshift stage was now in the shadow of the train station building, so a custom white balance setting was created. AI took a reading off of the seat of a white plastic chair. Next came finding a suitable position where I could photograph while obstructing the views of as few spectators as possible. Ultimately, the best location would be behind the VIP seating. I would need a slightly longer focal length lens to get the framing I wanted, but also had to contend with the potential of heads bobbing up and down in the foreground.

Click On A Stick: During my last assignment, I was faced with the possibility of photographing a performer balanced while high up on a ladder. I worked out a solution for making the photo, which I discussed in my last post. With the equipment I brought, I could photograph him at a height of ten about ten feet off the ground. I had some light stands that could easily extend to twelve feet, and a sturdy monopod that would add four feet to my already ample height. As I mentioned, it all went south when the designated location for the shot wouldn't accommodate the ladder or any elevated subject placement. so the shot I finally made was taken at ground level.

I was still curious about whether I could use an extension to elevate my camera above my subject. I had a short Canon "Waist Pod) in my camera bag that I occasionally use to re-position my off-camera flash for a more pleasing effect. After screwing the Waist Pod into the camera's tripod socket, I made the following adjustments:

• LCD Panel: I rotated the LCD so that I could view it from below. This is necessary to achieve a reasonable composition.
• Increase The ISO Setting: You will need short exposure times to minimize the effects of camera motion, and you'll benefit from the increased depth of field provided by a smaller aperture.
• Interval Timer Shooting: This setting has the advantage of focusing the moment before the shot is made. When using the Self Timer, you get only one shot and the focus is set at the moment of activation. When using the Interval Timer, focus is set before each exposure, so if you subject moves between shots, the camera will re-focus on your subject as long as it's properly aligned within the designated focusing area.

Interval Timer Menus: Three numbers need to be determined. In Menu #1, you'll be asked to select the Interval (time between shots) and Number Of Times which is self explanatory. Advancing to the next menu, you will see Start Waiting Time (the delay between actuation and the first exposure). Since the shortest available delay is one minute, I opted for a setting of "0" and accepted the fact that my first exposure would be blurred mess taken while getting the camera into position.

In this collage, the first five shots (left to right, top to bottom) were taken at 5-secnd intervals. Notice that shots three, four, and five have my subject with her arm raised. Notice that shot four has the gentleman in the background holding a book at waist level. This was the most neutral pose for him, so I chose this shot. The sixth shot shows the final cropping. While not a Pulitzer contender, it's a clean shot with sufficient context for the occasion.

This wasn't a technique of monumental importance, but would have worked well when shooting from behind a crowd of people. From its higher vantage point, the foreground distractions would be minimized should you find yourself shooting in a mosh-pit of spectators. Just remember to have a focusing strategy (manual of careful auto-focus) and control cameras motion with a faster-than-normal shutter speed.