Doubling Up On Speedlights

I'm here at the Sonoma Valley Muzzle Loader Rendezvous just outside of Cloverdale. I try to attend every year to make photos and enjoy the company of many old friends. I spend most of my time documenting the weekend's activities, and at the end of the event after the awards ceremony.  I invite anybody in attendance to pose for a photo, which I'll post on the club's blog site for convenient downloading. It saddens me to think that several of these random photos would be included in memorial pieces for the subjects.

The Problem: When working in the late afternoon, the sun's position is low on the horizon.  To keep my subjects from squinting, I face them away from the sun, Since I am standing in a sheep-grazing pasture, there are no natural reflectors available, so I am forced to provide my own light. I purposely did not bring my fully-packed Pelican Case so my lighting was limited to the two speedlights I normally carry on assignment. In addition, there's the carrying bag containing an umbrella bracket, a Zumbrella, a bungee cord, and a compact light stand that always stays in my trunk.

The Clamp: In my camera bag keep a Slow Dolphin Photography (yes, that's the name) clamp with its little ball head. I used other mini-clamps, but this one has a bigger  "bite" of slightly more than 2", and it can grip planks and pipes equally well. The ball head, while not Manfrotto quality, is strong enough to hold a speedlight-sized flash. Unlike the industry-favorite Justin Clamp, it can fit in the side pocket of my Domke camera bag.

Addendum: I noticed the Amazon warning that this item is frequently returned, and that several reviews found one fault or another with this clamp. I believe that one should be realistic about their purchases. A $12.00 clamp, complete with ball head, cannot compare with a Matthews Mafer Clamp, which costs three times more. 

The Cold Shoe: I found an old Frio Cold Shoe in my junk drawer and screwed it in place. Eventually I'll get around to replacing it with an all-metal one, but for now, it will be just fine so long as I treat it gently.

The Setup: Normally I use a single speedlight for lighting, but when dealing with a relatively bright sky as a background, I may need some additional power options if I am to balance the blue sky background with the flash illumination on my subject/s. When used at relatively short flash-to-subject distances a single speedlight is enough, but other times, the additional light provided by that second speedlight can be used to sweeten the exposure.

You can see that the clamp allowed me to easily mount a second flash for additional light. I purposely positioned the flash as close to the lightstand shaft as I could. This minimizes the stress on the ball head because the center of gravity is very close to the clamping point.

Another control option is to redirect the flash. By elevating the flash head angle I could feather the light output to favor the upper half of the frame, should that be necessary or desirable. Had my subjects been wearing lighter colored clothing, this technique could have been used to prevent overexposure in the lower half of the frame, had it been necessary. But in this case, elevating the flash output was not necessary. 

In the end, this little clamp and cold shoe combination can provide the photographer some additional light placement options. For its compact size, it provides a lot of flexibility in a very small package.

TTArtisan Firmware Update

Get yours here.

The Firmware Update: After encountering frequent failures of the focusing system with my X-Pro1 and X-E1, my two oldest X cameras, I started searching the web to see if other users were having the same problem. As it turns out, firmware updates were made available on May 17, 2023, just two years after the lens' introduction on March 11, 2021.

Costs: Some purchases would be involved. Both of these expenditures can be considered investments, since I'm sure they'll be used again. First, I spent $20.82 for a USB Type C cable. Next, there was a $20.30 purchase of WinRAR, a program that opens RAR compressed files. There was a free trial offer, but I opted to just buy the software license.

USB Port: Image Source: Click here.

For the record, I paid about $130.00 for this lens on February 7, 2025. This link quotes a price of $103.00, which includes some free goodies more useful than the ones I recieved with my earlier purchase. I almost want to buy a second one, just to cash in. Very suspicious, the price dropping at this moment in history.

Tutorials: If you visit the TTArtisan's website, you can see that several lenses have firmware updates available. You may also notice that they have created a tutorial on how to perform the updates. I wasn't too enthusiastic about the factory's efforts, but found this one on YouTube which I believe was better presented.* While the instructions were for a Nikon Z lens, just be sure that you download the Fuji X file update and proceed.

At the time of publication, I've installed the updated firmware, and immediately saw an increase in reliability. I won't say the TTArtisan lens is as reliable as the original Fuji, but I am feeling more confident that it will perform properly if it is ever called to duty as my emergency backup.

*I reviewed this video, and while I thought it was clear, infrequent computer users might have some difficulty understand some concepts like "drag and drop" and basic file/folder hierarchy. I suggest you watch the video several times to familiarize yourself with the process.