No More Excuses

I now have what I need to take indoor photographs.

This old Braun AC powered flash unit was given to me by a neighbor last year. It wasn't until I started reading The Strobist that I realized it might be useful. Off-camera flash work sounds like fun. I replaced the cracked flash head wires and fired it up (outside... warily...) and found that it kicks out a nice, headache-inducing burst of light. Most pleasing.

Only thing... it doesn't have an optical slave trigger. The only way to set it off is with the manual push button on the back of the flash head, or with a connector that looks way too much like a 120 volt AC plug. Good reminder. I am not going to wire this thing up to my precious digital camera!

But I want to play with my new toy - now!
Umm...
Aha!

First, find a subject with suitable temperament

This antique teapot does nicely.

Then set my camera on the tripod...

And stack on every neutral density filter that I own.

Now, when I open my shutter for 1 second, the teapot looks like this in the ambient light from the windows.

And 1 second is enough time for me to set off the flash by hand.
If I'm lucky.
If I can figure out when the shutter is open.

Ambient light can be controlled with shutter speed and ND filters, and I can set my flash intensity with aperture. The camera is in full manual mode, of course.

A little bit of flash.

Too much.

About right, at least on my monitor. You can still see some ambient in places.

Flash unit held up high.

So now I'm all set. If I can just convince my subjects to hold their expressions for five minutes while I get it all working, I'll get some great pictures!

Hey, it's a start.