The very core of the Strobist experience is to use your flash units off-camera or studio strobe units on location. There are a lot of options in the market now that can help you do just that. From personal experience, though, I have used the PocketWizard Plus II Transceivers. More recently I switched to Paul C. Buff's CyberSync system. Now I am considering returning back to PocketWizard.

These two videos below by Mark Wallace have convinced me to make the move back. The videos show how the new units work with the Nikon camera and flash systems. I suspect, however, the way these units operate won't be too radically different if you are using a Canon system. So everyone is welcome!

How To Shoot With PocketWizard MiniTT1 and FlexTT5

How To Use The PocketWizard AC3 Zone Controller

For using these units on a Canon system, check out these video tutorials.

By sheer coincidence, I won these units some time back. So, you'll see an “open-box” video very soon. Stay tuned! Thanks to Mark Wallace and Phil Bradon of Mac Groups for sending me the Nikon version of these PocketWizard units. I can't wait to go out and play with them.

Below, tell me if you have considered buying these units or you have already invested in a RadioPopper or some other wireless system. Do you work with flash off-camera or studio units for your shoots? Do you have questions on how to set those up? Would you find it useful if there were more tutorials posted here on Tiffinbox? Let me know!

As I mentioned a few days back, I had the honor of meeting both David Hobby and Joe McNally during their Flash Bus stop in Boston. Thanks to Adorama – The Photography People, I was able to interview them both. If you haven't seen the interview with David Hobby yet, please check it out now.

Here is the one with Joe McNally:

This wasn't the first time I met Joe. I was one of his students at his Dobbs Ferry workshops (highly recommend it, by the way) in June 2009.

I have two of his books – The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes and The Moment It Clicks: Photography secrets from one of the world's top shooters. His next book, Sketching Light, is due out soon and based on what he has just told me in the interview above, I just pre-ordered it.

If you have any of his books or you have attended Joe McNally's presentations in the past, please comment below.

Please thank Adorama again for making this interview possible. When they say they are the “Photography People,” I know they mean it. One way you can help Tiffinbox and yourself is by ordering all your photographic gear through them. Heck, if they are the go-to-store for Joe McNally's professional needs, why not for you?

*Yes there are affiliate links embedded in this blog post.

Going to try something new for Monday's – will give you all a weekly wrap up from the previous week, just in case you have missed reading a post or watching a tutorial or video interview.

Love The Products & Services Posted On Tiffinbox? talked about how some of the reviews of products and services mentioned on Tiffinbox have actually been very useful to you and your photography business.

Robert Norman wrote a guest blog post on How To Use CardMunch To Manage Business Cards, an application for your iPhone that will scan and save your data. Pretty cool!

Leon Sandoval from Colorati came back to Tiffinbox for another guest blog post about < a href="https://tiffinbox.org/how-do-you-keyword-your-digital-images/">keyboarding digital files. He had two short tutorials on using Lightroom or Bridge, whichever works best for your workflow.

Blair Phillips has a handle on using video to attract high school senior clients to his studio. In his guest blog, “Video Speaks Louder Than Words,” he tells us just how he goes about it.

Lastly, I had an opportunity to speak and interview David Hobby, the photographer/teacher behind Strobist, a veritable repository for off-camera flash users. David also spoke about his new project “HOCO360,” photographing the people and events in Howard County, Maryland. Check it out!

P.S. This weekly wrap idea was highly influenced by the awesome Copyblogger blog. You ought to check it out too.

Most of you probably already know who David Hobby is. He is a photographer, teacher and founder of the Strobist Movement, which encourages photographers to use their flashes off-of their cameras. His website Strobist is the go-to place to learn about off-camera flash techniques. His new project is HOCO360 – A Visual Journal of Howard County, Maryland, where he lives.

When David and Joe McNally decided to embark on The Flash Bus tour through the United States, I had to go. Boston was the closest of locations for me and so on April 9, I drove up to listen and watch two masters at work at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf.

Both David and Joe graciously allowed me to speak with them for a few minutes. In this post, we hear from David. He talks about creating a community and his new project.

All of this was arranged by Jeffrey Snyder of Adorama. So I am very grateful to him and the company that is truly there for photographers worldwide. Adorama is where I buy all my camera gear. Customer service is great and the price is right.

Watch the video and post your comments!

The Flash Bus tour wraps up soon, with most of the cities already sold out. The presentation in Boston was house-full. These guys not only know their stuff, they also know how to entertain. The repartees between them kept us all laughing out loud often. Now, if you can't make it any of their last remaining presentations, please consider buying David's Lighting In Layers DVD and Joe's The Language of Light. You will get a sense of what it is like to be in the audience from these excellent resources. I bought them and will have a full on review here soon. [Both are affiliate links. Support this site, buy through the links please!]

Blogs began as personal journals – ones that were kept private or open to the world. Now they are so much more than diaries. They are a way of communicating with your clients. Call it “marketing” if you will, but it works. If you are in need of learning something specific, there is likely a blog that covers that niche.

Photography is no different, though there are tons of photography blogs out there, including this one. What I've envisioned, of course, is to make this site truly community driven. That means hosting guest bloggers, entertaining opposing viewpoints in the comments section and being open to suggestions on making this site better for everyone.

To an extent, I have to be careful about what I publish and even promote. I am contacted virtually every week by a vendor looking to have her or his products and services mentioned here. And I am happy to promote them if (and it's a big IF) the products and services are truly helpful for other photographers.

There are times when I am sent review copies of magazines, books, scripts and Photoshop actions. Obviously, once these are sent to me, I get to keep them. If I am sent camera equipment to test, I do have to return those of course. While I am open to receiving these gifts and opportunities to review items, I am clear on one thing – if the items do not meet my standards or aren't going to be very helpful for other photographers – I reserve the right to not mention it here. Does that sound fair to you? There is little or no point in berating a product or service in public when we all know that we are all just trying to make a go of it. I do and have in the past emailed the vendor privately with my thoughts. So, please be sure that I do act as a filter, for your benefit.

The blog post about creating blog montages was clearly helpful to Richard Esposito, a Connecticut-based wedding photographer. Read his testimonial below:

“Thank you for the suggestion with using Storyboard! I used to do these collage type blogs in the past and it was way too time consuming. I just gave up. I write actions like this all the time, but I didn't have the time to even think this up. The Storyboard script for Photoshop is beyond just an action with all it's options. I purchased it and it will now be a big part of my blogging workflow. As you know, I'm a bit of a workflow junkie. Thank you Seshu and Storyboard! I'm loving the Tiffinbox blog.”

Or, this one by Stacey Doyle on Twitter just today:

I am loving @brandcampblog's Circus Circus to help me with my writing! Thank you @PicSeshu for your review! http://bit.ly/ewlClz

So, here is my question to you – Do you love the products and services mentioned here on Tiffinbox?

Was it an e-book like Ed Verosky's series on Taking Portraiture To The Next Level or Stuart Little's recent tutorial on creating rounded corners in Lightroom 3?

Tell me which blog posts you have found useful. Would you like to see more reviews, tutorials, or both? Email me at seshu at tiffinbox dot org. I look forward to hearing from you all. If you have suggestions on products and services that you feel photographers would find useful, please contact me as well. I am always open to learning about what is out there.