cheap wireless transmitter

 What is it about gadgets and gizmos that have such strong appeal?  You may recall that in recent posts, I only just figured out a way to activate a slave flash trigger ($11.99) by a homemade adaptor cable.  Then, I learned that someone claimed you can use a dark blue and red piece from a gel swatch book ($3.76) to filter out visible light and wirelessly activate that same optical trigger.  I tried it, but for some reason, I can't figure out how to make it work as reliably as the wired setup.  You can see that the camera's flash is still visible as a mild purplish light, but it doesn't reflect a significant amount of light from your subject. so that on those rare occasions that I can get this thing to work, this plastic shield that I taped to my popup flash functions as a wireless transmitter.  Cool!

Here's one of the tests that I did.  One of the failed attempts made me look like a ghost, and I posted that pic on Facebook.  Oh, and it was done on a Saturday, while I was grubby.  And yes, I know that I'm badly in need of a haircut.  But this is not about me being a model, okay?

bird circus

The original plan was to photograph a rabbit, but it scampered off into the bushes.

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Just over my shoulder, I could see that it was dinnertime for a robin's chicks. Yea!! The adult American Robins would not come to the nest if I was too close, so I propped up the tripod, max height, attached the wireless receiver, set the controls, and walked away. I sat in a chair a few yards away from the tripod and waited until the parents returned.

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I tried one picture, and the flash did not seem to bother them. After sharing a worm the parent robin flew away, I reviewed the image, made adjustments and took my seat again. While waiting I tried to read, but it was so much more fun to look at the birds in the field. The robins did not appreciate the encroaching starlings. There were two more nests like this one on this side of the building, and they had similar activity going on there. Noisy Killdeer plovers were busy on the other side. One lone dove seemed to be out of place here. Meanwhile, I just sat there, taking it all in.

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When the parent returned, I was able to fire off a few shots. Sometimes, I discard my photos if the flash casts a shadow in them, but this one does not bother me. I liked looking at these robins, but I also liked the opportunity to fiddle with gadgets like the wireless remote control. (If you follow the link above, it shows one that is similar to the piece I have.)

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Five minutes later, I was chasing a baby bunny around out back, but all I got from that was grass stains on my white shirt.

wireless weekend

Midway through Sunday's sermon, we lost power. I was manning the sound booth. We had zero audio reinforcement, no PowerPoint slides for sermon notes or for the words to the songs, and the videographer could not record the rest of the day's service for (local cable) television.

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Smoothly, the pastor said, "Well, I'll just have to project." The side doors were propped wide open and provided sufficient light to see each other. We had communion without a glitch, and for the closing song, they switched up to a familiar hymn, that most people know by heart.

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How nice that in a day when barely anything can be done without computers or at least electricity, that we were able to worship "unplugged."

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Just for fun, after church I recommended that if this ever happens again, we use our wireless microphones.