Super Cheap: Replacement Tubes for Your Broken Speedlight

When it comes down to it, there aren't a ton of things that can go wrong with a speedlight. And if your flash appears to be in working order (i.e., charges, zooms, etc.) but won't fire, it is probably a bad or broken tube.

While you are probably looking at a three-digit repair bill from your OEM manufacturer, you can also DIY the repair for next to nothing.

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My Week With Heisler, Pt. 2

Editor's Note: Contributor Sara Lando continues her three-part series chronicling her 10-day stint as an assistant/mole with Gregory Heisler in Dubai. This is part two. Part one is here.



By Sara Lando -- "Lighting is a lot like cooking. You have a gazillion different instruments and what you use will depend on what you want to eat. Also, you don't learn how to cook by eating at restaurants. You have to cook."

When Heisler was talking about this during his lecture, I thought it was cool and made sense. But it was probably only when we stepped into Cavalli Club that I got to realize how much "having to cook" was going to be put into test.

He was entering the club for the first time himself: for a series of reasons, we weren't able to scout the location beforehand and he only got a glimpse of the place from some cellphone footage. When we stepped into the club, the first word that came through my mind isn't one I'd feel comfortable reporting.

The place was pitch black.

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On Assignment: Kai-Huei Yau's Football Previews

Growth as a photographer is, for me, long periods of muddy struggle punctuated by moments of clarity. Sometimes the moments break new ground. But other times the moments solidify things you already knew —but didn't know know.

Photographer Kai-Huei Yau's shot of a high school football lineman is a great example of the latter.

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Wait! It's Not What it Looks Like!

That's pretty much what I had to tell my wife, the first time she saw this baby in my basement.

And yeah, I do know what it looks like. Doesn't help that it has the words "Wizard Stick" printed on the other side of it, either.

But actually, this thing is a hand-held, AA-powered fog machine. Yeah it is…

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My Week With Heisler, Pt. 1

Let's say for a moment that you found yourself embedded as an assistant with arguably the world's best living photographic portraitist. And let's also say that, beyond your primary duties as an assistant your secondary goal was to be observant as possible and report back on what you learned.

That's exactly what happened to Italian photographer (and occasional Strobist contributor) Sara Lando, who as you can see above was not at all excited about her assignment at Gulf Photo Plus earlier this year. She looks almost bored, dontcha think?

This post marks the first of a three-part series on what she learned from her experience. Today, the intangibles: the stuff you'd never consider because you are too busy worrying about a gridded beauty dish or something…

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On Assignment: Don't Deny the Obvious

We give a lot of attention to light mods around here: big ones, little ones, hard ones, soft ones, umbrellas, soft boxes, grids and the like. But sometimes the best light mod is no light mod at all — especially indoors, with neutral walls.

In that environment, often the smart choice is just to stick your bare speedlights on stands and go.

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