Summer Picnic

Your Photographer, with Karen, Liliana and the villainous Blackrapid strap

See the Gallery here

Nice day today with Karen and Family.  The Painters & Tapers union annual picnic at Lake Phalen.  It's scaled back from previous years - no face painters, no clowns/jugglers.  Attendance more sparse than before, too.  Oh well, it was fun anyway and we had the Little Lady Bug there to keep everyone entertained.
Catastrophe:  I was fiddling with the Blackrapid strap and let go of the camera.  I felt that sick feeling as my very expensive pro camera clattered to the concrete deck.  Bent the hot shoe bracket.  Mike Z helped me pry it open.  I was able to operate the SB-800 speedlight that night but that bracket is going to have to get replaced.
Karen's Mom is going to put some stiches in the strap so this never happens again.
I used the Gary Fong Lightsphere on the speedlight to soften and spread the light around.  Another thing I like about those is that I can use the TTL setting as opposed to having to operate the exposure manually when the little plastic diffuser (the one that came with the light) is snapped on - the camera knows it's there and shuts off TTL.  Not so with the Fong.  I am taking this on the cruise this time, too.

I am the victim of the weather again.  Cloudy at sunset, I was hoping for some deep-blue skies for dusk HDR by the bonfire.  Instead, I took a walk through the 'hood and got one in.

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