dan williams

I've been using a Sony F707 for a couple of years. One of the problems most beginning photographers have is when they're told to use fill flash even outdoors and not realizing many cameras will automatically set the shutter speed to 1/60 of a second. Too slow for many shots. On the Sony it is possible to use fill flash in "shutter priority" mode. This forces the camera to use the shutter speed set by the photographer. This works exceptionally well on the Sony because it uses an iris (leaf) shutter which opens from the center so even if the shutter is not fully open for the full flash duration the effect on the the image is a difference in the light contributed by the flash vs ambient. Unlike my old Minolta film cameras where a partially open (focal plane) shutter caused a dark area of the image. I've been able to shoot at 1/500 with fill flash. I have, on the New England Trials Association web site, some sample images from the yearly photo disk I do for the club. I hope Andy's not mad if I put the link here but I don't want to suck up his server space either. My favorite image is the guy on the vintage Yamaha. Unfortunately I didn't shoot the photo. I loaned the camera to a buddy who shot it. Damn that's the best trials photo my camera's ever taken. The other photographer is someone I loaned the camera to on a couple of days I had to work the event and she shot entirely different, in a way I never would have imagined. Real eye opener about how different people see. Dan www.newenglandtrials.org Really Andy it's not commercial, honest! P.S. Oh yeah, all the stuff that MalibuDon said. Especially the stuff about get close. If he is who I think he is. He's THE MAN! with a camera. P.P.S. Remember to have an escape route if the rider loses it in your direction. A high ledge with no way out is a bad place to confront a trials bike.