Westcott Apollo rivals come in all shapes and sizes

The Apollo from Westcott is a square softbox known for its quick assembly. The distinctive light modifier opens, closes and mounts like an umbrella, making it ideal for location photography. It comes in 28″ and 50″ square models. At a recommended retail price of $166.45 for the small one, however, the Apollo isn’t cheap, and some photographers have been on the lookout for a lower-cost equivalent.

Phottix have announced a new product called the Easy-Up Umbrella Softbox, designed to be “ready to use in seconds – no fighting with rods and speed rings”. It comes in square (70*70cm) and rectangular (60*90cm) and is on sale at a cracking US$57 – a fraction of the price of the Apollo.

Photoloving have also released some of these softboxes in an even wider range of shapes and sizes under their iShoot brand. They offer 60*90cm and 70*70cm models as Phottix, plus a 50*70cm version and an 80cm octagonal one! ThePortable Reflective Umbrella Softboxes are sold in US$100 kits including light stands and adapters. The softboxes are also available separately for around $50 (you have to ask directly).

As well as the new releases from Phottix and iShoot, we also spotted similar softboxes from Nice at Interphoto Shanghai, suggesting there may be even more brands and sellers on the horizon.

So are these cheap Apollo-esque softboxes going to give Westcott a run for their money? The company don’t seem to think so. In a statement, the Westcott team said,

I am rubber you are glue! The first official "Bounce" meetup. Reflectors only!

yesterday we had a meet up from tampa bay strobist,

the main concept is to shoot without any strobe's, just reflector.

im not really on to ambient light and because of that

i ended up holding the reflector so my groupmate's can shoot.

They provide 5 or 6 models in the shoot. and all the members are

split in numbers of group. each group will have a turn on each model.

and the picture above was one of the few shot that i took while holding the reflector.

light it, shoot it, re-touch it

me and my friend's from our photography group joined the seminar of Scott Kelby training on orlando this morning.

it was great, there is a lot of people who joined and as well as the sponsor booth outside the seminar room, they got B&h Photo and bunch of DVD tutorial's and book's that will put your photoshop skill's to the limit.

this photo on the left was taken during out photoshoot the other day in a lake just beside downtown Lakeland.

For me i learned stuff like how to light your subject, coposition, and the most thing i probably like is on how Scott Kelby teach one by one on how to propper re-touch your photo's and postprocess it.

enough with the strobe and....

enough with the strobist, and step aside your pocket wizard.

David Hill layers. Mind blowing skills

Adventure Series - Exposed from Dave Hill

the behind the scene 3d from his 2d images

it was created for the launch of his redesign website.

finally, the moment i've been waiting for!

Hothouse New York:

August 13, 2011

Meat Packing District, New York City

$250 per slot

Please e-mail workshop organizer Sachi Villareal at sachiweddings@gmail.com to book a slot.

mymetrophoto

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Hothouse is the workshop series of Metrophoto on wedding photography. It is especially crafted to bring interested photographers all the learning, techniques, and knowledge that have made the Metrophoto brand succeed in the short time since its inception.

Hothouse, as the dictionary defines it, is an environment that encourages rapid growth or development of someone in a stifling or intense way. That is exactly what aim for but in a sure fun and inspiring way. It is a comprehensive download of everything that we know to help your photography and business get to the next level.

Part of the workshop activities and discussions are shooting concepts, equipment line-up and set-up, actual shoot, post production, up to branding and marketing and dealing with clients. We’ll simulate how to extract unique and stylish images out of a location that seemed to have nothing, we’ll share and show all the gears we use and WHEN and WHERE we use them and what could be your cheaper alternative, we’ll explain how to get that Metrophoto look right from the shooting up to final processing, and most importantly, how to create your own brand and business.

vivitar 85mm f/1.4 aspherical lens

it's about week now since i got my vivitar 85mm f/1.4, and im starting to like this lens. not only its 1.4 but it is also aspherical.. since this lens is manual focus, it's kinda tricky to focus,but i manage to use the live view for accurate focusing.

but for the rest, quality and build its amazing how this 329$ perform..

the metal and plastic built was beter than other third party lens.

the hood is plastic but it doesn't matter as long as it work..

katzeye offer focusing screen for diffrent camera models. but this is not only simple focusing screen, it has a split prism circle and microprism colar. it's like the focusing screen on those old camera's were autofocus are not inveted yet. and it really work's

here is a review of katzeye for 50D