I dragged Quays colleague John Mullen out today for some quick tests shots with a mix of new and old gear. I've done a few shoots with the small reflectors and the 18cm reflector and easily overpowered the sun using my Ranger Quadras, but I was interested in seeing how I fared out with a beauty dish. I had also intended trying the Maxispot, but forgot to pack it in the unexpected rush to pink John up (I lost track of time!).So here's the silver Minisoft 44 on the Quadra (with El Adaptor) at full power (6.0). Exposure is 1/200, ISO100, f22 on a 5D MkII with 50mm f1,4. I'm basically standing on the light stand here, to prevent it blowing over in the gale force winds. I really need to get some sandbags!The shot isn't anything special, I was literally just checking that I had enough power to do the job. We were literally here for 5 minutes, then off to the woods.

In the woods, I made for a shaded tree, in order to test my new Viewfinder Photography 95cm Octa and the 30 X 140cm Striplight . These products use an umbrella like assembly that makes for very quick setup. They come with 2 diffusion layers, and a grid. They're cheap as chips too. 2 mishaps cut everything short. Having not done a charge since my last outdoor job, the striplight Quadra wasn't charging (this was an impromptu shoot), then a few droplets started. The forecast was Sunny with intermittent heavy showers, so we quickly pulled it all down and went back to the car. I dropped John off and had to contend with emptying the car in the middle of a rotten downpour. Oh well. The 95cm Octa did fire though, so you can see one of the shots below. The Striplight was coming from his right and behind, and would've separated him off the background. On a good note, he's up for going out again, so I'll get another go out there. It's all well and good that this stuffs work in studio, or at home, but I need it to be quick and reliable in the field.

Again this was a test shot to see everything was firing, but with the rain and the low battery, we didn't get any further. Next time.