Lithium battery update

Out of morbid curiosity (and also because I really wanted to know), I set out to try and see how many full powered shots I could get out of my Porty Premium A/S with the CTC lithium battery equipped battery drawer.

The answer?  A LOT!!  :D  I lost count somewhere around 100, but to be honest I just gave up trying to kill the battery.

I'm *SERIOUSLY* impressed and it takes a lot to impress me!  The pack didn't flinch; I know there's obviously a limit to how many shots you can get out of the battery, but the battery gauge never dropped below 100% (which I expected because of how the lithium battery works).  It also didn't just turn off either so there was plenty of gas still in the tank.  After a while I was more afraid I was going to overheat my flash head before I found the limit of the battery.

So yeah, the battery isn't cheap (well... it's cheaper than the official Hensel unit), but it's worth every penny.  I honestly figured it'd be on-par on the low end with the Sealed Lead-Acid (SLA) batteries I had been using but instead it blows them away.  I knew my SLA's were getting "tired", but even when they were new they didn't perform this good!

Losing weight the easy way

Back around 2009 I sold my Alien Bee lights and upgraded to some Hensel Porty Premiums (and one O.G. Hensel Porty) because of not only their superior performance but also because of their portability.  I still do studio styled work but a lot more of my stuff has been on-location and/or required me to be able to transport my lighting around from place to place.

The Porty Premium Plus, in all it's glory.

Technology has changed a lot since then though.  Although the packs still kick ass, they've been eclipsed not only by Hensel themselves with newer battery technology but by other companies also.  Hensel came out with the Porty Lithium series which cut a lot of weight off of the packs, and Alien Bees have since come out with not only their Einstein studio strobes but they've also come out with the Lithium based Vagabond portable power generator.  In comparison the original Porty and Porty Premium packs feel like lead bricks because, well...  there actually IS a lead brick inside of them.  :)  Let me tell you from experience that it ABSOLUTELY SUCKS lugging around a lead brick, especially when trudging through sand on a beach shoot.  :D  When I was in my late 20's/early 30's it wasn't that big of a deal.  As I start my 40's I can definitely say that this getting old shit is starting to suck.  :D

For a while now I've been contemplating trying to retrofit my Porty packs with Lithium batteries but on the surface it's not a straight forward or easy task.  You not only have to worry about sourcing the lithium batteries, but you'd have to source a battery management board, AND you'd have to most likely replace the Hensel battery chargers too.  After looking into it a few years ago I all but gave up on the idea.

Recently though my packs have been in need of new batteries.  The batteries are getting up there in age; typically a lead-acid battery will only last six years max before it stops holding a significant charge.  When that happens to the Hensel batteries it starts causing all sorts of weirdness with the packs themselves.  No word of a lie here, my O.G. Porty (the one that has the battery in a trap door on the bottom, not the newer revision that has a battery tray like the Porty Premium) will turn itself on spontaneously when the battery starts going south.  :D  The Premium packs won't fire correctly, will shut off, etc.  Until you figure out what's going on you start to think the packs themselves are damaged, but it's nothing more than a bad battery causing the problems.

So, knowing that I was going to need new batteries soon, I decided to look once more into the lithium route.  Thankfully technology has progressed far enough where it's now possible to replace the SLA AGM batteries in the Hensel Porty Premium with lithium based batteries and it doesn't require any modification to the pack or chargers either.

The Original Gangsta (O.G.) Hensel Porty w/1200 watt-seconds of symmetrical love per port. :)

Hensel themselves now make a Lithium battery for the Porty Premium, but at $685 it's not exactly "economical" ( http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/755807-REG/Hensel_1494_Battery_Drawer_with_Lithium.html ).  Hell, to replaced the SLA battery in an existing Porty Premium battery tray with a genuine Hensel battery, it costs a little over $150 too ( http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/831176-REG/Hensel_4791_Battery_for_Porty_Premium.html ).

If you're like me though, you're frugal.  You also know that the genuine Hensel SLA battery is nothing more than a relabeled $30 generic SLA battery someone else makes.  So I figured that the same situation must be at play with the new lithium battery equipped battery drawer, and that if I could figure out who made the battery, I could retrofit my existing battery drawers to the newer battery technology.

I don't know who makes the batteries that are in the Hensel 1494 battery drawer, but CTC Battery, Inc. out of California makes a drop-in replacement for the standard SLA battery that has a built-in battery management system that lets you replace pretty much any SLA battery with it instead.

You can see the full specs on their web site here:  http://www.ctcbattery.com/LiFePO4-Rechargeable-Battery/CTC-12-8V-13-2Ah-153-6Wh-Lithium-Iron-Phosphate-LiFePO4-Rechargeable-Battery

Just like losing weight around your waist the weight loss comes at a price.  Although there's a lot of benefits to losing the unnecessary weight, you do end up paying more to do it (i.e. having to buy new clothes, paying more to eat healthier, etc).  Before you get all excited, know that the battery isn't exactly cheap; or at least not as cheap as an SLA battery.  Amazon sells the battery for $170 (http://www.amazon.com/Phosphate-replaces-LC-R1211P1-LC-CA1212P1-WKA12-12F2/dp/B00H7I11P6/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1437239953&sr=8-10&keywords=12.8v+lithium+iron).  Still, for what Hensel wants for one battery from them, you can afford to upgrade FOUR of your existing battery drawers and still have money left over to buy the soldering iron you're going to need to do the replacement (http://www.amazon.com/Iso-Tip-7971-SolderPro-Butane-Soldering/dp/B001RIDT84/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1437240007&sr=8-4&keywords=butane+soldering+iron) !

Now are there any trade-offs with going to this lithium battery?  Yes, definitely!  First, the good trade-offs:

• It's about 60% lighter than the stock SLA battery!
• It lasts about 30% longer too!
• Because there's a battery management controller built right into the battery housing you can continue to use the stock fast chargers that came with the Hensel packs!
• They hold their charge for a lot longer than an SLA battery.
• If you treat them right you'll get more discharge/recharge cycles out of them than a comparable SLA battery.

The not so good trade-offs:

• I can't speak to the Hensel branded lithium battery, but with the CTC battery you lose the ability to use fast recycle if you go over 8.0 power on the pack. What happens is the battery itself turns off because it thinks there's a short circuit (you then have to remove the battery, plug it back in, and then power the pack back up).  The way around it is to put the pack in slow recycle mode.  For me the reduced weight and the increased power capacity completely out-weight the need to use slow recycle over 8.0 power so it's not a big deal.  Even with SLA batteries I usually used slow recycle mode anyways to extend the life of the batteries.
• I haven't tested this for sure, but knowing how lithium batteries work in laptops, chances are if you use the pack in a studio setup with the fast charger connected (so it's charging the pack as you use it), you'll probably shorten the life of the battery significantly.  The only major benefit SLA batteries have over lithium packs is that they don't care if you charge them as you use them.  As long as you don't completely discharge them to a zero volt state and sulfate the battery in the process, they'll take the abuse.  Lithium battery packs?  Yeah... they REALLY dislike it when you do that to them.  The work-around is to either keep an SLA equipped battery tray to use "in-studio" so you can fast-charge it while you use the pack, or keep spare LiFePO4 equipped battery trays on chargers and swap them in as needed.  I converted three of my five battery trays to LiFePO4 batteries; the two remaining SLA's are still good so I'll be using them in this fashion.
• Lithium based batteries have a really nasty habit of catching fire if you expose them to water.  If you think about it, on one hand putting these kinds of batteries in a light pack that can get expose to water isn't the best idea.  On the other hand you would have to go completely out of your way and do something INCREDIBLY STUPID to get the innards of the batteries wet.  The lithium packs themselves are sealed in a battery carrier that looks identical to the one that SLA batteries are made from.  In other words, water isn't getting in there unless you intentionally break the housing.  You're also installing the batteries into a removable plastic battery tray, and that in turn gets shoved into a metal encased housing. The innards of the batteries aren't getting exposed to water by accident.

In other words you'd have a higher chance of hitting the jackpot in a lottery... twice... than the lithium inside the battery getting expose to water.  The only reason I'm mentioning it though is that I know that some idiot, somewhere, will somehow manage to kill themselves and set fire to everything around them because they cracked the battery open to see if it'd catch fire if they poured water into it.

• I haven't tested this myself yet either, but chances are that the battery gauge on the pack will not properly display the discharge state of the battery.  That's because the controller in the pack will try to put out a constant voltage, so even though the battery is low, the pack will "think" the battery is full.  That's why if you look closely at the Hensel lithium battery tray it has a separate battery indicator.  Not a deal breaker for sure but something to be aware of.

There is one other thing to mention here, and that's you can't easily convert the O.G. Porty to lithium unfortunately.  :(  Although you can buy a LiFePO4 battery that will fit exactly into the Porty, the problem is that the power draw is just too high for too long a period of time.  The battery management board will think there's a short and cut the power output, so you won't be able to use the pack above a certain power threshold.  The O.G. Porty doesn't have a slow recycle mode either so you can't get around the issue easily.

If you've read all this and you thought to yourself:  "I have an Alien Bees Vagabond 150/300 or Vagabond 2.  I should be able to do this to my pack too!", well you can... to a certain degree that is.

Theoretically you could retrofit the original Vagabond 150/300 with one of these lithium batteries and it most definitely would work.  The problem is the amp draw on the battery.  Doing some sleuthing around it appears that the Samlex 150W inverters used in the Vagabond can draw up to 20A from the battery.  You would have to test this yourself to be sure but with one inverter you'd *probably* be fine with up to a B800 at full power.  You'd have to do your own testing though (and you assume all risks and liabilities in the process), so if I'm wrong about that, tough cookies.  :P :)

With two (the Vagabond 300, which is just two 150w inverters in one package) would probably NOT work since combined they've be drawing 40A at full load.

The Vagabond 2 would be a little more flexible since it has a slow recycle mode.  

An open response to Pat Pope's open response to Garbage.

If you're friends with me on my Facebook page, no doubt you've seen the article I posted on April 9th by Pat Pope by now.

http://www.diyphotography.net/stop-working-for-free-pat-popes-final-word-on-his-open-letter-to-garbage/

Garbage posted a response to the letter on their facebook page.  You can follow the whole heated debacle here:

http://www.facebook.com/GarbageOfficial/posts/981221691888682

I took the time to post a reply on Garbage's response with my own thoughts and experiences, but the chances of you people actually seeing it are slim because of the way the commenting system works on Facebook.  So.... I'm posting what I wrote here for all to see.  Feel free to chime in on the comments section if you agree or disagree with me or the whole can of worms this topic brings up.

****************************************

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not a fan of Garbage, though I am a fan of Shirley.  :)  Loved Shirley in T:TSCC and I've got a thing for redheads too, but that's a whole other subject.  :D

I'm neither going to demonize Garbage for asking for free photos nor demonize Pat Pope for posting a public open letter  to their request.  Garbage, along with their management company, are quite literally doing pretty much what everyone else is doing:  asking for free stuff.  Everybody loves free stuff... unless you're the one being asked to provide it.  That's when you realize that free really isn't free; someone somewhere is footing the bill.

Those of you jumping all over Pat Pope; you missed the point of the open letter by about 200AU.  If you stop now, think, and give it some time to sink in, maybe Voyager 1 will catch up to you in another 50 years.  :P :D

Everybody likes to use the word "professional", but it's astounding just how many people don't have a grasp of what being a professional is.  Being a professional is more than a way of doing business.  It also means you value your own and others time and respect that they also are trying to make a living.

I for one am ecstatic that Pat chose to post his response publicly for a few reasons.  For one, it brings to light a very real issue these days:  professionals acting unprofessionally, then getting butt hurt when you call them out on it.  Additionally it brings this whole subject into the limelight.

Part of the reason why it's become so commonplace is that it's become taboo to talk about it.  I myself used to think that I must have an invisible "The Goodwill of Photography" sign on my back because of all the people hitting me up wanting either to use my work for free, or for me to take free photos of them.  The whole "taboo" aspect of it is why these "professional" entities get away with it.

How many of you have already forgotten that the NFL was thinking about making artists pay to appear at the superbowl halftime show?  Once word got out and made public they made a very quick turn-around on that though because of the backlash.  If that hadn't been made public I guarantee that eventually that "business model" would have trickled down elsewhere.

I myself have pretty much heard it all by now from similar businesses though.  Radio stations, liquor companies, local bands, book authors, people looking for free pics for their facebook profiles... the list goes on.  The arguments are always the same in all cases:

-We don't have any money (but if you read their financial statements, they raked in 300 million the previous year.  That happened to me and I'm not making that up whatsoever).
-I need to prove that you're the right person for the job.
-If you let us use your work/do work for us, others will hire you!
-So and so did it for us last year.  Why don't you do it too?
-We used to use (insert name here).  They were a bunch of assholes.  We like you though!

... and in some cases:
-You should be paying us to take photos of us!

The list goes on and on and I could take up my whole day today going into detail with it all, but I've got better things to do.

It isn't just artists this happens to as well.  I also do computer work and no word of a lie, a local company that I was helping out (and was working for next to nothing as it was) started playing games and making it sound like they were doing ME the favor by letting me work for them.  I quickly kicked their asses to the curb for that.

Like it or not Pat is 10000000% correct in his statements, especially about the abuse of power.  If you won't do it for free they'll just find someone else to do it.  In the process you'll be blacklisted because you didn't give in.  That's happened to me in every instance where either I've politely declined to work pro bono or I've told them to go shit in their hat.

In closing; they say there's no harm in asking.  When the entity doing the asking isn't really asking, but DEMANDING that you give in to them (and if you don't there's reprocussions levied against you), then there's real harm being done.  Last time I checked, the technical term for that is extortion...

Shooting with battery powered lights in dim lighting.

If you've ever done an on-location shoot using portable battery powered lighting in a dimly lit location, no doubt you've run up against this rather annoying problem:  your camera isn't able to auto-focus because of the lack of available light.  One obvious way around the problem is to use the modeling light on your flash though.

Since I directly meter my lights with a flash, rarely have I ever used a modeling light to gauge the output levels of my lights.  One thing I find myself using the modeling light for though is to add light to a scene so I can properly auto-focus on my subject.

Depending on what you're using for lights you probably already have a modeling light you can use.  For example, Alien Bees/Einstein lights have a 120v modeling light.  The lights I use (Hensel Porty's) have a 12V automotive style bulb.  You may be using a light that has no modeling light at all though (i.e. a speedlite).  Excluding speedlites, no matter what you use you've no doubt already figured out one of the biggest downfalls of using a modeling light as a focusing assist light:  it kills your battery.

Paul C Buff doesn't recommend using the modeling light on their lights when you're using a Vagabond power source since it'll kill the battery very quickly.  With the Hensel Porty, the modeling light is barely adequate since it's just a 12V automotive bulb and isn't particularly powerful.  It also causes the light head to get really hot, and it kills the 12V battery in the Porty very quickly too if you keep it on for very long.  Speedlights?  Well, they don't have a constant light source in them to begin with.

You could try strapping a flashlight to your light but it's not exactly ideal.  It'll weigh down the light and unless you spend a lot of money on a good quality flashlight, chances are that it's not going to be very bright either.  Instead, what if you could use something that can output as much light as a car's highbeam, is miniscule in size, can potentially go for hours, is inexpensive, and doesn't kill your flash's battery?  Sounds like a wild fantasy right?  Well not anymore it isn't!

As Tony Montana once said, "say hello to my little friend!"

Besides being into photography, I'm also an avid cyclist and I ride at all times of the day, including at night.  High powered lighting for bicycling use has exploded in recent years because of the advent of high output and power efficient LED's.  Although there's a lot of LED flashlights out there, the biggest name in LED's for those flashlights is CREE.  It used to be that a good bicycle headlight with CREE LED's cost a fortune (for example, I have a MagicShine MJ 880-U2 and that set me back over $200).  However, you can get a headlight with the same CREE XM-L LEDs in it for significantly less.  How much less?  Well, I bought one for $30 that's nearly identical to the light I paid over $200 for a year earlier!

If you go on eBay you can find quite a few listings for these lights.  Just do a search for "CREE XM-L U2 HEADLIGHT" and you'll see several listings at various price points.  Here's one listing for example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121365041733

The light is *TINY* (roughly 2 1/4" x 1 1/2"  Height varies on mounting method) and because it was designed to be used on a bicycle it's lightweight and the lithium ion battery is small too.  Depending on the light you purchase you can also adjust the light output over a variety of presets as well.  It can easily fit on top of a speedlite with Velcro or bungee cords, and you can also strap the battery onto the side of the speedlite without it looking completely out of place.  You can also attach it to a light stand using nothing more than the included o-rings.  With a little work you can also attach it to the shaft of an umbrella and it wouldn't interfere with the flash output.  You could mount it inside a softbox too if you wanted.

Depending on the included battery and the output level you select the run time will vary, but generally speaking, on "low" power, most lights will last about 4 hours.  Medium is 2 hours, and full power is about 1 hour.  My particular unit lasts almost two hours at full power, which depending on what you're doing, full power is complete overkill.

Is there any downsides?  Well... yes, of course there is, but they're not dealbreakers.

Because it's not directly part of the light it's function as a true modeling light is limited at best.  It won't be able to track the power output of your light so using it to judge exposure isn't going to work.  Also, because it's not at the same focal point as the flash tube, it won't give you a 100% accurate representation of the light pattern (but depending on how you mount it, it can get really close).  At full power the light also gets really hot, and by hot I mean you won't be able to touch it.  If you put it into a softbox be aware that it's going to get really warm.  It's also something else you're going to have to remember to bring with you, but it's small enough where you could keep it in your gear bag and not generate extra weight.

I wish I had thought of using this light on my speedlites back in October when I shot a wedding.  I had to shoot some of the formals in next to complete darkness with only my cellphone's flash (as a flashlight) to focus by and two Canon speedlites for illumination.  I managed to pull it off but things would have been so much easier if I had this light on one of the speedlites!  I did use this light on my Porty this past weekend though in-studio and it performed beautifully.

I shoot friends in small spaces...

Yeah, yeah.  I know it's been a while since I posted anything new on here.  A lot has been going on in the past year and I just haven't had the time to update this page with new content.  The majority of what went on is just life in general.  For the most part I'm just now getting back into the swing of things with shooting again for a variety of reasons.

At any rate, I figured I'd kick off the new year with sharing a "dirty" secret and a trick that some of you may find useful (if you're a photographer with limited shooting space that is).  One thing I'm going to say up front though is that you try this trick at your own risk, and by trying it you acknowledge that I'm not liable if it doesn't work for you, you break your gear, you hurt, mame, or kill yourself or your client, model, whomever or whatever, or for your own stupidity if you do something that this just can't handle.

The "dirty little secret" is that everything you've seen me post that was shot from 2009 to present was not shot in a formal studio.  A few years ago I used to shoot out of a local co-op studio, but for a variety of reasons I left.  I switched to using my living room in my home; it was more convenient, I didn't have to pay for something that I already had, and I didn't have to put up with drama either.  WIN/WIN/WIN!  :)

With that said though, shooting out of a living room that's only 12' x 22' can be a challenge.  The ceilings are never high enough and there never seems to be enough floor space.  Using a few tricks though makes the experience a LOT nicer and improves the quality of the images.

One of the biggest problems with having limited space is finding a place to put light stands, having ample room for the counter weight on a boom arm, etc.  With the former, you either end up tripping over the stand a few times, knocking it over, or you can't put the light exactly where you want it.  With the latter you end up banging the counterweight against walls (or against your head... yup, I've done that).

The easiest solution to not having enough space for a light stand or boom arm is... well....  just don't use light stands or boom arms.  :D

I really can't take full credit for this since a former acquaintance of mine showed me part of this "trick".  Some of you are going to say "hey, that's nothing new!", and to a degree it isn't something "new".   So what's the trick?

Use wall attached boom arms clamped onto autopoles instead of using light stands and boom arms.  :)

There are a few makers of Autopoles (Matthews, Impact, & Kupo), but the biggest manufacturer is Manfrotto.  For the boom arm you can use any brand you'd like; me personally I bought two from Adorama on one of their ebay auctions.  It was inexpensive and did the trick.

If you have nothing and you're just going to go out and buy the items you'll need, the whole thing is pretty cut and dry:

• 1 Manfrotto AUTOPOLE *2*
• 2 Super clamps (any manufacturer will do, but I like Calumet's since they're about the average price you'd pay for other manufacturer's clamps and the last time I bought them they came with the hex bolts you'll need for this).
• 1 Wall mountable boom arm (mine are made by Flashpoint)

Manfrotto makes a few variants of Autopoles, but the biggest change was from their original Autopole to their Autopole 2.  Manfrotto improved not only the clamping mechanism but they improved the gripping surfaces too.  Although Manfrotto recommends that you use their optional tripod legs if you use boom attachments, if you're using Autopole 2's, as long as you're not trying to hang really heavy lighting accessories on the boom, and you have hardwood floors and a decent ceiling, you should be fine.  Your mileage may vary though so TEST IT BEFORE YOU SHOOT WITH IT!  I've seen this rig used with Autopole 2's and the pole was put in all sorts of weird angles and it held firm no matter what was on the end of it.

Everything assembles together easily; almost like it was meant to go together.  :)  No drilling or cutting is required.  Just attach the super clamps to the mounting holes on the wall mount boom arm like so:

 

I was being a little anal retentive when I assembled mine and I used four bolts instead of just the two that came with the super clamps, but you really don't need four.  Two will hold just fine.

You then attach the whole apparatus to the autopole.  Once it's attached all you need to do is loosen the upper super clamp a little and then release the autopole when you want to move it.  Once you put it where it's supposed to be and you clamp the pole, just tighten the upper clamp.

OK so that's not much of a trick, I know.  I'm willing to bet some of you already even know that one.  But, say for example you're like me and all of your autopoles are the original models without the improved clamp and gripping feet?  Manfrotto suggests using their tripod legs attachment for this but if you're shooting in a small space it's counterproductive to be using it.  I mean, the whole point of using the autopoles is to make better use of your space, right?

The pole's clamping mechanism isn't much of a problem really.  If you clamp the boom arm like how I have it in the photos above, once you lock the pole and tighten the super clamps, the pole's slide mechanism isn't coming loose.  The problem is the gripping feet; once you extend the boom it's going to work itself loose from the surface it's pressed against and topple over.

That's where a little American ingenuity comes into play.

There's two ways to solve this problem; the cheap and dirty way and the elegant and semi-cheap way.  Either way will do, but here's the cheap and dirty way.

If you have the original Manfrotto Autopole that does not have the non-marring surface pad attachment on it (and the holes in the pad are too large to let you attach those pads), here's what you need:

• a spindle from a 25 pack of CD/DVD's
• some self-sticking weather sealing tape
• JBWeld (this depends on the spindle really)

Just add the weather sealing tape around the sides (depending on the spindle construction, you may need to put some JBWeld and some of the tape around the center too if there's a lip around it) and if need be a small piece on the peg of the spindle.

Attach it to the end of the autopole...

And then mount the pole in place as you normally would...

You may notice the end of the autopole where it attaches to the spindle move a little, but that depends on the size of the peg in the spindle really.  There's nothing to worry about though since it won't slip against the ceiling once the pole's clamped tightly to it.  I've been using this trick for about a year now and I've yet to have the pole slip off the ceiling, even when using a beauty dish.

Now the reason this works isn't so much because of the improved gripping surface of the weather sealing tape.  It works because the spindle locks into the end of the pole and combined with the better gripping material, the larger surface area spreads the force of the clamping pressure and the force of gravity working against the boom arm over a larger area on the ceiling.

If you have an autopole with a smaller diameter hole in the gripping surface, or if you have the tools on-hand and the inclination to make it, you can technically make a less expensive version of this that'd grip even better.  Instead of a CD spindle, get a 6" x 6" piece of wood, a dowel that's 2" long (the diameter will be whatever the hole size is on your autopole's gripper foot), some wood glue, and some rubbery shelf liner.  Drill a hole in the middle of the 6"x6" piece of wood, put some glue on the dowel, hammer it into the hole, and let the glue dry.  Once it's dry, glue the rubberized shelf liner to the back of the board and trim to fit.

If you want to impress your clients, paint the thing a matte black so it looks like you spent big bucks on it and then attach the rubberized shelf liner to the back of it.  :)

The curious case of the disconnecting Logitech G930 headset.

Model:  Lady Fosta

Yeah yeah I know this technically isn't photography related but I'm gonna talk about it anyways.  If it helps, I like to listen to music/streaming audio while I edit so in a round about way it's related.  So there!  :P

I own a few pairs of headphones (you can see my Sennheiser's on the lovely Lady Fosta on the left there), but the ones I like to use with my computer are my Logitech G930's.  While they don't have the clarity of my Sennheiser cans they have one very big advantage:  THEY'RE WIRELESS!  It may sound like a dumb reason to love them but having one less cable getting in the way makes a world of difference sometimes.  Besides, I have to really strain to hear the difference between them to be honest, but I chalk that up to me just getting older.  :D

Thing is though for the longest time the headphones drove me up a wall.  When I first bought them they worked great but after a while they started acting weird.  If you own a pair of them you probably already know what I'm talking about here.  Every so often and for no apparent reason the audio will cut out for a second or three.  I really thought I broke the things at first:  Once I had accidentally bumped into the USB transceiver and slightly bent the plug on it.  Another time I pulled a stupid and partially dunked the ear cup with the charge port in a dish of water (don't ask... :D ).  When I couldn't get them to stop cutting out every so often I gave up and chalked it up to my own stupidity and clumsiness.

Call it morbid curiosity but lately I wanted to see just why they were cutting out every so often, mainly since when they work they are an awesome pair of headphones!

Since I bent the USB plug on the transceiver I figured that'd be the best place to start, so I ripped it open to see if there was any broken traces on the PCB.  Nope, not a one!  Scratch that off the list.

Next I opened up the cans themselves, starting with the business end that contains the USB charging port.  I was mainly looking for corrosion from the quick aquatic adventure that cup underwent, but I couldn't find any visible trace that water had actually made it into the casing.  Nothing looked out of the ordinary either; no cold solder traces, no apparent shorted components.. nothing!  It looked fine (of course that doesn't mean that one of the chips wasn't shorted internally, but since the things were off when they got wet, and they worked fine except for the sporadic disconnecting issue, I doubted anything like that was wrong).

Since I hit a dead-end there I figured that maybe it was the LiPo battery failing.  I did notice that the battery wasn't lasting as long as it was before, but given that they were two years old that's normal really.  I went ahead and ordered a new replacement battery but as I was goofing around with the headset afterwards I noticed that when the audio would cut out the headset never turned off...

At this point I started digging around online to see if I could find an answer.  Pretty much the consensus is that it's an *interference problem* since the headset works on the 2.4Ghz band.  For you non-geeks, that means things like cordless phones, wireless routers, etc, could interfere with it, causing the audio to drop out.  In all the information I found the general answer was that there was no way to fix the problem because Logitech was a bunch of cretins and didn't take something as simple as interference from a wireless router in consideration and there is no way to resolve the problem...

....or is there?  :D

One solution I read was to change the channel on your wireless router to channel 1 and that seems to help, but let's get real here.  I wouldn't just have to change MY router to channel 1, I'd have to ask all my neighbors to change their routers too since radio waves don't exactly stop at the walls.

Obviously since I'm writing about it I must have found a solution, no?  If you found this blog post because you were looking for a fix for your G930 headset, this is the info you've been looking for.  Now just because it worked for me doesn't necessarily mean it'll work for you too, but you've got nothing to lose trying it.  It's one of those things that glaringly obvious when you point it out but I've yet to see anyone mention this.

All you have to do is re-pair the headset to the transceiver.  :)

Do the following:

1. If the transceiver isn't already plugged into your computer, plug it in now.  Don't use the USB puck/extension thingy though.  Plug it directly into a USB port on your computer.
2. Turn on the headset.
3. Wait a moment for the headset to link with the transceiver.
4. Get a pin or any other thin pointy implement.
5. If you look at the transceiver, just above the green LED light there's a pinhole switch.  Press the switch with your pointy thing.  The green LED will start blinking fast.
6. Wait between 15-20 seconds.
7. Near the USB charging port on the headset you'll find another pinhole switch.  Press it and the led light on the transceiver will blink slow again.

That's it!

Since doing this last Saturday I've used them for four days without a single hiccup or droput.  On a side note, because of the length of the cable on it, I have noticed that the hockey puck/USB extension/charging cable can cause some issues with the transceiver.  So unless you absolutely need it it's best just to plug the transceiver into a USB port on your computer.  Instead of using a USB port up to charge the headset though, go to Walgreens and pick up a "Tech & Go" 2.1A USB wall wart for $15 and plug the puck into that instead.  Heck you could get away with the $8 1A version of the charger but the 2.1A version will charge the headset faster and it's only a paultry $15.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't...

Model:  Nichole Ferreira

One of the things I absolutely hate about this business is just how catty it can get at times.  The dick wagging / measuring, the hair pulling, the one-upsmanship bullshit that goes on, peacocking, etc.  The popularity of Facebook doesn't help either so everybody including their unborn offspring is on Facebook now these days, which means everybody is usually up in everybody else's business.  :/

For those of you who follow me on Facebook though:  have you ever noticed that I don't say much (other than posting photos, an occasional joke, and *maybe* sometimes saying something I shouldn't?  :D ).  There's a reason for that.  It's because Facebook is like a real life version of Hotel California: you can check out any time you'd like but you can never leave.  :D  In the Facebook version of Hotel California though it's rife with fights, douchbaggery, backstabbers, gossip mongers, and egomaniacs who try to out-do each other, put down the other person, and in between they post status updates of what they just ate too.  :D

I know some people will try to say otherwise, but for the most part I try to lead as drama free of a life as humanly possible without outright cutting off the civilized world.  Engaging in that crap really doesn't get me anything and it sure as all hell isn't going to change how things work in social media, so I willingly chose not to engage in it.  It does mean that I sometimes go out of my way to avoid people that I think are drama magnets though, but in the end there's less stress in my life so I stay happier.  :)

All the same just because you don't hear me say something doesn't mean I don't hear what others are saying.  :D

When it comes to me I don't think some people realize not only just how long I've been doing photography, but just how much I've done, how many people I've worked with over the years, the different genres I've dipped my toe into, the various styles I've experimented with...  and just how much crap I've dealt with along the way. too.  :D

This stuff used to get under my skin but these days it cracks me up because it not only shows ignorance and pettiness on the part of the people engaging in this crap, but when it comes to me and my work, it shows how little they know about how much I've done and what I do.  Photography and modeling are rather tight knit businesses (everybody knows everybody, and everybody likes to talk.  :D ).  That and people mistake the fact that I don't bang my own drum as loud as I can about my accomplishments because I have nothing to say or show when in reality I'd rather let my work speak for itself.

Case in point.  Here's some of the things I've either read, have had relayed to me, or said directly to me:



Meh...  he's only been doing this for 3 or 4 years.  Pinup's dead and he'll fade away pretty soon.

Actually I've been doing this for going on 13 years.  I started out doing scenic and landscapes, but then got introduced into glamour photography around 2003.  2005 is when I started learning how to light with studio lighting.  Around 2007 is when I pretty much fell into pinup photography.  In this span of time I've shot pretty much every genre under the sun too.  If I fade away it's not because I can't adapt; it's because I choose to go away.


He can only shoot pinup.

I love to (and have shot) a LOT of other genres like fashion, retro, glamour, wedding/bridal, boudiour, goth, glamour nude, and artistic nude.  It's just that the majority of people that contact me have a hard on for pinup (and usually only want to shoot their narrow definition of it).

He can only shoot on a white backdrop.

Yeah... right...  I can shoot on more than just white (or black) backdrops.  I've done a ton of on-location work, multi-light setups, colored lighting, etc.  One of the reasons I shoot a lot on white lately is because that I prefer to shoot my style of pinup stuff on white.  It's also because of how my shooting space is arranged that it's easier for me to do that instead of trying to hang different backdrops (not that it can't be done).

Just because it's easier for me to do doesn't mean it's a cinch though.  If you think it's that easy, feel free to try doing a proper high key background that's properly exposed and also properly exposing the person in the foreground, all in camera and without resorting to photoshop with a shooting space that's about 12ft x 22ft.  Get back to me on that one...


He'll only shoot with me if I get naked!

That's a half-truth.  :D  Until now I've never publicly said anything about this because I really thought this one was funny as all hell.  I find it funny because it really shows just how far people will go in their heads to read into something just so it fits their world view.  I make no excuses or bones about it that if someone wants to work with me for trade on my pinup work, they have to be comfortable posing up to lingerie and implied nude.  If you look at my work you already know why that's a requirement.  What I've never disclosed publicly before though is that the question is more of a psychological test than me probing for a model's limits.

He doesn't want the models he works with working with anyone else!

I actually know where this one started, who started it, and who the individuals were who continued to spread it for a while.  I'm not going to go into the details behind this one because it's not worth rehashing it all and getting into a "he said, she said" situation.  I will say this though:

The truth is that none of the models I work with are under contract to me and not only do I not care about who they work with or what they do with them, I have less than no say in the matter as well as to what they do.    They're also not my girlfriends or wives (surrogate or actual), so even on those grounds I have no say in the matter.  I'm not going to outright lie either though;  I am good friends with a handful of the models I currently work with and they've asked me occasionally if I would be upset if they worked with certain people (and vice versa where I've been told that they'd be upset if I worked with a certain person).  At the end of the day though I can't and won't stop them from working with who they want;  it's their choice, body, lives, and careers.  I try not to engage in this petty crap though whenever I can.  It's completely unproductive not to mention completely pointless in the long run.

Waaaaaaah!!!  He's posting work that looks like my style/he's copying me/he's trying to show me up!  Waaaahhh!!!!!  Call the Waaaaahmbulance!!

News flash:  I give less than a shit what people think of my work or what I do.  I'd be lying if I said that I haven't drawn inspiration from other's work, but chances are good that if you're local to me that I have never attempted to recreate something you've done (it's that whole "never steal from your neighbors" thingy).  Chances are pretty high that I probably haven't even seen what you're crying about either.  I purposely avoid looking at others work these days whenever I can.

I also don't put work up just to show-up people.  I have better things to do than engage in petty one-upsmanship.  I've got very little free time to myself these days, never mind finding the time to do my creative work.  When I post my work somewhere it's because I'm either promoting myself or just showing the work because I'm proud of it.

He's an arrogant prick!  I put up something and he doesn't even comment on it!

Read the above.  To elaborate a little more on this though; I generally don't say anything about anybody's work unless I'm specifically asked by that person to comment.  The reason for that is because when I don't say anything people think I'm being snobby, an elitist prick, etc.  When I do say something it's usually taken negatively (even when I mean it positively), and they think I'm being a know-it-all asshole.



Either way I can't win so I just keep my mouth shut and let people think what they want.  It takes less energy and effort on my part.  :)