Turning Point (part 9)

Allen Wedding Photos

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After enough time behind the PC editing screen to get a tan I've finally got my first wedding shoot edited. These are some highlights, I'll still be working on a wedding portfolio, let me know what images you think should get to the portfolio.

If you know anyone looking to book a wedding photographer, portrait photographer, or photos of any kind remember to send them my way, I'm currently booking and looking for more work.

I'll be getting back to the Turning Point Series tomorrow, I've got plenty of images just not enough time. Enjoy this plethora of images in the mean time.

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Review: the Cactus V4

So back in February I got a crash course in off-camera lighting and have loved it ever since. While I was at the Journal, I had the photographer's location lighting wet dream.

Three small strobes, four pocket wizards, two portable studio lights, two light stands, umbrellas, and anything I could make out of cardboard and gaffers tape.

But then my internship ended and I needed to find a way to keep my inner strobist going. So I checked out the Strobist.com partner Midwest Photo Exchange to see what budget kits they had available. I went with the non-flash equipped Starving Student SX2 kit.

That gave me a light stand, umbrella and other goodies but I still had to make a choice of triggering the flash here was the criteria I had for my triggering choice.


1. Wireless, it just gives so much more freedom than a 15ft cord pc cord

2. Inexpensive, yeah it'd be great to get the brand new pocket wizards with ETTL and
all that but not for the $300-$600 price tag

3. Reliable, losing the wires doesn't help if your flashes only fire half the time you
need them to.

I ended up choosing the Cactus V4 to meet these needs.

With these factors let me say that the V4's have met and exceeded my expectations. First they have a great price, $45 for a single transmitter and receiver combo and $28 for each additional receiver.

For this price you get a reliable product, I have had it miss fire maybe all of three times in the two months I've had them so far. I chose the V4's after reading all the reviews of the previous Cactus V2's and how they can be rather spotty, this is not so for the next generation.

The manufacturer claims that they will work reliably for up to 100 feet however I've tested them and seen them work up to around 200(in an open field), although a little spotty after getting beyond 150, but you get the idea.

They have 16 different channels to work with however I doubt you'll ever need that many options. They are built pretty lightly but when they're less than $50 to replace I think that that's no problem.

All in all I think that these transmitters are the best option I know of on the market for reliable, cheap, radio flash triggering.


--After writing this I met with Matt Mikus to take the photo's for the post, and we figured out that one of his V4's that we were trying to use to take the photo's was dead on arrival. He'll be checking into that and I'll post how well the customer service is on replacement.

And a thanks to Matt for meeting with me to get the shots for this post.

Some Lighting Practice with Matt Pt. 1