G3 - Using flash, using a tripod

Like a lot of people who use flash for close-up/macro I experimented with different flash setups from time to time. Some of them are shown below. Despite these experiments I continued to have an uneasy relationship with flash throughout this period. I was not happy with the look of a lot of the flash-based captures and I think that is why I used available light so much of the time. Very few of the examples I picked for display here in the blog used flash. I have not trawled back through the many hundreds of images from the period to check (and I don't use a Digital Asset Management system that would help with this), so I don't know how much this reflects my really not using flash much at all, or whether I used flash quite a lot but simply don't like the look of the flash images.

Using available light often involved exposures that were slow enough to require using a tripod. My relationship with the tripod was a bit on and off. It was big and heavy and I found it quite slow and awkward to use. I could miss shots while setting it up, but it did help improve the slower exposure natural light shots (and was essential for the really slow exposures) and it also helped with framing and focusing for higher magnification shots. 

Click on an image to see a larger version

This shows the tripod right on the edge of instability. With the setup in an unstable position, or nearly so, I would be using it with at least one hand on the camera.

The diffuser was in two parts, one fitting firmly over the flash, the outer one able to rotate within the first one. By combining this rotation with adjustments of the flash head on its base I could alter the angle from which the light fell on the subject. 

The rotatable diffuser seen from a different angle.

This is what I took with me when visiting one of the nature reserves.

Neither this one nor the next one got used much. They proved to be too awkward to use.