Setting up a small on the spot studio

One lazy afternoon we went southwest to do a couple of flower shots. We then visited my fiancees mom just to spend an afternoon with the family. I was going around their house and found some pretty interesting items. I didn't want to take them home and photograph them so I had this idea to photograph them on the spot...by creating an on the spot mini studio.

Funny because that day I had both my Canon MR-14EX macro ring light and my Canon 430 EX II in my camera bag. I wasn't really sure why both of these were in my bag but it was awesome for this kind of setup I was going to do. Why is it so awesome? It's because the Canon MR-14 EX macro light has the ability to trigger my 430 EX II!

So I grabbed a piece of white paper, put it against a wall like a big background sweep. I then set my 430 EX II flash on its stand and put it near the sweep. This will serve as my background light. I then attached the Macro light to my camera using the Canon 100mm f2.8 macro. I then set my camera in a tripod.

I then set my macro flash to trigger my 430 EX. Did a bit of adjustment for my background light and I was ready to go.


You can see the flash from my macro light directly hitting the subject. For instances like this, it's good enough.


I was so close to my subject that I had to put my camera in a tripod to restrict movement.

Sometimes being a photographer means you'd have to improvise to shoot what you need to shoot. Having all the stuff you need with you helps out a lot in this situation. So basically this kept me busy the rest of the afternoon!