YeoPhotoGroup by Keith Robins

Hand held fairground night-time shots are nothing new for Keith Robins Photography, but now we're trying the same technique with the addition of a flash.
Camera settings for these shots are half a second exposure at f5.6, 100 ISO and my motorcycle battery powered Vivitar 285 HV on 1/16th power. I asked Grace to stand about six feet in front of me with the brightly lit fairground ride another twenty feet beyond and hand-held my Canon 400D.
I've visited the Great Dorset Steam Fair on many occasions over the last thirty years but only ever used flash successfully back in the seventies on slide film.
Now, with digital you'll be thinking that things are a lot easier - not so! When you love pushing the boundaries of flash photography nothing is easy, or is it? I practised with a flash plus a small twisting curl of the camera body in the first image, then used the same settings for the remaining images which gave me time for a flash plus zoom (the second image).

For the third image there was plenty of time to wave the camera in a small semi-circle without a flash.
Although I did have a Manfrotto tripod with me I just had to try this little experiment without it. Besides my tripod was being used by another member of my little group who had accidentally left his at home.
On the third image I managed to carry out all three manoeuvres while the shutter was still on half a second.

This final image shows Grace lit by 1/16th powered flash quickly followed by zooming the lens towards the telephoto end and tilting the camera slightly downward. Okay, so it took a few attempts to get the fourth shot but the final result works for me and to hear Grace's gasp of astonishment when she saw it, that was reward enough.
Next challenge for YeoPhotoGroup members is a gritty urban portrait using both my Elichrom D-Lite 200 studio lights on a single 12 volt battery. Yes, of course I've tried this rather extreme approach - it works fine - he said with fingers crossed. Look up a new post in a week or two to see how we get on with what are basically indoor lights in an outdoor environment.
http://www.keithrobinsphotography.co.uk