MT Stringer
11th of November 2009 (Wed), 01:07
I have been on a couple of threads talking about the Alien Bees (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=769998), Skyport wireless trigger/receivers (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=505381&is=REG) and security cables for the strobes (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=770746&highlight=security+cables). So here is my report/field test or what ever you want to call it of all of this equipment in action.
First of all, I hauled all of my lighting equipment in the Stanley FatMax 4-1 Workstation (http://www.stanleytools.com/default.asp?CATEGORY=ZAG+ROLLING+WORK&TYPE=PRODUCT&PARTNUMBER=020800R&SDesc=FatMax%26%23174%3B+4-in-1+Mobile+Work+Station) and it worked great.
I have two Alien Bees 1600's and the last two weeks I have set them up to shoot volleyball in four different locations. I got one complaint from a coach that said the lights were a "Bother". Her team was losing badly in the first game. So I shut them off. Her team went on to lose 3-0 and get swept out of the playoffs. This was a UIL school.
Then I set up the lights and shot the TAPPS Regional playoffs (http://www.tapps.net/volleyball.html) - 4 matches and 16 games total without a single complaint. 3000 images
This past weekend I shot the TAPPS Volleyball State championships. Friday was the Final Four day and Saturday was the championship games in 1A - 5A. I actually shot the 3A - 5A and another shooter shot the first two games with my Skyport transmitter on his camera. I wound up with about 4000 images with no complaints.
I usually clamp the light to a handrail at each end of the court. That's OK for a high school gym, but the venues we were in this past weekend were multi level and one had a suspended scoreboard.
For Friday's Final Four games, I clamped to a hand rail and then routed an extension cord along the rail and dropped it down to the floor below to where a receptacle was located. I taped it off with gaffers tape so no one would trip on it. I added yellow caution flagging to my mount to help attract attention that something out of the ordinary was there.
For Saturday's championship games, it was a different animal all together. At first it looked like there was no way to set up the lights. The ceiling was two levels with the center over the court high with the scoreboard suspended below it. Then the ceiling dropped down to a lower level from about where the team benches were and back to the back wall.
Finally, I found a handrail around a handicap seating area that I mounted my clamp/strobe to and routed the 15 foot cord that comes with the strobe over to a receptacle. That worked out real good except when a guy came along and plugged in his charger for his video camera. It must have been just enough to disturb the plug and the strobe quit firing. I went to it, checked it out and made sure the plug was in the receptacle good and the strobe started working again. I had that cord tape down good but it still got bumped is all I can figure out.
The second strobe had to be mounted on a light stand in the bleachers. Fortunately, the bleacher foot rest was wider than normal and my stand (13 foot) legs would open and just barely fit. I stuck one in the corner against the wall and seat bench and the other two had to stick out a little. I taped two legs to the seat benches with gaffers tape and it made for a sturdy mount. I only had to elevate the strobe about 7-8 feet to get it level with the other one. I wrapped the yellow flagging around part of the stand and down to the stand leg.
Note: I had security cables tied off to the handrail on one and to the stand on the other so if the light mount broke and the strobe fell, It would only go about 8 inches then be caught by the cable.
All seemed well. The Skyports fired the strobes with only a couple of misfires. I don't know if it was because the strobe hadn't recycled or what. Otherwise way over 4000 pops.
A few pics taken with this set up can be seen here (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=780066).
Here are a few pics of the setup.
I hope you find this info helpful.
Mike
1) Strobe mounted on handrail at a local high school.
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/mt_stringer/Flash%20Setup/MyStrobeMounted02.jpg
2) Strobe mounted on hand rail on second level above the floor at the gym used for the Final Four games. Same set up on the other end of the court.
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/mt_stringer/Flash%20Setup/MTH_0282-1.jpg
3) Strobe mounted on hand rail in gym where the championship games were played.
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/mt_stringer/Flash%20Setup/IMG_0438-1.jpg
4) Light stand used to hold the strobe on the other end of the court.
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/mt_stringer/Flash%20Setup/IMG_0437-1.jpg
5) If you build it, they will come! I had to go talk to the girls and ask them to stay off the light stand. They had already moved when I took this shot. One had her leg around one of the stand legs. It made me nervous. They were doing the "YMCA".
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/mt_stringer/Flash%20Setup/IMG_0436-1.jpg
6) If you build it, they will come...and bring friends! For the 5A finals, this school brought their band, pep squad and cheerleaders. Once again, I had to go talk to the girls and asked them to be careful because I didn't want the light to fall and hurt someone. They did real good and still got their cheers in.
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/mt_stringer/Flash%20Setup/IMG_0696-1.jpg
First of all, I hauled all of my lighting equipment in the Stanley FatMax 4-1 Workstation (http://www.stanleytools.com/default.asp?CATEGORY=ZAG+ROLLING+WORK&TYPE=PRODUCT&PARTNUMBER=020800R&SDesc=FatMax%26%23174%3B+4-in-1+Mobile+Work+Station) and it worked great.
I have two Alien Bees 1600's and the last two weeks I have set them up to shoot volleyball in four different locations. I got one complaint from a coach that said the lights were a "Bother". Her team was losing badly in the first game. So I shut them off. Her team went on to lose 3-0 and get swept out of the playoffs. This was a UIL school.
Then I set up the lights and shot the TAPPS Regional playoffs (http://www.tapps.net/volleyball.html) - 4 matches and 16 games total without a single complaint. 3000 images
This past weekend I shot the TAPPS Volleyball State championships. Friday was the Final Four day and Saturday was the championship games in 1A - 5A. I actually shot the 3A - 5A and another shooter shot the first two games with my Skyport transmitter on his camera. I wound up with about 4000 images with no complaints.
I usually clamp the light to a handrail at each end of the court. That's OK for a high school gym, but the venues we were in this past weekend were multi level and one had a suspended scoreboard.
For Friday's Final Four games, I clamped to a hand rail and then routed an extension cord along the rail and dropped it down to the floor below to where a receptacle was located. I taped it off with gaffers tape so no one would trip on it. I added yellow caution flagging to my mount to help attract attention that something out of the ordinary was there.
For Saturday's championship games, it was a different animal all together. At first it looked like there was no way to set up the lights. The ceiling was two levels with the center over the court high with the scoreboard suspended below it. Then the ceiling dropped down to a lower level from about where the team benches were and back to the back wall.
Finally, I found a handrail around a handicap seating area that I mounted my clamp/strobe to and routed the 15 foot cord that comes with the strobe over to a receptacle. That worked out real good except when a guy came along and plugged in his charger for his video camera. It must have been just enough to disturb the plug and the strobe quit firing. I went to it, checked it out and made sure the plug was in the receptacle good and the strobe started working again. I had that cord tape down good but it still got bumped is all I can figure out.
The second strobe had to be mounted on a light stand in the bleachers. Fortunately, the bleacher foot rest was wider than normal and my stand (13 foot) legs would open and just barely fit. I stuck one in the corner against the wall and seat bench and the other two had to stick out a little. I taped two legs to the seat benches with gaffers tape and it made for a sturdy mount. I only had to elevate the strobe about 7-8 feet to get it level with the other one. I wrapped the yellow flagging around part of the stand and down to the stand leg.
Note: I had security cables tied off to the handrail on one and to the stand on the other so if the light mount broke and the strobe fell, It would only go about 8 inches then be caught by the cable.
All seemed well. The Skyports fired the strobes with only a couple of misfires. I don't know if it was because the strobe hadn't recycled or what. Otherwise way over 4000 pops.
A few pics taken with this set up can be seen here (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=780066).
Here are a few pics of the setup.
I hope you find this info helpful.
Mike
1) Strobe mounted on handrail at a local high school.
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/mt_stringer/Flash%20Setup/MyStrobeMounted02.jpg
2) Strobe mounted on hand rail on second level above the floor at the gym used for the Final Four games. Same set up on the other end of the court.
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/mt_stringer/Flash%20Setup/MTH_0282-1.jpg
3) Strobe mounted on hand rail in gym where the championship games were played.
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/mt_stringer/Flash%20Setup/IMG_0438-1.jpg
4) Light stand used to hold the strobe on the other end of the court.
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/mt_stringer/Flash%20Setup/IMG_0437-1.jpg
5) If you build it, they will come! I had to go talk to the girls and ask them to stay off the light stand. They had already moved when I took this shot. One had her leg around one of the stand legs. It made me nervous. They were doing the "YMCA".
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/mt_stringer/Flash%20Setup/IMG_0436-1.jpg
6) If you build it, they will come...and bring friends! For the 5A finals, this school brought their band, pep squad and cheerleaders. Once again, I had to go talk to the girls and asked them to be careful because I didn't want the light to fall and hurt someone. They did real good and still got their cheers in.
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/mt_stringer/Flash%20Setup/IMG_0696-1.jpg