An Unexpected Treasure

Well, I've been playing with this external flash for the past week and haven't blogged about it yet...it was my Dad's, my Mom insisted recently that we go through his camera equipment. Most of it I didn't even realize he possessed.. I mean he's famous for always being with a camera but I really had no idea how many lenses he had. For his old SLR's mind you, treasures indeed.  He was a quiet man & even though he knew I was enthusiastic recently with photography never really shared what he had...it makes me sad slightly, but then I think about what my Dad stood for all his life, & it starts to speak volumes to me...it was his way of saying "It's the pictures we take & the moments that we capture that have true meaning, not about how fancy our equipment is." I've learned so much from this man, more than he even ever reallized.

Well, amongst all of his camera's lenses, filters etc.. a few old external flashes. This one, to my surprise actually works on my camera...it's an Achiever Auto Thyristor 260T... (who'd a thunk it) Very tricky it is, for example when the SS is set too high at about around over 350, I get this strange black line below the shot. & it's very random only goes off every few shots... it's like I need to slow down my own speed to adjust to that of the flash. Forget about it, because my settings are always on *continuous shooting!*. But not with this. So, after getting a feel for it, & if the timing is just right, it goes off & here are some of the results.

30mm ISO 100 (yay)  SS 160 f3.2




You'll notice in the past few shots of this little girl that chances are her blankie is to be seen somewhere in the shot! I think she's becoming more attached as she gets older :/  How about the tongue action, deep in thought of course,  too cute :)


30mm ISO 100 f3.2 SS 250


So happy with this one for example because Fred's room is usually off limits to me at night time because there's simply NO lights down there. A small table lamp is all that lights his room. So the idea that this was taken at an ISO of 100 simply amazes me!

& how special because with every time this flash goes off, (& it is seriously the coolest sound ever) I get chills thinking that my Dad is right there with me. Boy do I miss you Dad.