On my last shoot I had my PocketWizard and my flash gun attached to my Westcott Adjustable Shoe Mount/Swivel Bracket when it came crashing down. 

Now there is nothing wrong with the bracket. It is a great bracket that I would recommend to anyone. It is built for day in day out use. 

What the problem is is that the cold shoe is not very good. I was always worried my kit would take a dive one day and on the last shoot it did.

Luckily nothing was broken. A few spilt batteries was the only damage. But I would like to try to avoid things like this, so my search was on for a solution.

What I found was the enlight photo frio coldshoe. It is a much better connection between the foot of your equipment and the light stand.

I’ve also ordered some screws which I’m hoping will fit into the bracket so that I can have a bit of angle on the flash. They haven’t arrived yet but when they do and if they do fit there will be a part two to this post.

I saw this yesterday for sale in the second hand section at Fixation and I thought I would check it out to see how good it was in the flesh. It was worth spending the money on it rather than hoping a good one would turn up cheap on the internet.

Not had a chance to play with it properly. I’m sure I will soon.

I have just un-boxed a second hand Ice Light by F.J. Westcott that I purchased from Wex Photographic.

First impression is a little bit tainted by the fact that version 2 of the product is now out and looks like a better model. Version 1 does not have a removable battery so I have no idea what I will do with it once the battery is no longer functioning.

I can’t help myself from thinking that this is just a souped up torch and not cheap either (even though it was second hand). Having said that, I’m sure that it will get me out of trouble in the dark winter days we have in the UK.

So there will be plenty of time to wave it around like a “Star Wars” light sabre before I will really need it.

I was thinking today, why is photography dominated by males? In my day job and working on this project I seem to meet more men then women behind the camera.

So what can be done to balance the current male to female ratio?

Do leave an answer below, I’m really interested to read your views.

31 March 2015 Just found this video on YouTube

When I first started out on my photographic career I purchased a Gitzo monopod. It has served me well. It was only in the past couple of years that I decided to get a head for it.

It was a big mistake getting the “correct” head from Gitzo for my monopod. The head I chose is pretty big for a piece of kit that is supposed to be easy to lug around. There are also just too many different knobs and fiddly things on it for me to be comfortable with it.

As 3 Legged Thing have a sale on and the AirHed is going for a bit cheaper than normal I decided to replace it with their far superior bit of kit. Boy I don’t regret it. The Gitzo is going back into the box.