It’s been a while since I did an update for Rochester Photographer…

I recently did a nice wedding as a second wedding photographer with my friend from Alwyn Photography. The wedding was in Webster, NY and the wedding reception was at Eagle Valein Fairport, NY.  Being a second photographer removed some of the pressure of the day and gave me an opportunity to run the Nikon Advanced Wireless System (AWS) during the reception and to see how it compared to my Pocket Wizards.  Let’s just say I started using AWS and 15 min into working with it I was back to using my time tested Pocket Wizards to fire my remote speedlights.  When AWS worked, it worked pretty well.  My problem was the inconsistency of the remote speedlights not firing.  I was using the Nikon SB-900as the master and the sensor side of the remote speedlights were facing into the center of the room.  On average I was 15-25 feet away from the remote lights and they only fired about 1/3 of the time.  To say the least I was not pleased with the results of the remotes not firing off each time.  I quickly switched over to the pocket wizards and I was back in business.  The rest of the wedding reception went well and I learned that the AWS isn’t all it’s cracked up to be since it appears to need a perfectly clear line of site from the master speedlight to the remote speedlight.   Meaning no wedding guests can be in the way which makes the system pretty limiting for wedding photography since capturing one time moments is what wedding photography is about.