Proof I survived the lack of TTL tonight

[2WheelPhoto]

Lately I've purposely turned my strobes to manual when shooting people while using umbrellas and wanting to mix ambient and such. In the past because it was so convenient I'd use TTL and bounce off ceilings or walls. I recently sold my TTL stuff.

I was asked to take some casual snap shots at a baby shower. I walked in, set the shutter, popped 2-3 bounced shots in the house and set strobe power level and aperture for flash, done. Becuase I tweaked TTL so much on exposure compensation when bouncing and such, I admit I did fumble around and make slight changes to my cheap vivitar, shutter and aperture "just a few times so as not to feel odd".

But I discovered not only is there life after fancy TTL style strobes, but I enjoy life even more without it. I shot with a $30 ebay vivitar 285 and pocket wizard in one hand holding it out bouncing off anything and a d7000 and 24-70 in the other hand.