A GREAT New Starter Strobe Kit! BRAND NEW!

NEW! No waiting for an Auction to end! Bid Now = Buy NOW!

Dear Visitor: Welcome to my eBay store fixed-price venue! This format allows you to make your purchases INSTANTLY! No bidding (and no chance of being outbid, no chance of the price increasing, and no chance of losing out on the auction). This is just like making any regular purchase; simply placing your bid, places your order! Order one item or package, and one gets shipped right away; order 2, and both get shipped right away (once you pay for them, of course:).

So just decide how many of these fabulous 90WS Starter Kits you want, and as soon as you place your order (and pay), your new goodies will be on their way to you - right away!

 Want a whole professional 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, or TEN strobe photographic lighting studio in one dynamic kit? Maybe just some light stands? Only a strobe or two? Some New Digital continuous lighting equipment? Something really, really special for the photographer you love with all your heart (like, perhaps, yourself:)? Look no further!

You can find ALL these things right now in my other auctions (except for the luscious lovely to the left; I'm gonna keep that one for myself:)

<-Looks almost like natural light, doesn't it? Not completely! Strobes made this lovely image better. The give-away? The main light looks like it's coming from the left (which it is - for the main light - a window), but look at the catch lights in her eyes! That's coming from 2 strobes; one just behind and (barely) to the right of the camera, and the other just to the left of the camera (a Minolta Maxxum 7, btw)! From now on, whenever you're looking at pictures in magazines, notice the eyes for clues to the lighting setup - and where the catch lights appear in the models' eyes. The secret to ALL magnificent images? That's an easy one; it's the LIGHTING! A photographer is a LIGHT writer! See below for more information and lotsa photographic tips and tricks...

Take Care, gentle photographer - when choosing your lighting equipment. There are many strobes and much lighting equipment of lesser quality, fewer capabilities, and much less versatility being sold online nowadays. Of course, it's you who will make the decision about who you will buy from, and which equipment you will buy; however, before making your purchasing decisions (and forking over your hard-earned cash:), ask yourself a few questions: Does this strobe have a removable reflector? Does it come with variable-power capabilities? Is it expandable and are there accessories available for the strobes to easily and inexpensively expand your lighting capabilities (like these)? Does it come with a guarantee backed by an American-based manufacturer/distributor to provide service or replacement? If the kit includes umbrellas, are they appropriately matched to the strobe's output power? Does it come with an American power plug, or does it require adapters just to make it work? And how much help and information can you expect from the seller? If the equipment you're considering buying fits your needs, even without the capabilities I usually like my equipment to have, then make your purchase knowing what you're ordering and what you're going to have to work with when your equipment arrives. I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't buy equipment with lesser capabilities, just that you should understand what you're getting before you spend your hard-earned money. But, of course, you're the customer, and you decide what to buy, and from whom to buy it.

Here's why I like my strobes to come with the capabilities I've described: 1) If a strobe doesn't have a removable reflector, then you can't control the light spread (coverage angle) - you're stuck with whatever output angle the strobe comes with, so it's far less useful to us (sometimes we want a narrow light spread to highlight our subject; other times we want to remove the reflector completely for a broad 180º light spread to light backgrounds, large areas, or groups, for example). 2) If a strobe doesn't have variable power capabilities, you'll need a larger studio area because you'll have to physically move the strobes farther away from your subject in order to reduce the light when needed (with variable power strobes - such as these - we simply flip a switch). 3) If you're only buying 2-4 strobes, you're much better off having them be of the same power; it makes it quicker and (much) easier to set up your shots and allows you to get perfect exposures more easily. 4) One of the greatest disappointments for new strobe owners is to discover that they cannot (easily and inexpensively) expand the capabilities of their lights (by using color filters/gels to allow us to change the color of our backgroundsand subjects or to direct and modify the light with barndoors (see below for examples) because the strobes we bought didn't have the ability to use these helpful accessories, etc.). 5) And finally, if you're buying umbrellas with your kit, the size of an umbrella should be matched to the strobe's output; too large of an umbrella will result in too much light reduction (and consequently forces you to use either a very slow shutter speed, or a much larger aperture, which cuts down your depth of field, and may blur your images), and too small an umbrella will allow light spillover and substantially decreased effect. So use your head, choose your equipment carefully, review the seller's feedback, check out the supplier's web sites, and no matter where you buy your equipment, have fun and make some great pictures! Thank you for visiting this auction, your time and consideration are most sincerely appreciated.

Why do photographers want powerful flash equipment (strobes)? Because (both indoors and outdoors) with strobes, WE CAN CONTROL THE LIGHT! Sound familiar? Starting to get the picture, now? (sorry, I just couldn't resist ;-)

Hmmm... Light!

What the heck is a "Watt Second?" And what's a "GN?"

As we can see from this view, with the reflector removed, the New BB-100 is well-stocked with controls and comes with many of the extras already built-in.

With these units, everything you'll need to start working with them is included; the strobe itself, flash tube, a removable reflector, a Tilt/Swivel Bulb Holder, power cord, and a sync cord; just plug them in, and fire away!

The "ready" light goes on to let us know when the strobe is charged and ready to fire; the "test" button lets us fire the strobe to test its proper functioning; the "sync" terminal lets us attach a sync (or PC) cord to the sync terminal on our cameras to control the firing of the strobe with the shutter button on our cameras; and the "optical slave sensor" lets us fire the strobe automatically with the flash of any other strobe or flash unit.

Complete: Each of these BB-100s comes complete with a removable reflector, sync cord, AC cord, Flash Tube, Tilt/Swivel Bulb Holder with a built-in umbrella holder, and standard light stand connector; it's ready to plug in and fire away! Since these strobes are A.C. units, they're ready to rock! No batteries or powerpacks or light heads or connector cords are needed; just plug 'em in, and (just like Elvis) you're ready to rock and roll.

These are brand new, 100% guaranteed, with the manufacturer's full one year warrantee . These are NOT seconds, blemishes, or anything other than brand new, absolutely perfect, current 2003 models! Just 'cause the price is great, doesn't mean these are in any way less than perfect! Questions? Requests? just e-mail any questions or requests, to me at PhotoSource3@pss3.com

Point of Information: Why, you might be asking yourself, have virtually all photographers switched to using strobes, when "regular" continuous lights (photographers call them "hot" lights) are everywhere, and it's easier for us to see how the lighting will look with them? Well, the continuous lights, like the ones in our houses (tungsten lights), or halogen (and similar) are called "hot lights" for a reason: they get hot. Really hot! And the special photographic hot lights get twice as hot as household bulbs! This tends to make certain things, like flowers, foods, animals, and those darn pesky models, wilt. Especially models. They get very, very, unhappy when they wilt. Whine, gripe, groan; you'd think a little melting makeup, and running mascara, limp hair, and sticky lipstick, and beads of sweat running down their lovely curvaceous (umm, let's say noses) was a big deal or something, the way they complain! ;-)

Next, there's a little problem with the "color temperature" being way off with hot lights, so we have to use special films (3200K or 3400K) or filters, or special photographic bulbs, when using them (strobes are perfectly balanced at 5500K to simulate sunlight, so we can use all the regular daylight films we've come to love/hate over the years). You'll notice that most of your pictures taken indoors without using a flash turn out with a yellowish color cast; that's because household lights are loaded with yellow and red light. The solution is to either use special films, or special filters. But why create more problems for yourself? Using strobes eliminates all these headaches (and heat!). Also, with continuous lights, they're always shining; usually right in our subject's eyes, causing squinting and annoyance (and ugly looking pictures). With strobes, nothing is shining in their eyes, and the flash is too short to cause any of this discomfort to our beloved subjects (until AFTER the flash, when they might be chasing all those little light blips around the room:). Additionally, with strobes, we can control the light much better! We can adjust the power output with the flick of a switch. We can modify the light with umbrellas, softboxes, softcases, filters, scrims and gobos, doo-dahs, and thingamajigs, etc., etc. We can direct the light with barn doors, snoots, honeycombs, and many other accessories. In short, with strobes, we can play God with our photography; WE CAN CONTROL THE LIGHT! And we can do it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, whenever we want, no matter what the weather is, and without regard to daylight or night. There are yet other, more esoteric, as well as mundane reasons why strobes are the preferred means of photographic lighting in the modern world, but we'll pass on those things for now. You've probably had enough information shoved down your throat already (sorry, but I can't resist trying to educate everyone about photography).

Here's just a small sample of the variations you can get from putting a color filter over your background light (or any strobe). The point is to let you know that owning strobes with capabilities of accepting additional, optional light-modifying accessories (like these great strobes) is always better than buying lights that cannot be accessorized or expanded. A custom set of color filters or barndoors, or other accessories are always available to you (most for less than $20). The translucent white filter is like having a softbox! Just pop the white filter over your main light, and you'll soften the light as well as eliminating any possible "red-eye" problems! The point is to let you know that owning strobes with capabilities of accepting additional, optional light-modifying accessories (like these great BB-50 strobes) is always better than buying lights that cannot be accessorized or expanded. The background on all the shots above was a pure white muslin. The color intensities can range from a heavy, deep color, to a light tint, depending upon the settings you choose, the angle of your background light, and the distance of the background light from the backdrop. I made these exposures with a relatively light tint (and I purposely included the strobe in the shots, something we usually don't want!), so you could see it (we usually place the background strobe behind our subject, and hidden from the camera's view). If you'll notice, in the blue exposure (on the right), how I angled the BB-50 (by pointing it up), resulting in a tonal gradation of deeper color at the top, and lighter color at the bottom, to show you one of the many techniques you can use to give you all sorts of different coloration effects. Also be aware that these shots were made with a cheapie digital camera; your 35MM or mega-pixel digital camera pictures will have much better results. Heck, you can spend a whole week just playing around with this stuff! Just be sure you keep careful notes (you DO keep notes on your exposures, don't you?) so you'll be able to duplicate your favorite effects! Just to be 100% clear on this, these color filters (gels) are INCLUDED with this package as a Special FREE Bonus! Back to top of page
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BARNDOORS

Ah, here's one of every photographer's favorite accessory. The barndoors is a wonderful, inexpensive, and easy way to modify and direct the light.

As you can see from this image, and the one below, we simply open and close the barndoors' four "doors" to control exactly where we want the light to go (and, of course, by extension, where we don't want the light to go).

NOTE: These barndoors do not come with this package; it's simply an example of the expansion capabilities of these strobes.

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Sometimes we don't want any light to appear somewhere in our frame; one common example is when we don't want any light "spillover" to reach out backdrop (especially when we're after the solid black "dropout" effects so popular today). Conversely, when we're using a strobe as a backlight - to light our background - we often want to keep the light confined to our backdrop, and not illuminating the rest of our workspace; so we use the barndoors to restrict our light to the backdrop.

Other times, we want to keep the light directed onto a certain part of our subjects (like when we want to highlight the face of our portrait subject, or a product). There are a million used for barndoors, and as your photographic talents increase, I have no doubt you'll add a couple of barndoors to your studio equipment.

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Specifications: BB-100 Pro Studio Flash

Shop with confidence!
Bid with confidence!
Buy with confidence!
From a Profoundly Proud
GOLD eBay PowerSeller!

This PowerSeller proudly provides a plethora of perfect photographic products - PLUS - pure, powerful, and peerless customer service!

Here's a fabulous deal on an excellent quality light stand. This Brand New Britek light stand extends to a height of 6 1/2 Feet, and folds down (fully assembled) to only 2.8 feet for easy packing and transport.

These stands have a black finish which reduces unwanted glare; three vertical sections (19mm, 16mm, 13mm), and three double-braced legs (16mm), which provide excellent stability in the studio or on location. They're topped with a standard 3/8" stud with 1/4" thread, type A. Sturdy as all get out, yet only weigh about 3 lbs. (so you can pack up a set of three stands for under 10 lbs. for location shoots - believe me, schlepping around anything heavier can give you a hernia, especially when added to all your other gear). Yet these babies can be folded up and put in the corner of your closet and take up very little space.

I've been using these same stands for over 3 years now, and couldn't be happier! You'll probably love 'em, too. They're sized perfectly for multiple uses: with a low height of under 3 feet, they're great for background lighting; at their full 6.5 feet, they're perfect for lighting standing subjects, lighting from above for kids or sitting subjects, or even hairlights; and adjusting them anywhere in-between, they're perfect for subject-level lighting, whether you're photographing kids or adults (or things)! BTW, as stated above, you'll be buying brand new stands here, NOT my used ones (those are mine! you can't have them; I like them, and I'm gonna keep them; you go buy your own! (hey, at this great price, buy several. :).

Reality Check: Hey, if you're rich, I'd suggest buying a set of bigger, heavier (& more expensive) stands for your pro studio setup, and another set of lightweight stands for location shoots; but my studio is in my house, and I don't have 20 foot ceilings for the 15' stands anyway, so these stands work just fine for me. 6.5 feet is plenty high for most uses, and we have larger stands should you need more height. And they're sturdy enough for studio work, and light enough for location work. Realize, though, that these stands, while certainly a great deal and a marvelous value, are the working photog's Chevys and Fords; not Rolls Royces. Treat them with minimal respect, and they'll see you through to old age; but if you're looking for the Ferraris of light stands, go buy something else. This sturdy light stand is rated to hold a load of 10 pounds (but, personally, I try to keep the load under 9 lbs when it's fully extended) either way, it's likely to be able to hold darn near any lighting unit you're using. Of course, there are bigger and heavier stands, too.

All the sections of these stands are quality tubular stock, NOT the cheapie solid ones (which are heavier and less versatile, as well as cheaper). The only "cheap" part of these stands is the price - not the quality! Bid now, while they're still in stock.
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From whom should you buy your photographic equipment? Hey, it's your hard-earned money, so you should buy from anybody you darn well like! However, one of the advantages of buying from another photographer is that, unlike "salesmen," who just want to "sell" things to you, a photographer will know what you need, and what you don't need; a photographer will know why you'll need something, and why you won't need something; a photographer will have actually used the equipment being sold, and will be able to offer advice based on real-life experience. Of course, the facts that photographers (like us) are usually much better-looking, a lot smarter, definitely kinder, and unquestionably much more creative than other folks, doesn't hurt either, does it? ;-)
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Unlike the others who try to cover up their own photographic illiteracy with not-so-vague warnings cautioning you against buying from anyone else (but them, that is:), I won't stoop to such reprehensible behavior; I guess I'm just not greedy enough to do such things. In addition, I trust you to be smart enough to make up your very own mind, without my self-serving advice, telling you who you should and shouldn't patronize. Sure, I'm in business to sell photographic equipment, but I'd rather lose a few sales than insult my customers' intelligence with admonitions like: "Buy from me! Don't buy from the other guy!" So go ahead and check out what's available, compare prices, quality, and customer service philosophies; see who you think will provide more help and support. Then, check out the feedback profiles; go look to see what the other "photographic experts" were selling a few months ago (that'll be a revelation:). Next visit the web sites, of your potential suppliers (especially those who claim to be photographers with "100 years experience," and see how much they really know about photography). Then, in addition to the usual, logical, informed, procedures for making your purchasing decisions, check with the old standby that's almost always right, your gut feelings. You might also want to consider the "Power Fallacy" before making your purchasing decisions. Check things out; make up your own mind. Then, without doubt, you'll come to the right conclusion. [However, - just in the interest of saving you time and trouble ;-) the conclusion you'll surely come to is that "PhotoSource3" on eBay (who is also the beloved founder and talented creator of MyPhotoHome and Photographer'sSupplyStation) is "Da Man" from whom to buy your photographic goodies! =:-) ] Thank you for being kind enough to view this auction (I hope you realize that my humor is meant to be fun, and is intended with good will), may you have the best of luck, and don't forget, as always, no matter who you choose to honor with your photographic purchases, take (or better yet, "make") lots of great pictures! And remember, you can't get good - unless you get started.
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The Business of Photography - Selling Portraits: We have our portrait session where we make dozens and dozens of exposures (sometimes, we might even take a hundred pictures or more in a portrait session; especially if we're working with a family or group). Then, we send our clients home, telling them that we'll call them as soon as their prints come back. We then send the film or disk to our lab and have them make contact sheets for us; when we receive the contact sheets from the lab, we carefully examine each image, and pick out the very best 5 or 10 or 20 images (we never let our clients see ALL the images - there are always a bunch of exposures that turn out terrible)! There are those pictures where the client's eyes are closed (everybody blinks, and sometimes they blink just when we press that shutter button:); in other shots, the client moves their head or glances away and messes up our carefully-designed lighting. So we pick out the very best ten or twenty images out of all the pictures we made during the portrait sitting. The client never sees the imperfect images, only the very best of all our shots. Then, we have our lab make an 11 x 14 print of the best image, and then we have the next 5-10 best images made into 8 x 10 prints for us. The, we make 4 x 6 prints of perhaps about next 3-5 best images from the session. We then put the 11 x 14 print and maybe 3-4 of the 8 x 10 prints into beautiful frames. We set up all the pictures in our studio and call the client in to see all these lovely images (or we bring the pictures to our client's home or office for viewing). Of course, there are some portrait sessions wherein we make only a few pictures; perhaps a business executive wants one picture of himself for the company annual report, and isn't interested in any additional shots. But even then, always make at least a dozen exposures; that way we're sure of getting at least a couple of good images (just try to imagine how embarrassing it would be to call our client and tell him/her that we have to do the session all over again because none of the two or three pictures we took turned out good enough).

Why the frames? Because we also make quite a nice profit on selling picture frames, as well as pictures (albums, too)! The client ends up seeing only the most beautiful images (and thinks we're phenomenally-talented photographic artists:). They see how wonderful the pictures look in the lovely frames, and end up ordering lots of prints, and lots of frames. Always ask the client if grandma and grandpa would like some prints; after the client orders the 11 x 14s, 8 x 10s, 5 x 7s and 4 x 6 prints, always ask how many wallet-sized prints they would like. Write up a great order! Make a lot of money by making a lot of people very happy. Can you think of any better way to make a living? And, unless you're a gynecologist, in what other profession can you ask a magnificently beautiful girl (or guy, depending upon your outlook:) who you've only just met, to take off her clothes, and have her do so quickly and happily? Huh? AND get paid for doing it! Damn, I love photography! :-) BTW, no matter what your models may look like, always tell them they're beautiful/handsome; it makes them feel good about themselves, helps them loosen up for the camera, and is absolutely true - everyone has beauty, if only we have the eyes to see it. And therein lies the secret of every great photographer: he/she has developed the "photographic vision," the eyes to see the beauty in everything.

Buy a copy of Popular Photography, and every other photographic magazine you can find. Look for the ads that all the custom labs always have running in these magazines; also find the ads for wholesale suppliers of picture frames, albums, calendars, custom mugs, and poster-size prints. Call, e-mail, visit the web sites, or write to every supplier and ask for their wholesale price lists. Choose the labs and photographic suppliers you like, and compare prices and delivery times. Try out a few different sources, and after a while you'll have your favorite suppliers. You'll find that the prints and other supplies are surprisingly inexpensive, and you'll have a truly great markup for your profit. Wham, bam, you're on your way to a fun, creative, and wonderfully rewarding way to make a living doing something you love. What more can we ask out of life? OK, someone to love, perhaps? If you haven't met him/her yet, there are few better ways to find new friends (and lovers:) than through photography (after all, making people look great tends to impress them favorably, right?).

So give it a shot; there's no downside; if it works for you as a profession, great! If not, at the very least, you'll have a wonderful and creative hobby (along with the admiration of your friends and family). And at best, becoming a successful photographer means fame, fortune, and world travel; and the joys of the artistic creativity that accompanies such success aren't too difficult to learn to live with, huh? And don't forget about all the exquisitely beautiful / handsome models you'll be "forced" to work with, either! :) Hey, it's a tough job, but somebody has to do it, right? Life has few guarantees, but one thing you can be absolutely certain about is this: you can't possibly succeed unless you try.
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