Roof Repair in Westcott, SC

No matter what type of on-camera flash you rely on for your photoshoots, you’ll need a long-lasting power solution to get you through multi-location portrait sessions, wedding receptions, and shoots in the studio. Fortunately, most speedlight and on-camera flashes integrate seamlessly with high-capacity camera-flash battery packs.

Camera Flash Battery Packs

Rechargeable battery packs are a cost-effective and efficient power solution for photographers. Most flash battery packs are compact so you can integrate them into your normal photography kit without worrying about physically accommodating a lot of extra equipment while you shoot.

When you’re firing flashes in rapid succession, you need to minimize the time required for your batteries’ power level to fully recycle. Traditional AA and AAA batteries aren’t robust enough for operating a flash, so you’ll experience increasingly longer recycling times the longer you shoot.

Camera-flash battery packs are designed for faster recycling, so no matter how fast your flash fires, you don’t have to worry about delays or overheating flash units. Eliminating disposable batteries from your workflow is also a more eco-friendly choice.

Flash and camera cables facilitate your camera’s communication with your flash units. These specialized cables transmit vital information about power level, timing, and flash duration, so it’s always a good idea to choose cables made by the same manufacturer as your flash unit for accuracy and efficiency.

Brackets, battery holders, and carrying pouches make it easy to position your flash’s power accessories exactly where you need them for the most functional setup. You can wear your power packs on your belt, attach them to the camera itself, or carry them in a pouch with a strap.

Every on-camera flash unit is different and has its own set of technical specifications and power requirements. Powering your flash unit with the right battery pack is an important step for prolonging the life and functionality of your gear. Choosing brand-specific power packs ensures your gear works as expected every time.

Camera Flash Battery Packs from Industry Leading Brands

Nikon, Canon, Quantum, Flashpoint, and Westcott are some of the top names in professional-quality flash units for photography. Investing in flash batteries by these and other leading brands helps you prepare for and execute every photo shoot. Turn on your flash knowing you’ll have all the juice you need to shape the light to perfection with one of these battery packs.

OUTER BANKS, N.C. — As we celebrate Black History Month, Spectrum News 1 has been looking back on life-changing people, events and movements in North Carolina’s history.

This week, we’re honoring the heroic actions of the crew members of the Pea Island Lifesaving Station, with the help of Zachary Lemhouse, staff historian for the Culture and Heritage Museums of York County, South Carolina.

What You Need To Know

From 1874 to 1878, a chain of 18 lifesaving stations were built 15 miles along North Carolina’s Outer Banks, in an area referred to as “The Graveyard of the Atlantic.”

The Pea Island Lifesaving Station became the first lifesaving station in the country to have an entirely African-American crew, including their commander, Richard Etheridge.

“Etheridge was born into slavery in North Carolina in 1842. His enslaver was a commercial fishing operator, and Etheridge learned to navigate the shallow waters off of North Carolina’s coast,” Lemhouse explained. “He joined the Union army (36^th Colored Regiment) during the American Civil War. Following the war, he was appointed keeper of the lifesaving station on Pea Island.”

Lemhouse says Etheridge developed a series of rigorous life-saving drills to help prepare his crew for emergency operations.

“These drills paid off — on Oct. 11, 1896, a schooner called the E.S. Newman ran aground during a hurricane two miles south of the Pea Island Station,” Lemhouse said.

Etheridge's crew saw the distress flare from the E.S. Newman and sprang into action.

“The Pea Island crew risked their lives during a four-hour rescue operation to save the nine crewmen aboard, including the captain’s wife and 3-year-old son,” Lemhouse said.

In 1996, the Coast Guard posthumously awarded the gold lifesaving medal to members of the Pea Island Lifesaving Station:

For more information about Pea Island Life-Saving Station, visit the Pea Island Preservation Society website.

Lemhouse also helps to organize a series of Black History Month events at Historic Brattonsville. To learn more about them, click here.

Name: Michael Wescott

Setting: The Whig (1200 Main St.)

This has always been one of my favorite bars in Columbia. What is your favorite night to come to The Whig?

Monday nights, for sure, because of dollar pizza night. I come here about three days a week, though, depending on my finances. Sometimes I will come on a Tuesday for tacos, but it’s more crowded, or any other night when I’m just wanting some company.

What do you think is the main appeal of The Whig?

I like that it doesn’t try to be too clean. I don’t like it when a bar tries to act like it’s this grungy or hip place, but it ends up being too clean. It’s dark, underground, and they have taxidermy hanging on the walls. It really is the coolest bar in Columbia. It feels like it’s lived in. Yeah, that’s it. You don’t have to worry about getting dressed up to come down here or worry about waiters trying to shuffle you out of the way to clean.

What other places would you compare to The Whig?

Goatfeathers was probably the closest thing to The Whig. It was a s#!t-hole but at least it was our s#!t-hole. I loved Goatfeathers, too. That was me and my girlfriend’s favorite date-night spot. Now I think we just default to the Hunter-Gatherer. I think that is my default now, too. If I am trying to impress a friend from out of town I bring them there.

What kind of people do you think like to come out to The Whig?

I have heard The Whig labeled a hipster bar, but I don’t really know what that means because I don’t really know what a hipster is. It isn’t really a college bar. I know a lot of artists and musicians come here. I have met a few college professors here, too. I guess I am some where between being a hipster and an old fart, and I always feel welcome.

COLUMBIA — A little over three months after relocating to downtown Columbia, New Brookland Tavern will expand and add another stage to its offerings in space next door to the Five Points music venue.

The stalwart live music bar moved from its long-standing home on West Columbia's State Street to the former space of the Cotton Gin bar in Five Points at the beginning of 2024. After signing a lease at 622 Harden St., in the former space of Sylvan & DuBose Jewelers, the bar will expand next door, the bar announced in an Instagram post.

The State newspaper was the first to report the news of the expansion.

"There's so much opportunity in this area for us to really make a positive change and push with music in Columbia," the post read.

The move to 632 Harden St., where Cotton Gin once sat, meant more space to fill for performing acts. With the new expanded space, the music bar hopes to give an opportunity for smaller, more bands that might not be able to fill the entire upstairs space to have an opportunity to perform. It will also be available as a rehearsal space, the post said.

With the expansion, New Brookland will stretch out to border the Bar None space, which has been in the college nightlife district for over three decades. Shows in the expanded space are set to begin in May of this year, the bar posted to social media.

Whether you are a photographer or videographer, more and more content creators are adding constant lights as their go-to lighting setups. Quasar Science recently released their 30-watt T8 bulbs with raving reviews, and today, I explore six useful lighting setups you can build with four lights under $80 each.

If you watch the Fstoppers Youtube Channel, you know that Lee and I have gotten to play with a lot of different lighting gear over the years. A few weeks ago, my buddy, Keith Bradshaw, told me he built the ultimate DIY LED light panel that I had to check out. He even went as far as saying his homemade light panels were better than our expensive Westcott Flex Cine 1x3 Lights (which are part of the Peter Hurley Flex Kit). Our lights cost about $1,400 each, while his light, which is a foot longer than ours, was apparently built for only $330 total. Of course, I was a bit skeptical, so I told him to bring the light fixture down to the studio and we could compare them.

I had never heard of the brand Quasar Science, but apparently, they are a well-respected lighting company, and tons of people have been reviewing their LED T8 bulbs online. Quasar makes a few different versions of these bulbs with the most basic ones, the Q-LED, coming in a single 3,000 Kelvin or 5,600 Kelvin color temperature. The next step up is their X Crossfade lamps, which allow you to switch between tungsten and daylight temperatures (2,000K and 6,000K). Perhaps the most impressive lights were just released this year, the Quasar R-Rainbow LED lights, which use RGBX LEDs that can create any color in the rainbow. These also have more controls, such as hue and saturation levels and can be controlled wirelessly or through DMX controls. I'd love to try out these new lights, but Keith's rig was built around the basic 5,600K bulbs. Also, each of these series of LED lights comes in different lengths ranging from 2', 4', and 8' depending on the model and series of lights.

I've never really used any other T8 lights, before so I've made a short little list of the features that make these lights super useful and interesting.

Advantages

If you watch the video above, you can see how Keith built his homemade fixtures for these lights. Basically, he mounted four Q-LED 4' lights to a small piece of plywood using 8 T8 clips he bought off Amazon (he has since added a few extra rows to make it even more rigid). The whole rig was then mounted to a 3" Baby Pin Wall Plate so he can easily mount the light to any C-stand or grip knuckle. All four lights are then plugged into a small power strip and controlled with a Triac Dimmer.

My Impressions

As mentioned in the video, I used to enjoy making my own DIY gear back when I first started out in photography. As the years went by and my business grew, I found myself appreciating professional gear that was well designed and built for everyday use. However, professional gear almost always costs more, and depending on what your needs are, sometimes you really can build something that is as useful and maybe has even more versatility than the more "professional" options on the market.

After playing with Keith's "Kino Flo Killer," I have to say, I was pretty impressed with how simple this light is to use and how powerful these four bulbs are when combined into one single light. When compared to our Westcott Flex 1'x3' Cine Kit Led Light, the Quasar light did seem a little less even, probably because the Westcott light is a little wider and has a built in diffusion baffle over the LED lights. That being said, the Quasar lights are a full foot longer, so you do get a bit more even lighting if you are shooting full body or you are framing up a 3/4 portrait. If you were to add a fifth or sixth bulb, you wouldn't really be adding much in terms of power, but you could probably make the light even more even and soft. Of course, you would also need a larger power strip, and the overall light would start to become a bit heavier than the Westcott light too.

The biggest problem with all of these LED panel lights is that they really are only good for one type of lighting: soft, even lighting. If you want to create a hard light or if you want to add modifiers to your lights to shape them in useful ways, these panels leave a lot to be desired. For this reason, we have bought quite a few Fiilex P360 Pro LED lights, which let you add Profoto modifiers to them for harder and more specular lighting options. However, at $795 a pop, these lights are pretty expensive for what they do.

That being said, these lights are super cool and extremely affordable at just $75 each. I can also see them being really useful in tight spaces like lighting car interiors or building a small set in your home. While these lights aren't quite bright enough to be super useful outside, a single bulb is plenty bright if you are shooting at f/2.8 at ISO 400-1600. I also like the idea of being able to pair two to four lights together to get one strong light source, but then also being able to break the lights apart to be able to build something more complex if I need the flexibility.

Hopefully, I can get my hands on some of the Quasar Science Q-LED R-Rainbow LED lights, because those things look super interesting, but if you just need a simple light than is balanced for daylight or tungsten light, these Q-LED lights are definitely worth checking out.

Topics:

DIY

Fstoppers Originals

Gear

Lighting

Portraits

Videography

When Linda Hardy left Missouri, medical degree in hand, in order to pursue a residency in Augusta, she probably did not realize she would spend the rest of her life there.

As she pursued her career as a child and adolescent psychiatrist, she married a radiation oncologist and focused primarily on medical interests.

For several years, she was director of medical student education in the Department of Psychiatry at the Medical College of Georgia (now a part of Augusta University), leaving that to go into private practice.

Upon retirement, she thought she would try painting, a totally new venture for her, and she has been painting successfully ever since.

When she decided to pick up a paintbrush, it was only natural that Hardy would turn to David Mascaro as her teacher.

She did not know him well, but she knew his reputation as a professor of medical illustration at the Medical University where both had worked, and she knew that, in his retirement, he was offering painting classes in a Washington Road studio.

Although Mascaro is now deceased, she joins other of his students in his studio one day each week to pursue her art.

She said it is motivating to “know you’ll spend the day painting,” and she enjoys being with artists who share her impulse.

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On other days, she paints at home in a basement-level studio, though perhaps not for such long sessions. She finds that regular practice is important in achieving what she is looking for and she tries to paint nearly every day.

Hardy’s first paintings were in oil, but she found that acrylics suited her style better. She works quickly, and with acrylics, she does not need to slow down to wait for paint to dry. Initially, she was displeased with what she put on canvas, but a breakthrough came and she began to like what she found herself creating.

Although her style is loose, the brush strokes have a certain authority that tell the viewer this artist knows what she is doing. Her aim is not to recreate an image using photo realism but to capture the essence of what she sees.

Unlike many artists, Hardy does not fill her walls with her own paintings. Rather, they hold an assortment of large canvases, for the most part painted by artists such as Bea Kulke and Mary Ann Brock known and revered in this area.

Her home is also ornamented by two aging long-haired cats, siblings, Rowdy and Pretty Boy, and by a standard poodle, Drake, a breed she selected in part to cut down on the accumulation of animal hair in the house. Drake often accompanies her on walks, her favorite form of exercise.

Marsh scenes and flowers, two of Hardy’s favorite subjects, are the dominant subjects of Hardy’s paintings that will be exhibited at the Aiken Center for the Arts from Tuesday through Feb. 13.

A reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday will give the public the opportunity to meet her and to see her work. Other exhibits featured at the arts center are being held over from December, offering viewers the opportunity to catch up on what they might have missed earlier.