"The first step in blogging is not writing them but reading them."--Jeff Jarvis

Twice in the past I've tried to create a blog and failed miserably each time, perhaps because the blogging sites, not me, controlled the software used to create and maintain them. Recently my pal Ralph Nelson (

The FL700K Strobe Light Kit that I tested is designed for amateur photographers and aspiring pros and contains two FLC300 (320 ws) FlashLite and one 110i (110 ws) FlashLite monolights. The FLC300 monolights offer continuously variable flash power settings, a test button, a ready light, and an optical slave for wireless triggering and have an umbrella stand adapter that’s compatible with 3/8” through 5/8” light stand posts. To expand the kit’s capabilities, Smith-Victor offers more than 100 accessories and light modifiers for the FLC300 monolights, including softboxes, reflectors, snoots, grids, and barn doors. The 110i monolight has a full- or half-power setting, optical slave, small built-in reflector, and umbrella mount. When used together, all three lights give you lots of flexibility for lighting studio or on-location portraits.

“I used to hate doing color. I hated transparency film. The way I did color was by not wanting to know what kind of film was in my camera.”—Helmut Newton

Basking in a post-photokina gizmo haze and with dreams of PMA sugar plums still dancing on our dreams amid echoes of “Auld Lang Syne” and Wallace Shawn shouting, “Beware evildoers, wherever you...