Gallery Week, Equipment Week

I spent a week at the Ironwood Gallery helping to hang the Vanishing Circles exhibit one of the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum's permanent collections dedicated to endangered species here in the Sonoran Desert. This exhibit is a selection of works depicting disappearing wildlife of the Sonoran Desert. The Art Institute which operates the Ironwood Gallery has at the core of it's mission to expose people to conservation through art education which dovetails nicely with my mission of getting people interested in the natural world through photography. In addition to it's Art Institute the Desert Museum has many ongoing conservation projects including the reintroduction of the Mexican Garter Snake and the Tarahumara Frog to name a couple.

This was also the week I agreed to review the Aperlite YH-500C Flash Unit in exchange for flash unit that I had been looking to purchase anyway. I actually gave the unit a 5 star rating on Amazon because I ha already researched it and it did indeed perform extremely well when I tested it. My review is included here. The following three photographs are from my evaluation of the flash unit.

By Ray Goodwin (Tucson, AZ, US)
This review is from: Aperlite YH-500C Professional Flash Flashlight for Canon Digital SLR Camera [Supports TTL, Wireless S1 & S2 Modes] (Electronics)
I’ve been looking for a reasonably priced TTL capable flash unit and the Aperlite YH-500C (for Canon) meets all of my requirements. As an event photographer I shoot lots of indoor, low light, difficult and fast moving venues and the Aperlite YH-500C performs beautifully, helping me to produce photos that are sharp, properly lit, with little if any grain. I recently photographed a gallery opening for a museum using the YH-500C and the resulting photos were of excellent quality and should they need to be, they can easily be made into very large prints or used in the museums published materials.
The YH-500C’s controls are easy to use and changing settings is fast and the units recharge rate is very quick so I rarely miss a desired shot. Although TTL is my preferred mode the YH-500C offers Manual and Stroboflash modes as well as 2 off camera options which come in handy in a variety of different shooting situations.
The YH-500C performs equally well outside in the world where I spend the bulk of my time photographing nature. Great for fill flash in mottled sunlight and deep shade this flash has allowed me to get the shots that I would have otherwise walked right by before I started carrying the Aperlite.
The best reason’s to buy the Aperlite YH-500 flash is how well it performs in a variety of situations but on top of that is the fact that is is extremely reasonably priced, affordable for those of us who don’t have unlimited funds for equipment. The Aperlite YH-500C has great overall build, TTLMaster/Slave capabilities, fast recharge rate, very consistent TTL exposures and many, many other good qualities.
My overall rating for the Aperlite YH-500C is that it is an excellent flash unit at an excellent price!

I also purchased a new Canon EF 50mm 1.8 lens due to it's reputation for very sharp photographs and so far I ave been very happy with the results although it's taking a little time to get used to having to move back and forth to get the subject in the viewfinder. I do love this lens and here are a couple of the first photos that I took with the lens mounted on my Canon 7D.

Juvenile Arizona Gray Squirrels

Yucca Blossom