The Carousel Horse At Night

For the next photo I used the 5400xi flash mounted on the hot shoe of the 700si camera. I also used something unique to the Minolta Maxxum camera system: the Fantasy Effect Creative Expansion Card. For those who are not familiar, Minolta makes a series of cards that slip into a side door on some of their cameras that expand the capabilities of the camera. The Fantasy Effect card automatically defocuses the lens half way through the exposure. This can create a halo like effect or a soft focus effect, particularly on highlites. I have found it most useful when used in conjunction with a flash. Other cards include such useful things as an Intervalometer Card and the Program Shift Card. Both VERY usefull. I have bought them for as little as $20.00. Imagine that! For twenty bucks you can have an intervalometer for your Minolta camera. With other camera systems you have to buy expensive camera backs for hundreds of dollars to perform the same task. But, that is another story. On with the flash system!

Carousel Horse

photo ©Gary Walts 1996

The Carousel Horse at Night was a fairly straight forward shoot. I used the 700si camera on a tripod with a Maxxum 28mm f2.8 lens, the 5400xi flash and the Fantasy Creative Expansion Card. The camera was set in P program mode with the Fantasy card engaged. The flash was mounted on the camera's hot shoe and fired directly at the horse. The Fantasy card automatically selects a slow shutter speed so this was around a 1/4 of a sec. I am not sure what aperture was selected. As the carousel horse moved to the right & upward I panned the camera during the exposure as the flash fired and the lens defocused. In this case the Fantasy Card exaggerated the streaking of the lights behind the horse more so than just panning the camera would have cause. The Fantasy card also created a subtle halo around the horse. I shot about 72 frames and settled on this one as my favorite. This photo demonstrates how superb the auto metering of the Minolta Maxxum system works in conjunction with the flash. This combination of a time exposure picking up the ambient light as well as the bright lights of the carousel, mixed with flash to freeze the subject was a perfect exposure on Fujichrome 100 film.

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