Week 1: Terminology, Camera Settings, Synchronization, In-Camera Flash & Various Flash Modifiers

Week 2: On/ Off-Camera Flash Units, On/ Off Camera Diffusers, Ring Flash Units, Flash Control Units, Balancing Mixed Light

Week 3: On & Off-camera Flash Combo’s, Master /Slave Operations, Multiple Off-Camera flash Units, Group Operations

Week 4: Putting it all together, Indoor Shooting, Outdoor Shooting

Class cost: For 12 hours of quality time spent learning $150

Location: Same building as Advance, but on the bottom end, in the center location.

Parking: There is plenty of available parking on the bottom end of the building.

Registration: If you are interested and want to know more about any of these classes, or want to sign up, please call (503.292.6996 x.21) or stop by the store. Class prices, dates and availability vary. All classes include hands on training and a handout on various techniques we cover in class. All classes require pre-payment.

This program is for photographers who want to create photographs with artistic lighting without buying or carrying lots of lighting equipment. Learn how to control the flash unit in your camera and accessory flash units available for your camera. Investigate and practice the operation and configuration of various flash units to achieve desired lighting in various photographic conditions.

This is not studio photography, instead it is dedicated to using on camera flash to enhance lighting conditions, in any situation, to creatively improve your photography and become a more versatile photographer in any lighting situation. Below, you will see a list of topics we cover, each week.

As featured in Outdoor Life Magazine for August outdoor gear round-up. They hailed our ZRS as Knock Around Binoculars…”The new Zen-Ray-Summit 8×42 is a terrific bargain. You will like its durable, hard-rubber camouflaged armor, extremely long 18 millimeters of eye relief and sure locking eyecups. Ergonomically, this full size binoculars almost feels like a mid-size, with is compact frame…. they will certainly get the job done on any deer stand”.- Outdoor Life Magazine, Aug 2008, Page 57
I have been using the ZRS (Summit) 8X32 binoculars you gave me to try and I continue to be very impressed with their quality. I have shown them to several other bird watchers and they have all thought they were very good. When I tell them that they cost under $150 they can’t believe it. I think you have a very good product that will easily compete with any other binocular near that price.
From James Davis- Portland Metro Naturalist and Renowned Birder
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I wanted to get a second pair of binoculars for our cruise this past May so we would not be fighting over one. While using this web sight to research other “stuff” I had read some posts about the Zen Ray Summit binoculars so I splurged and bought a pair. My partner thought I was crazy for spending money on a pair of binoculars, then turned around and kept hogging my crazy binoculars because they were so much better than hers (brand name removed). I do not know a thing about binoculars, and I used think the (brand name removed)’s we had were great. But now, they are marked for our next garage sale.
-iluvnm65
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Hi Jen,
got back from Alaska on Sunday night. Have to say we loved the zen ray binos. Can’t thank you enough for the sample 2009 one. We really needed the second pair. Both binos worked great…great quality. We think the vision with the 2009 one was a bit brighter.
will highly recommend your binos to everyone.
Ellen W. from Florida
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How to Use Binoculars
By James Davis , Metro Park Naturalist
You will only get the most out of your binoculars (”binos”) if you know how to adjust them properly. Many people do not know how to use the Adjustable Eyepiece (diopter) and never really see as well as they could with their binoculars.
Here are easy, step by step instructions for making the FOUR adjustments needed to get the best out of your “binos.”
Note: This is why sharing binoculars is not usually practical. Each person needs to have a pair of binoculars adjusted for his or her eyes.
1. EYECUPS
Modern binoculars have either soft rubber eyecups or twist up/down eyecups on the eyepieces that can fold down or rotate down to adjust for eyeglasses. If you use binos with your glasses on, rotate down eyecups so the end of the eyepiece is as flat as possible. Put the flat eyepiece right on your glass’s lens when using the binos. If you are not wearing glasses, leave the eyecups extended. A few types of binoculars have eyecups that screw in to get flat for glasses.
2. HINGE
The two halves of the binos are joined together in the center with a hinge. This is so you can move them in and out until they are the right distance apart for your eyes. While looking through the binos, move them in and out until you have one big, clear, circular field of view. If you get dark patches or crescents in the center or on the sides, they are too close together. You should never see two circles. Keep fiddling with them until you get the best field of view and don’t be afraid to keep adjusting them throughout the day.
3. CENTRAL FOCUS
Hold the binoculars in both hands and reach to the center with a big finger or two and turn the wheel in the center. This is the Central Focus . Turn the central focus back and forth every time you look at something new to get the sharpest, clearest image you can. However, your eyes are probably not the same and you need to make one more adjustment to see as well as you can with your binoculars.
4. ADJUSTABLE EYEPIECE
” Left eye - Central Focus then Right eye - Adjustable Eyepiece “
This is the most confusing thing about using binoculars. Almost no one ever explains it on nature and birding walks and it is often poorly explained in the instructions that come with binoculars (yes, there were some). It is even explained wrong in some bird watching books.
When you use the Central Focus , you focus the two sides of the binoculars at the same time. BUT, your eyes are probably not identical. So you need to adjust your binoculars so each side is in focus for each eye at the same time. You do this by using the Adjustable Eyepiece through diopter .
FIND IT — The Adjustable Eyepiece is the one that TURNS and it will have a simple scale on the underside of the eyepiece with a ” -, 0, + ” and another mark next to the scale on the bino frame. Binos differ, but almost all have the Adjustable Eyepiece on the right. Find your Adjustable Eyepiece and turn it. Find the scale on the underside and set it at “0″ or “in the middle”.
Here is the easiest way to make this adjustment, step by step.
(For an Adjustable Eyepiece on the right.)
• Pick something sharp and clear to look at, a medium distance away, like a sign.
• Make the other adjustments and focus on the sign with the Central Focus as best as you can.
• Close your right eye and use the Central Focus to get the left eye’s image as sharp as possible. You are only looking through the left side of your binos.
• Now, close your left eye and open your right eye. Don’t touch the Central Focus . You are now looking through only the right side of your binos.
• Here’s the tricky move. Turn the Adjustable Eyepiece back and forth with your right hand until you get the sharpest image you can in your right eye . See? You are matching your right eye to the left eye.
• Open your left eye and the object should be in sharp focus in both eyes. To check, focus on something else using both eyes with the Central Focus , then alternate looking with one eye and then the other. The image in both eyes should look the same and be in sharp focus. If not, try turning the Adjustable Eyepiece a tiny bit back and forth to see if you can get it sharper. Sometimes you just have to fiddle a bit with the Central Focus and the Adjustable Eyepiece until you get them just right.
• When you have the Adjustable Eyepiece in the right position, look at the scale and remember that setting. This is your basic setting for those binos, always start with that. Many people find that their eyes change from time to time so don’t be afraid to keep fiddling with it to get the best image you can.
Remember: Left eye - Central Focus then Right eye - Adjustable Eyepiece