Thank you for taking such a crystal clear image of me you have made my evening very pleasant indeed :)

Thank you Sophie for the kind comments. :) hope to see you and meet properly at a future LSs event

Hi,

Yes by all accounts those flash triggers seem to work well. Unfortunately, I didn't know about them when I purchased mine. I hear the speedlites by the same brand are reliable and so would be good value for money compared to say, Canons own. Beyond the reliability factor, more expensive electronic products often give you more features, but for strobist work such as you experienced at the LSS meet in Leake Street the triggers recommended in the forum are perfectly adequate.

As for stands and light modifiers such as umbrellas and soft boxes, personally I find soft boxes give you more control over what you wish to achieve compared to an umbrella. Umberllas are a good place to start and are less expensive than softboxes and still give great results. Much of this all depends on budget. I use Lastolite products but there are many other brands and none branded products, typically on eBay/Amazon. Lastolite do an '8 in 1', which is an umbreralla and softbox all in one! This is around £100 or you can buy a shoot through white umberalla for say £17. Camera equipment retailers such as Ware House Express or Jacobs often do kits, which comprise of stand, mounting brackets for the lights and the umbrella/ softbox and you can take some comfort that it will all be of a reasonable standard.

It's a mine field but you have to jump in somewhere!

Nate,s post on equipment and the additional comments is excellent, so I hope it's given you enough to get started. The 'what equipment thing' is an everlasting question for photographers, so good luck!

Feel free to ask anything else, LSS is all about improving your self and others.

Chris

Hi Sophie, so glad you were inspired. LSS is something quite special, as I think you observed. What kit are you planning to get?