There’s something magical about our luck at Trout Lake. Our love for the place has been well-documented. Well, our luck with weather is pretty wonderful there too. Sandwiched in between some rain and a tornado warning was the wonderful 70 degree day that we got to spend with Colleen and Jeff.
One of our favorite trends lately is seeing people do their own thing… especially when it comes to having an official ‘bridal party’. Colleen and Jeff had their friends around all day without official duties or dresses. So we concentrated most of our photo time on C&J and Colleen’s super adorable daughter. She stole the show. Here’s a few favorite images…
Notes: This spring wedding in the Poconos was photographed by Amy and Tony Hoffer of Hoffer Photography. The couple got married by the lake and had no official bridal party. The did a first look on the dock of Trout Lake and included Colleen’s daughter. Portraits were taken around the grounds of Trout Lake and the reception was held upstairs during a beautiful sunset.
Disclaimer: This review is meant for fellow photo-nerds like us. As mentioned in the video, we’ve had a relationship with MagMod for a while now. However, they don’t ask us for things like this. We’re doing this review because we LOVE the MagBox… Feel free to watch the video. The text that accompanies the review is meant to write out some of the same features from the video.
The world of photography lighting has been changing… a lot. In particular, studio lights are becoming more portable. Speed lights are becoming more powerful. It’s a blend of options that’s super exciting for a photographer. With all that, the world of light modifiers hasn’t changed much. For the most part, softboxes are used in studio and faster/harder options are used on location. As two people that use softboxes everywhere we go, we were ready for the MagBox.
The short version of the review is this: If you haven’t used on-location softboxes before, you may not realize what a game changer this thing is. We’ll go into the reasons below… but its like when the App Store first opened. The excitement isn’t only for the product itself, but for what the potential is in the future. This will allow for more and more flexibility and ease when shooting on location. So, while a small octabox like this isn’t the be-all-end-all for softboxes, it’s an amazing start to a new category.
The Problem
Before any review, I think it’s important to think through why this thing exists. What problems are we currently having that could be solved with something better? In the case of softboxes, there’s quite a few:
Weight: This has been improving the last 5 years
Clunkiness: Setting up and tearing down has ALWAYS been annoying
Portability: Packing and carrying boxes can be tricky
Noisy: Thanks Velcro
Gelling: Very difficult
Loss of Power: Diffusion kills power. Fine in studio, not great outside.
Modularity: Because of above, most boxes are either studio or location. Not both.
Our Six Favorite Things About the MagBox
The Weight
The MagBox is light (thanks to a plastic interior) and the weight is centered on the back. As we said above, this is becoming a standard in softboxes over the past few years and it couldn’t be more welcome.
The Bag
This is quite simply brilliant. Most softboxes aren’t meant to be moved. Setting up and tearing down is annoying. Taking them on-location usually requires you to throw them in a random bag and then to re-assemble all the metal rods when you get there. This bag fits like a glove, which makes it so easy to take on the go and set-up again when you get there. On top of that, it can be checked as-is at the airport.
The second great feature of the bag is the extra pockets. Now we can fit a lot of our most needed lighting gear in with the MagBox as we go to a wedding or a shoot. We even fit a monopod inside it for our last destination wedding. That was wonderful.
Gels
The MagBox brings the easy-gelling ways of the MagMod products into the world of softboxes. This is HUGE. Anybody that’s ever used boxes knows that once you decide to break them out, you have to answer a question: Am I going to use gels and deal with scissors and tape OR am I going to start shooting and deal with the color of the light as-is. That is no longer an issue with the MagBox. That’s exciting for a few reasons, but the biggest one will be down the road. As this system grows, having a full lineup of gel-accessible softboxes will be tremendous.
Power to the left of me. Gels to the right. Here I am. Stuck in the MagBox review.
Power and Modularity
As mentioned above, one of the frustrating things about most boxes is that most photographers have to decide if it is a ‘strobe box’ or a ‘speedlight box’. Because a lot of boxes suck up a lot of power, they automatically get disqualified when being used outdoors. Likewise, many of the boxes made for speedlights don’t produce a good enough quality of light to be used in a studio. This is the first box I’ve used that preserves enough of the power from your light to be used inside and out… while still maintaining great light quality.
On top of that, the gel-ability of these boxes makes them very easy to use in any outdoor situation. Plus, when it gets really dark you can throw on an ND gel and knock your light power way down.
Fabric and Focus Diffuser
If you’re looking into a MagBox and wondering how you can add a grid, the focus diffuser is for you. While it produces a slightly harder light (I prefer it with a studio strobe for softness), it acts just like a grid on a regular softboxes. However, unlike a grid, this actually ADDS more light power compared to the fabric diffuser. Most grids just take power away. On a day with harsh sun, the focus diffuser makes the MagBox so valuable.
The MagShoe
This this seems like it should have been invented 20 years ago. You can probably find everything you need to in the MagMod promo videos. I’m just here to say that this thing rocks. You can feather a light down to 90 degrees without having to hold your stand. You can handhold your light using the pistol grip. It’s just SO convenient.
Conclusion
So that does it. The MagBox rocks. I’m so excited to have a super-portable box that maintains a quality high enough for the studio. Much more than that, I’m excited for the potential that this brings in the future. All of these things will be big time when there’s a whole suite of options to shoot with and I’m really excited for what that means for our work.
Courtney & Chris | Hyatt Ziva Rose Hall | Montego Bay, Jamaica
We just flew in from Jamaica and boy are our eyes tired. The faithful blog stalkers among you may remember Julie and Mike’s wedding last year. Well, we hit the jackpot… twice. Right around the time we were preparing to head down for that wedding, Courtney reached out for her own wedding at the same exact place. Pretty amazing. So last year we were Facetiming Court and Chris from their venue. This year we were with them.
It was a marvelous couple of days as their big crew enjoyed all of the flavors of Jamaica (no further details necessary). The wedding itself was gorgeous and we just had the best possible time spending a few days with this crew of people. They were so welcoming and fun-loving that it made our trip so memorable and easy.
Here’s some images from the past few days. Before we jump into the wedding there’s a few from some other parts of the trip… Then the party starts. Enjoy!
Notes: This destination wedding was photographed by Amy & Tony Hoffer of Hoffer Photography. The wedding ceremony took place on a rooftop of the Hyatt Ziva Rose Hall in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The portraits were taken on the beach at the Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall. The reception took place on the sand and had a light up dance floor for the guests to party on. For more info about our destination wedding packages, please contact us. To check out more destination weddings just click on the “Destinations” tab at the top of our blog page.
