...and at no extra charge...A rant!

Let me start with a couple pictures of my "done all by my self haircut"


Both are self portraits taken with my Nikon using a 18-200 zoom lens.



Now, just so we're clear this rant will not be about my new haircut. What I want to passionately discuss is the nature of using the on-camera flash with a bigger than small lens.



If you look at the bottom of these pictures you will see a dark place, kind of an arch of shadow, near the middle.



Here's what happens. The flash is right on the top of the camera. The lens pokes out far enough that it blocks the light and throws a shadow on the bottom of the picture. This happens mostly with three of my lenses; the 70-300 zoom, the 18-200 zoom, and my 10-24 mm ultra wide angle.



The best solution would be to point the flash at the ceiling and bounce the light on the subject (which would be me) but the built-in flash doesn't point at the ceiling.



The answer, then, is a new flash. I have chosen the Nikon SB-400 so I can bounce the flash if I need to and even if I don't, it sits high enough above the camera to eliminate that annoying "Expensive Lens" shadow.