What is photographic overkill

[wavemachine]

Quite often when I put a zoom or some other accessory on my 7D my wife tells me it looks ridiculous and is total overkill not being into photography herself then she does not understand that some of this equipment is necessary however I tried to come up with a good example of overkill, the ingrediants were

1 x Canon Powershot SX10IS (saddly my compact an A640 doesn't have a hotshoe)
1 x Canon Speedlight 580EXII
1 x Interfit flash soft box

Which looks something like this



Can anyone beat this?

[Jediboy]

I dont think I can beat that. It's quite impressive.

[Reinardina]

I only use a more elaborate compact, with built in flash and a relatively 'far reaching' built in zoom!

[Lepach]

I quite agree with your wife, with a soft box attached to a hot shoe flashgun most cameras look a bit pathetic. But who cares if you get the results.
If I put my little Leica D-Lux 3 onto my massive, steel,rock solid Manfrotto tripod it has the same effect, except reversed out. Same answer, I get really great images from this tiny lens and camera.

[RichardA]

Counter your wife's view by telling her that when she wears her accessories (shoes, handbag, jewellery etc), that she sometimes looks ridiculous but they serve their purpose of making her look good. She'll probably accept this comparison and see the error of her comments.

Realistically, she'll probably see red and you'll end up wearing the softbox...and that will look ridiculous.

[wavemachine]

Originally Posted by RichardA

Counter your wife's view by telling her that when she wears her accessories (shoes, handbag, jewellery etc), that she sometimes looks ridiculous but they serve their purpose of making her look good. She'll probably accept this comparison and see the error of her comments.

Realistically, she'll probably see red and you'll end up wearing the softbox...and that will look ridiculous.

I won't take your advice on that one I think I may find my softbox is not so soft