On Your Mark, Get Set...

Moishe Appelbaum, of Midwest Photo Exchange has let us know that he has 40, (count 'em, 40) of the Westcott Double-Fold Umbrellas in stock. He's got them in both white and silver.

(Note: Moishe stuck his e-mail address up on the Flickr thread, so I will echo it here. If you cannot find the umbrellas on the website, you can e-mail him and get in line if you wish. I will pull this when/if he runs out or gets a direct site link to me.)

Back to the gear:

But that's not all.

He also has 8 or so of the chrome version of the Bogen compact, 5-section stand. It is the 3353, instead of the 3373 (the model number for the black one.) So if you don't have to have black, you are set for the stuff that has recently been darn-near impossible to find. Heck, give it a coupla months and chrome will be the "new black" anyway.

But that's not all, either.

Midwest Photo Exchange has picked up sponsorship of the rest ot the Lighting Boot Camp, and will be sending a free Westcott Double-Fold umbrella (his choice of white or silver) to the person who turns in the best overall photo in each of the pro and amateur categories.

(When the time comes, I will narrow down the entries and have a few photogs from the staff at The Sun help me pick the winners.)

Moishe said he is willing to ship worldwide, so you Antarctica-based photogs get on the stick (if you can find a stick) and make him earn his keep of you win.

(Just kidding, Moishe. I don't think we have anyone down there.)

So that leaves 38 umbrellas left. First come, first-served.

Folks, these things are pretty hard to come by. And my own affiliated Adorama has been coming up triple-goose-eggs for months in the "in-stock" dept.

So it won't do anything in the monetary graft dept for Strobist. But it'll be good for Moishe (what a cool name - I love typing it) and he is doing good for you guys in the umbrella-donating dept.

And while we're at it, I have also rounded up another affiliate source to backstop Adorama when the out-of-stock blues keep coming and you still want to contribute to the site through your purchases.

More on that soon.