The other day I received a message from a photographer friend Rick Ferro that said, “Hey, I sent you a present.” A couple days later the box arrived and a surprise piece of new kit came out in the form of a 42-inch Glow Collapsible Circular Wind Proof Reflector with Handles from Adorama.

Why the excitement?

I have oodles of reflectors collected over the years. My collection includes many different sizes, shapes, colors and materials. All seem to have found their place in my arsenal of lighting tools. Why did I get excited about this reflector? I found this one to be pretty special in answering many of the design flaws I find in many reflectors.

Here’s a feature list that I find helpful in this Glow reflector that I don’t have in my older reflectors:

  • Firm comfortable handles
  • Stiff rim to hold shape — but not so stiff it’s hard to fold back up
  • Built-in 1/4 inch thread on one handle and 3/8 inch in the other to accept a light stand mount for hands-free use
  • And — here is a biggie — it allows the wind to flow through!

Even though the color is silver the light provided is relatively soft due to the design with the holes to allow the wind to flow through. If there was one thing I would like to see is the same design with a white reflective material on one side or even another version with white material for a slightly softer bounce and all the control of the built-in handles.

Handle with 1/4 inch thread allows for no hands work in the studio on a light stand

Test spin

I took it out for a test and luckily a bit of a breeze was blowing. I was able to control the reflector with one hand on the handle. Normally I would be fighting to keep a reflector from folding and moving in the breeze.

Single hand controlling the reflector

Yours in Creative Photography, Bob

PS — Rick Ferro is a pretty awesome photographic educator as well as portrait and wedding photographer. Disney wouldn’t keep him on if he wasn’t!