About a month ago my cousin was in Hong Kong and  I got him to buy me an external flash! Before this I was using my dad's old flash gun that he had for the old school Canon Cameras (aka the ones with proper film). Don't get me wrong it was a good flash but it just didn't work well with my camera. The options for the ISO and distance were fixed. On top of that I couldn't find a diffuser that would fit it!

After much contemplation I decided to get a Canon 430EX ii. I had A LOT of trouble deciding between the Canon 320EX and Canon 320EX. The problem was I wanted a relatively cheap flash but could do what I wanted it to do - swivel around so that I could bounce it off walls and allowed me to have it on auto mode. The Canon 320EX was considerably cheaper than the Canon 430EX ii but it didn't swivel around as much as I wanted it too. I ended up going with the Canon 430EX because I might as well invest into something that will allow me to experiment around a little more. 

So far I absolutely love the flash! It was so worth the $300 or so that I spent on it. I didn't want to part with $300 but the flash has improve my photos so much! It also allows me to control the angle of the flash better.

There were a few perks of getting the flash that I only noticed when started using it. For one it has it's own in-build diffuser! *mind blow* It is definitely very convenient to just pull out the diffuser when you need it. With that being said I would like to get a proper diffuser - it's in-build one is just a pull out ridged piece of plastic. The other bonus was that the flash has a senser on it which means that it was so much easier to take photos in the dark! My camera could finally detect people's faces! 

I definitely have gotten a lot of compliments regarding my camera and flash more recently! I absolutely love both of them but there is still room for improvement. If I had it my way I would be learning how to properly do party photography in manual mode for both but it takes a lot of time.