[Vudoo4u2]

bill, honestly not sure about the nikon flash, perhaps rodi has some input? (ill look into it though!)

seth..

if you're going to be doing a lot of panning (not sure how far away youre going to be standing), you can set the IS to mode 2 (panning IS) and then set your cam to AI Servo so you can point at your target and pan with it and with the shutter half depressed itll continuously focus on the moving target. Works fantastic in my experience with that lens.

depending on the weather, but assuming its going to be really nice outside, you can get some great results by taking a few steps back and going a little more wide open on the lens to get fantastic bokeh on some of the individuals (it will help if you have some ND filters).

shoot in raw, because that will make the variety of white balance much easier to deal with since youre going to be shooting a variety of locations/situations, especially the water portion with glare on the lake.

and use your hood (which I assume you will anyways...)

that aside...have fun man, perhaps a meet next week?