Flash on, Flash off

I started my semi-serious study of photography about five years ago (right about the time I was gifted with my first DSLR). The first few months were a blur. I would shoot anyone and anything; but then for the months after that, I would find my camera staying in its bag for weeks at a time. After that, I became an occasion-al shooter because I would only make pictures during occasions. Two years in, I was seriously considering selling my camera and the assorted related knick knacks I accumulated over that time.

I then stumbled onto the lighting resource nirvana that is Strobist, and it was both a literal and figurative light bulb moment, so to speak. I finally broke free from the creative doldrums that had stalled me for years and the winds from the goddess of inspiration caught my sails and I have not looked back since.

As I have asserted in various posts on this blog, a secondary light source (aside from the ambient) allows one not only to make the most ordinary setting look remarkable, but it offers one additional control over how the final image will come out. And I am admittedly a disciple of the old(er) school of photographers who strive to do most of the work in camera and not have to achieve the look in post.

And so as far as I could remember, since that watershed in my brief history in photography I have always travelled with one or more lights in my bag. If I can light it, I will. If I have to use a flash on-camera, then I strive to do so … responsibly. For a while there, I tried to light every scene that my viewfinder came upon. I have long learned the folly of that conviction.

Over the next three years, I would find myself in moments where I would decide to leave the flash in the bag or to simply switch it off. Because as I had learned, the time it takes me to think about how to light the scene took twice as long for the moment to pass (and only to realize later that it was perfect as it had existed in that ephemeral pocket of time). The pictures that follow are a testament of my recovery from … err, NLSA (non-ambient light source addiction).

*The above photo was shot by J. Pahang

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Here are just a few of the insights that I have picked up along the way:

• Rather than carry on the inaudible debate with yourself on whether to take the camera out of your bag, take it out of your bag and shoot the picture. It actually takes less time to do so (well, for me at least, because I hate losing debates to myself).

• It’s not called golden light for nothing.

• There are other can’t-miss moments during a wedding aside from the first kiss.

More to come …