Let Sleeping Flashes Lie

I haven't had the luxury of being able to sit down and work on a proper post. There are a number of possible topics floating around in my head, but I haven't been able to nail them down just yet. I am hoping that the coming long weekend will afford me the time to write something more substantial. However, I don't want the long pause in between posts to become a recurring thing; so, I'm squeaking this one out and hoping it will build enough momentum to carry me through the end of the week.

I will be writing at greater length about the diwata-themed shoot that I did as part of building my portfolio. For now, let me just share a happy accident that occurred at that time. I had Jing up on the tree and while we were adjusting her pose, checking her hair, fixing her dress, and waiting for the early morning sun to shine consistently (C'mon, buddy. Make up your mind!) the hot-shoe flash fell asleep entered power-saving mode. Now, I usually test fire the flash before I make the shot, but apparently my brain also fell asleep.

So, the shutter clicks and Queenie reports that the flash didn't fire. I checked the image on the back of my camera and confirmed that very fact. This is what I saw on my LCD screen.

A few years back, I would've found my finger moving towards the trash button, but I found that the image worked despite the flash not firing. I decided to keep the picture because it's not too often that the universe lines everything up just waiting for you to make the 'wrong' move.

Flash on, Flash off

Answers From a Song

I shot the above picture (of Rachel) while documenting the department's last road show at the St. Dominic Savio School in Cordova. The crowds and the changing ambient light conditions always make it a challenge to shoot pictures during the event.

I was making pictures of the demonstrations in the Forensic Chemistry room and found myself wracking my brain on how best to balance ambient light with flash (which was necessary in the darkened room).  There was blue cellophane over the fluorescent lamps to create a believable atmosphere of a TV crime lab. The classroom designated for the exhibit had bright pink curtains with the afternoon sun shining right behind them. And every time I bounced my flash off the low white ceiling, the mint green color of the walls would dominate the scene.

What to do?

Flash on, Flash off

#004 The Afterglow

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