It’s simple – without light we couldn’t do our jobs. But there’s good light and bad light. Bad light happens starting in late morning and runs through early afternoon. Good light happens the rest of the day.
That’s why I think picture taking should be banned between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Warm morning and afternoon and evening light can make a routine photo at least more interesting and in some cases, dramatic.
Children walking down a dirt road isn’t such an exciting photograph (the story was on the poor condition of the road). But shot at 7:30 a.m. the long shadows of the early morning light frame the youngsters and add character and shape to the potholes.
The same photo, shot at noon, would be dull as dishwater.
Another example of light transforming the routine into the dramatic is this photo of a horse:
The problem is, news and news photography doesn’t always happen between 3 p.m. and 9 a.m. so we often have to deal with harsh lighting (especially here in central Washington where the sun always seem to shine). We don’t like it but we deal with it.
–Gordon King
