I’m an available light kind of guy.
Top-quality digital cameras, the RAW format and really good press work here at the Herald-Republic has allowed me to cast off the lighting shackles imposed by shooting ‘chrome for many years (which should tell you how long I’ve been in the newspaper photography business).
I think photographs using natural light more accurately capture the mood of the scene than those lit by strobes. Of course, to use natural light I may have to shoot at a higher ASA and have a more noise in the photograph or perhaps have a bit of motion blur but that’s a tradeoff I’m willing to make in order to use natural light. One example is this photo of a horse that was given up by its owner when he could no longer afford to keep the animal.
Kerrie Regimbal moves Beanie to finish removing the horse's blanket at Regimbal's Selah-area home. Regimbal took in Beanie when the owner's home was foreclosed upon and was unable to care for the horse. When Kerrie and her husband Bob took in the horse three weeks ago it was emaciated but has since regained some, but not all, of its weight.
I love the light here – dawn light lights the front of the horse while the tungsten bulbs in the barn illuminate the rest of the scene, including the protruding ribs of the horse. The woman is a bit blurry but not enough to matter.
Sometimes, though, natural light is, well, boring. Then it’s time to think of how adding light to the photo can make it more interesting.
For example, here’s a heavy equipment operator running a D9 Caterpillar. He’s working inside a tinted cab.
Without a flash the photo doesn't have as much impact. Plus, you've got to wait until the light shines in the cab to take the photo. And when the light is right, the dozer may not be in the right place.
Sure, the photo works but with a flash, a pair of Pocket Wizards, a small tripod and lots of duct tape you can make it better.
I mounted a Lumedyne flash on a cheap tripod and used gaffer's tape to hold it in place. It was triggered with a Pocket Wizard. And dozer operator Larry Ross supplied the beard and cowboy hat.
This was the finished product.
Larry Ross pushes garbage around at Yakima County's Terrace Heights landfill on March 12, 2009. He's been doing it for 18 years and plans on doing it a couple more before retiring.
The ‘dozer operator really pops in this photo with the strobe added.
Conditions sometimes force me to use a strobe (like dealing with the really midday shadows we get here in the central Washington summers) but it’s only reluctantly that I pull the strobe out of my fanny pack.
–Gordon King
