Playing around with flash

I spent yesterday thinking about how I could use flash to make some interesting self portraits.   I have to say that I enjoyed the experiment and have learnt a great deal.   The main aspects that I looked at was strobe lighting and using my flash gun as a spot light a la Nick Turpin.   Both have had differing results.

The strobe light was my first attempt at anything like that and to be truthful it wasn't too successful.  However, I learnt a lot and have realised it is not as easy as I might have thought.  Clearly I need to work at this.

As for the spot this worked a lot better.   When I used flash before I was not in control of the light it produced.  The flash gun just went off and I might have bounced it off of the ceiling but that was about it.   However, using a piece of a black paper to focus the light in just one spot was a revelation.  It has made start to think a lot more seriously about what can be achieved with just very simple equipment.  In fact, it is more rewarding to see what I can produce using this type of set up than any fantastic studio set up.

In the end, I suppose, this is the point of the module.  It is to make work in areas that you have never worked on before and learn new and exciting things.   It should also open up new possibilities that you just didn't know where there.

Nick Turpin - is this the way forward?

Youth #2 - Nick Turpin

I have spent a short time looking at the work of Nick Turpin and I have to say I find his work fascinating.  I love the way he is able to coax fairly ordinary equipment to produce extraordinary results.  However, this has started me to think about what I want to produce during this next project.   Do I want to produce photographs that enhance the day or are they going to be control the night? 

Ray Bolger - Gjon Mili

To explore this a little further I need to explain one of the influences I have had on this journey.  I found a marvelous book in the library - see posting 21st Jan - by Gjon Mili  Many of the images were black and white the predominant colour is black (I know black is not a colour but a lack of one).  Now when you compare these to Turpin's photographs you start to see my problem.   Both photographs are of their time and so reflect this.  However, they do show the different styles, one , Turpin, uses the flash to enhance the colour of the street.   His ability to place light in a very specific area of the image is as impressive as it is imaginative.  The second, Mili, use the flash in a totally different way.  Here he explores the ability of a strobe to isolate and enhance the action.  He freezes that split second that we are never aware of.  In a way it almost entering the quantum realm.

So which is the way forward.  Well I think at this stage the answer is both and neither.   To be aware of these influences and experiment with them.  The hope is that at the end they will help me produce some impactive photographs.