Japan broils. Fifteen to twenty degrees above normal. Day after day. The locals tell me it’s common now, like much else. The expected temperature drop keeps pushing out. A day here, a day there. The hotel onsen equipped with a cold plunge where I spend my early and late moments. Calm, still water up to my neck. “You can stay in there a long time,” a fellow soaker says. “After the first minute, it no longer hurts,” I tell him.
I’m carting a strobe on this trip.
It has been years, decades, since I’ve carried a strobe. From 1990 to 1997, I carried a strobe on a daily basis. I had to. Using a strobe as fill light was mandatory. Not doing so meant you, most likely, wouldn’t get assignments. A basic, basic, skill but one that terrified the masses of untrained who began to show up on the scene, describing themselves as “available light photographers.” This was a quick tell. Translated to “I have no idea how to use a strobe.” And this was the era of EASY strobes, not the days of having to calculate power output to f-stop and shutter in real-time, frame to frame. Vivitar days. 285. 283.
You can see my little friend in my left hand near my hip. My little Godox TT350n. The transmitter in the hot shoe, shaded by my hat. Using a strobe is like seeing the world new again. Instead of the hard light forcing my hand, I can bring clarity to the deepest darkest of recesses. But I can also revert back to my fill days. Punching the white hot rays. Overpowering the sun itself. Shazam. I flick from color to black and white, available light to fill to strobe as primary. Old reflexes coming back, slowly. And it’s all for fun. No high stakes here. Scouting mostly, so we can bring students back to the fun that is Tokyo at street level.
Comments 15
You’re equipped like Bruce Gilden, Dan! 🙂
Author
Yes. While avoiding the blasting people in the face thing.
I am guilty! … I am an available light photographer. 😂😂😂
Author
Get a strobe…set yourself free. They are SO easy now.
Hot as hell isn’t it! Haha! You should have been here through August!
I’ve shot flash on and off on the street for years, past year and a half I’ve been carrying a godox ad100 with a pistol grip and it does the job.
Ive carried flash for my street stuff on and off for years. My current rig is a godox ad100 with a pistol grip on his. Does the job. Have the bottom of your shoes melted yet?
Author
Not yet, but it’s been toasty.
I guess I am only somewhat guilty… I know how to use a strobe. But I am an available light photographer. 😀
Author
You are ahead of the game.
It is all but painting with light. Sometimes you become Vermeer, and rest, you are Pollock LOL
Blend in a little bit more Dan. I’m suprised your not arrested for dressing like that.
Author
Blend in…in Japan. Impossible.
Vivitar 283… takes me back soooo many years. I feel an eBay search coming on, on the other hand something more modern may be appropriate.
Author
God did that strobe torture me.