For all those who wander the suburbs in a trench coat and nothing else, please go to the next Google search result, I am actually about to delve into the photographic world of flashers and their flashes.

A couple of years ago, I had never heard the term strobist before, but these days it seems every man and his glow worm are getting into off camera lighting. Apparently, the flash built in to most of todays cameras, is good only for blinding the unsuspecting portrait victim. Strobists seem to look down their noses at people who activate the flash and mush the shutter button. Unless you have got a couple of $5 second hand flashes, a few reflectors, an umbrella, a small notepad and 2B pencil, light stands, a soft box, a snoot, an assortment of coloured gels, a Fong whale tale and 1024 Eneloop batteries to create a second sun you just aren’t fair dinkum. According to David Hobby, over at http://strobist.blogspot.com/ “The site has over 230,000 regular readers, our discussion group has more than 30,000 members, and we are all about sharing ideas and techniques for small-flash lighting.” That is a lot of light getting pumped out.

Macca flashes!

Now, I will say right now, I am not a strobist. I have a flash, that I haven’t a clue how to use properly, so it hardly ever goes onto the camera. I am sure if I had the inclination, I could probably work it out, and it may even improve my photos, but I don’t. Why? Well, I prefer to use available light. I like fast lenses. And I think strobists are your modern day trainspotters. Thats why I included the notepad and 2B pencil in the above inventory of your average strobist. Thats so they can document how they took the photo and include it in the Flickr descriptions. You will see things like.

“Strobist Info: Nikon SB-800 on 1/4 power left of camera, batteries at 15.8% capacity, through shoot-through reflector  and snooted using Pringles snoot. Topaz coloured gel on second SB-800 to right of camera, light stand extended to 61% of reach and pointed at 78.9 degrees to the model and ever so slightly upwards. “

Obviously, I have edited the description down, but you get the idea. Now whilst I am not a strobist, I love their passion. It seems once you go over to the strobist camp, you never come back. And the best thing about them, they seem to have a terrific sense of humour, are ingenious and take some damned fine photos.

Now back to the anti-strobists like myself. I have a feeling that natural lighting, or available light, whether it be natural from the bright round thing in the sky, or from man made light that isn’t a flash, seems to give a photo more atmosphere. I know, not all the time, but its my belief that most of the time it does. It might be more of a challenge, to try and get a photo with available light, although, after reading some of the strobist descriptions, they do take some time setting things up.

Using available light, see how sexy it looks  🙂

Which brings me to this weeks discussion point, are you a strobist? If not why not? if yes, what made you go over to the light side?