As fall transitions to winter and the year marches to a close, the main change I notice is the shortening of the day. The sun sets sooner and sooner and then, whack, “fall back” happens the first Sunday of November and the light is gone well before 5 p.m. Darkness for rush hour for the next three and a half months.
For me as a photographer, that means falling back to my own light source: flash. Instead of chasing light, I’m chasing with a light. Doing flash photography on the street, I’m no longer waiting for something to be illuminated; I’m finding the thing and illuminating it. Pow! Subtlety be damned and I enjoy it — the directness, the experience of announcing each capture, and the resulting aesthetic.
Darkness is typically the time of stealth. Think of a nighttime attack on an encampment under cover of darkness in a movie, guards silently neutralized by the hero as he saves the imprisoned.
It’s just the opposite doing flash photography on the street at night, though. All stealth is eliminated. It’s like an inaudible air horn, not only loudly announcing a photo has been taken, but sometimes startling people. Being sneaky, it certainly isn’t — that’s what I’m mean about the directness. There’s something forthright about the approach I appreciate.
So falling back? Sure, to standard time. But this time of year, I’d like to think I’m stepping up with my flashgun, building cold-handed confidence during the low temps and long nights. And this year particularly that step up was even steeper as it was my first foray using flash in Chicago since January 2019, almost five years ago. The rust has been shaken (perhaps not quite off yet).
Below are photos I’ve made in the last couple of months, my first flash set to share since returning to street photography from a years-long hiatus.
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