The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes

One Light in the Parking Lot

PHOTOGRAPHERS LOVE SEEDY MOTELS. They just do. Lots of character, usually a bit of neon, rooms with an if-these-walls-could-talk kind of disrepute. Seedy motels smack of illicit liaisons, last stands, one-night stands, and desperate deeds done in the dark. Great photographic fodder.

And there are always rooms on the ground floor. Those, in fact, are often the only rooms. Perfect for the light-in-the-parking-lot approach.

This is simple stuff nowadays. I moved the SB-900 about 30 feet away from the window and gelled it warm, so it would not be screamin’ white light in the midst of a bunch of fairly warm ...