Sometimes I wonder about myself, I fear I’m not alone.

It was the hottest Bank Holiday on record so I decided to go into the studio and shoot roses with hot tungsten lights; you may need a bit of background here. Nowadays people would probably use strobes in a studio, sometimes even small camera mounted speedlights and increasingly people are using LED lights. The strobes and speed lights have relatively short flash duration typically less than 1/1000 of a second and frequently much shorter. Studio strobes may also have modelling lights which allow one to preview the lights before they fire but these lights have little if any effect on the exposure.

In the past tungsten lights were often used in photo studios, continuous and powerful light sources, lights that get very hot! Tungsten lights are still frequently used in film and video but recently I’ve sourced a couple of small units, one a German Arri and one an old British Photon-Beard. They both have a fresnel lens built in which means that the quality of light can be altered, surprisingly Photon-Beard even managed to locate a set barn doors for me. These lights are the at the baby end of the power range but, did I mention, they do get very hot!

I bought the lights to do some work that will need fast (motion-freezing) strobe lights at the same time as slow (motion blurring) continuous lights, watch this space. For now though I wanted to experiment with the aesthetically warm fresnel quality light, so I nicked a couple of roses from the dining table and absconded to my studio.

Tungsten fresnels provide a totally different quality of light to what is delivered but strobes and softboxes but it has a distinct appeal, I guess I could get a fresnel for the strobes but that’s not the point. It took a bit of working at but in the end I got to a point that I was happy with.

I’m always pleased when I meet working photographers who still experiment, personally I like to see range in their social streams and so forth. I love being part of something that offers scope for continual learning though as I sit writing this on a damp dull day I do once again wonder about myself particularly my sense of timing.

We did go to the beach in the evening, thinking fish and chips on the beach would be nice. Sadly the fish and chip shop was closed.

Sometimes I wonder about Devon, I know I’m not alone.

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