Letter A, day 6/14, 6/365
What do you do when someone suggests that you photograph three entirely disparate items in one line? I suppose Paulette Dell’Ario, my dad’s wife, might’ve meant these three words as three suggestions, but I’m the blogger here – I make the rules. And these were disparate enough to seem interesting to me.
What was more interesting, though, was although I knew exactly what I wanted for this frame, I wasn’t sure how it was going to be possible. Asphalt and aces: simple enough, just throw four playing cards onto the pavement outside my apartment. The azure, though… True, this is not only the Land of the Morning Calm, but also the Land of a Bajillion Neon Signs; shouldn’t be too hard to find one that cast a blue glow onto a spot of pavement, throw the aforementioned cards down like a practiced card shark, and snap away. But why not make my own azure?
I’ll tell you why: no gels! I went to America a month ago, and the only thing I set out specifically to buy were gels. Gels are small pieces of cellophane designed specifically to color light, in this case from a strobe. I bought no gels. Not one.
So, what to do, right? Shoot through the blue t-shirt I’m wearing today? Maybe. Or, listen to your photographer friends who are smarter than you when they suggest that you buy some thin, blue paper from a stationary store. I did just that, and 2,000 won later, I was two giant sheets of blue paper richer. More than I needed, but hey, it works. See the picture up there? Blue light entirely by shooting through some paper.
Warning: If you try to use paper instead of gels, know this: flashes work by storing a bunch of electricity in banks of little cylinders called capacitors. My physics teacher in high school showed me how awesome these were by hooking several giant flash capacitors up in series, then swinging a wire into place to complete a circuit between the charged capacitors and and empty set – and BAM! Molten metal everywhere. Anyway, flashes store up electricity, then discharging it in a tiny fraction of a second through the strobe’s bulb. Where there’s light, there’s heat, folks, so keep that paper bowed over the flash in order to keep it from burning. Yes, it will burn. I’ve seen gels melt to flashes, so what’s to stop paper from burning in the same situation?
Strobist:
SB-600, paper’d (?) azure, high camera right. Gnarly sodium vapor street light burning orange, way higher camera left..
AZ365 