Prescott High School Archive

I was asked to photograph a couple of bands last weekend. These were not bands that travel a circuit or house bands, but a couple of bands made up of students graduating from Prescott High School and moving on to different colleges. This was to be their last gig before setting off to school in a few weeks and Ryan, who had asked me to photograph the bands, wanted some shots of the groups.

As the concert started (they were pretty good, by the way) my primary flash started acting up. Normally I’d tell the on-camera flash that I want it to expose at a certain level and let the electronic brains do the adjustments as the light in the venue changes or I move to a location where the light is a bit different. That night my flash decided it didn’t know what to do, so all the images were dark. That might have thrown some photographers a curve they couldn’t hit. Some might have simply thrown up their hands and quit because they could no longer create images.

There are a number of things that should separate a professional photographer from an amateur. One of those, as a good friend of mine likes to say, is the ability to get the shot. Every time. No matter what the job may throw at you. But the only “automatic” flash I had was not working. What should I do? How do I get the shot if my equipment has failed?

Even though I had packed light (just one bag) I had at least two immediate options:

1. Because I know my equipment I could try the faulty flash on manual and see if it worked
2. Because I carry backup gear (even when packing light) I could switch to one of the two manual flashes I had set up for rim/back lighting

Both of these options required that I know how to operate both the camera and flash in full manual mode. Many people will look at what someone “has” and determine that they must be a pro. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told that I’m taking fantastic photos by people who haven’t even seen the  images. They say that because I have professional grade cameras and lenses. What you have in your camera bag is important but what you have in your head is far more important.

The first thing I did was to put the on-camera flash on manual and make sure the two manual flashes had not been turned on yet – in case I needed to make one of them my main flash. The auto flash worked just fine in manual mode on-camera, but that would mean I had to make constant adjustments as I moved around, getting closer and then farther away from the performers (have I mentioned that they were good?). I was able to assess the problem, adjust my setup and resume shooting before the first song was even half way over.

When Ryan’s band got ready to start their set the flash stopped working again. Low battery. The short time the flash was in the now defective auto mode it had really drained the charge. Normally I could have gone most of the evening without needing new batteries. Even though I can usually depend on the flash batteries to last longer, I carry several fully charged sets – just in case (I’m actually recharging several sets as I type this). I grabbed one of the spare seets and was quickly back in business again and didn’t need to change batteries for the rest of the evening.

Interestingly enough, shortly into their set, Ryan broke a string on his guitar. No problem. He just grabbed another one, retuned a bit and off they went. I liked that.