Flash: Friend or Foe

I've always stayed away from flash. It is not my friend. I don't like how it blasts everything and makes your subject look less than natural and not very flattering. Instead, I have preferred to use natural lighting. I shoot almost everything in daylight, or shade whenever available in the sunny Southwest. Mostly, I like to shoot out and about, what I see when I am out (buildings, signs, etc.) but there comes a time when you need to shoot humans too (in a posed, controlled situation), or animals, and sometimes the lighting is less than ideal. I have done okay in these situations and have continued to stay away from flash.

Just recently, I have learned about rear-curtain sync. I way to show motion using flash. I couldn't wait to give it a try. On my particular camera, it was not very user friendly. I spent 2 days trying to get it to sync right and to produce the results that I wanted. Honestly, it was rather frustrating. Then, when I had all but given up, I decided to give it one more try. And to use the words of a photographer teacher, I used my "photographer's karma" to make it work. Isn't it funny how sometimes you just have to remove all the thinking and just go with the process? Well, that is when I finally got some results. I will not share with you all the trials of this process, but here is the one photograph I am very pleased with. My dogs were play-fighting in the backyard and that is when I finally got this technique to work.