Scott Turner Wrote:
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> Your night shots completely avoided an effect I
> usually see (in mine and others' images) in
> flood-lit night shoots - indistinct, blurred out
> steam and smoke. The only times I've avoided that
> effect have been shooting on the Nevada Northern
> with Steve Crise's strobes - and years ago with
> Gordon Osmundson's old-school flashes. That's why
> I wondered if these were strobed.
I've only shot with bulbs once. I recall that at Pete Lerro's incredibly frigid North Conway, NH night shoot in January of 2009, Victor Hand showed up with some bulbs and he did a couple of pops for the whole group. Considering that this was only about my 3rd or 4th night shoot, I was pretty pleased with the result. The problem with bulbs is that to an even greater degree than strobes, everybody gets a very limited number of frames. For the folks who can dial it in quick, it might work, but a lot of others would be very disappointed. Steve Crise does do a nice job with the Nevada Northern shoots. He does enough pops that even the noobs should eventually be able to get something.
I do prefer strobes, and I've done enough of these that I can pretty much peg the exposure with 3-4 frames. However I fully understand Pete's situation in that he has to try to accommodate a wide variety of talents and hot lights (the LED floods) are the best means for him to give everyone a shot....and allow people to shoot multiple angles. The scene in Chama was something of an aberration, because he didn't have the degree of control over the situation that he usually does. The RR had a new Safety Officer, who severely limited where people could shoot and required groups of perhaps 10 or so to be escorted to the spot. It really limited creativity and variety, but if everyone waited patiently, Pete got everybody at least 5-10 minutes in the sweet spot.
/Kevin Madore
