A Flash of Luck

I covered a PBR rodeo not too long ago in an arena that tested the limits of my camera and lens’ ability to deliver in low light.  During the main event I saw that the official rodeo photographer had found his own solution with the biggest flash reflector bowl I had seen mounted on a camera’s hotshoe.

Meanwhile, I was perfectly content to squeak by with an ancient 300mm wide open at f/2.8 to keep the bulls and their riders sharp.  That is, until I found out that a spectator’s beer I had clumsily knocked over with my big fat camera bag cost seven dollars to replace.  My chagrin at the remuneration of said refreshment bled over into pessimism regarding my ability to deliver quality images of the rodeo.

Later that night, however, I was perusing my photos when I found an unexpected keeper: I had caught the flash from the parabolic satellite dish on the rodeo photographer’s camera, giving me one frame of a cowboy’s ride lit dramatically from the side.  Considering my shutter speed was close to 1/1000 of a second, I assume that the pulse from the flash had to have been rather long.  That, and maybe I had a little luck on my side after all.

And then, a few weeks later I was reading Newsweek’s terrific Beijing Olympics photo blog Visions of China when I came across a photo by Donald Miralle of Michael Phelps celebrating his eighth gold medal.

Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

Simon Barnett, DOP for NEWSWEEK, lauded Miralle’s photo for the effect added by catching another photographer’s flash.  I couldn’t help but note the similarities between the circumstances around Miralle’s photo and mine: both shooting sports, both using 300mm Canon lenses, both struggling in low light to freeze the action, both using another’s flash to highlight the subject.

Regardless of the historic event that Miralle caught so well, I couldn’t help but smirk at the fact that my photo came first.