Tanforan Assembly Center - Prelude To The Internment

Dorothea Lange: Library of Congress

May 8, 1942: Nearly 8,000 Bay Area residents of Japanese ancestry were preparing to relocate to the Tanforan Assembly Center south of San Francisco, where they, along with Japanese Americans across the country, were moved to one of the ten internment camps located in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Arkansas. Nearly all of them lost everything they owned: their homes, businesses, and personal possessions.

August 27, 2022: To mark the eightieth anniversary of the opening of the Tanforan  Assembly Center, a plaza was created at the San Bruno Bart Station featuring a bronze statue depicting two girls waiting in Hayward to be bussed to San Bruno. Famed Life photographer Dorothea Lange, well known for her images from the Great Depression, photographed sisters Miyuki and Hiroko Mochida as they waited for the bus, each carrying only what she could fit in one small suitcase.

The Assignment: The dedication of the plaza was scheduled to begin at 1:00 pm on Saturday, so true to form, I drove down to the plaza on Friday at 12:30 pm to scout out the venue. This would give me a chance to evaluate the light and find a "perch" from which to photograph. I found that the statue was located in one corner, facing towards the Bart Station entrance and away from the middle of the elevated plaza. I found that if I positioned myself at the very edge and used a wide angle lens, I could choose either a low angle to accentuate the statue itself, or a high angle to emphasize the crowd. From my shooting position, the statue would be perfectly back lit, so supplementary flash would be an absolute necessity.

Ribbon Cutting: The press release for the event stated there would be a ribbon cutting, even though there was no evidence of an "entrance", the usual location for such a ceremony. As it turned out, the cutting was only symbolic and located some distance away from the plaza. When the cutting was announced, I left my perch and quickly positioned myself in front of the red ribbon. I managed to get to a vacant front-row chair and waited for the actual slice. This shot caught me a little by surprise, as the ribbon was already floating away when the shot was made. The photo is a one-shot affair, since you cannot use the burst mode because an electronic flash couldn't keep up with the camera. Timing was everything, and it was a little off today.  But I had a usable image, but it lacked any real context to the event. I rushed back to my perch to wait for a better shot that included the statue. Incidentally, this group shot was a straight-out-of-camera (SOOC) shot. Had I submitted the image, the exposure would  have been adjusted in post production to recover details hiding in the underexposed areas.

The Unveiling: As you can see from this photo there was more space behind the statue than there was in the front. The organizers offered an interesting twist. The unveiling would be made from the rear so that more people could see it happen, after which they were encouraged to circle the statue and view it from the front. This eliminated the possibility of my taking a frontal photo of the moment of the unveiling, so the photographers standing with me had to wait for their own money shot to arrive. The gathering crowd provided the context and background I needed, so I shot quickly and frequently. 

The Technique: With my feet firmly on the ground, I held my camera over my head for some "Hail Mary" shots. With the LCD panel tilted down, I did my best to include the entire statue in the frame. I made nearly a dozen exposures, hoping that I'd find the perfect image when I scrolled through them later. I got lucky with this photo. So many of the guests had rapt expressions when viewing the statue, which meant that if you could see their faces, they were actually looking at the back of the statue, not the front. The camera was a Fuji X-T2 with the 18-55 F 2.8-4.0 kit lens, which I carry because of its compact size and light weight. The flash was a shoe-mounted Flashpoint Zoom LI-on X with its head tilted up slightly to minimize overexposure of  the nearest subjects. The flash's round head design provided a very gentle transition at the edges. The guests at the lower edge of the frame needed very little exposure adjustment, but otherwise, the photo was very much SOOC. Unfortunately the published image made the bronze appear more golden than it actually was.

I finally left the venue at 4:00 pm. It had been a long, hot day.   

Sandra Shaw, inspired by Dorothea Lange's photo, created the likenesses of the Mochida sisters in great detail, even down to their family name on the two small suitcases. Her work is incredibly nuanced, capturing the fear and anxiety of two little girls caught up in the anti-Asian hysteria of the time. It is an incredibly moving sculpture, a reminder of the dangers of racial and cultural prejudices, and the innocent victims they claim.

The Lux Senior - The Verdict

My time with the Lux Senior has been a tad disappointing for a number of reasons. 

Exposure Automation: This turned out to be a major disappointment. It actually worked sporadically, and at first appeared to properly dispense the proper amount of light when needed. However, it eventually failed completely. 

In short, the Exposure Automation was a complete bust. 

Sensor Sensitivity: Both the Exposure Sensor and the S1/S2 Optical Remote Sensor face forward.  The Lux Senior relies on light bouncing off of the subject to trigger the flash. It will work in a multiple flash, key and fill light setup when used indoors, but it is not sensitive enough to work outdoors. This pretty much limits the Lux's use to indoor venues if you're relying on the built-in S1 or S2 optical triggers. You could potentially add a more sensitive, hot shoe optical trigger like the Wein, but that's one more piece of equipment to carry.

In short, the S1 / S2 Optical Triggers work, but only marginally.

I really wanted to love this flash, but instead, will keep it because for a certain type of photograph, it can potentially do exactly what I wanted. Sure, the so-called exposure automation was a total disappointment, and the fact that it died after only a few hours of use is inexcusable. It will never ride along as my only flash unit since it's beam coverage is too narrow to be useful. 

The sample photo was made with the Lux Senior placed about 3 feet from my face. It was in the S1 mode, and triggered by a second flash bounced off of the wall behind the camera. The lens was a Fuji kit lens zoomed out to 35mm and held at arm's length.

I won't be returning the flash because its dish reflector does have a place in my work flow. I see it being used outdoors for quick headshots during informal events. I imagine it being used during San Francisco's Carnaval, if and when it returns to its former glory. It is a target rich environment, one where everybody expects to be photographed, a situation where permission is implied. I will be using some form of compact radio flash trigger, and am quite sure I can consistently guess a flash to subject distance of 3 feet. Once this is all dialed in, I can be certain my exposures will accurate and easily corrected one viewed during Image Preview.

To close this series of posts, I can say that the flash does offer a fair compromise between a small softbox and a standard unmodified speedlight. It provides a soft edged, relatively narrow beam of light that matches the acceptance angle of a "normal" lens (50mm Full Frame, 35mm APS). When used manually, the output dial is easily rotated with only one hand.

I really wanted to love this flash. Alas...

The Lux Senior In The Field

Borrowed from Photo Stock.

Cue Sad Trombone: I was so looking forward to falling in love with the Lux Senior Flash. Unfortunately, the unit has some serious flaws that would make this a poor choice if you're looking for a versatile, working flash and not for some mid-century styled eye-candy. I bought it based on the design of the reflector, and was willing to forgive any shortcomings of the flash if the reflector did what I hoped it would do. Having worked with the flash manually, I can halfheartedly say the reflector does work, but just about everything else falls short

Charging: Since I was going to experiment with the flash in the manual mode, I did the guy thing and didn't read the directions. I understand fractions as well as the next person, so I went ahead and manually chose the output using the large, easy tor read output dial on the back of the flash. But first, I had to charge the internal battery. I managed to grab the USB charger and cable for my Fuji T4. I found that it took about an hour and a half to fully charge the flash as it came from the box. The flash Ready Light serves as a charge indicator. Plugging in a  USB charger turns the light red, and when fully charged, it turns green.

I decided to use a Fuji X100S as my test platform so I could have access to full flash synchronization at all shutter speeds. I also took advantage of auto-focus because I wanted to leave as little as possible to chance. I decided to first evaluate the light spread.

Light Fall Off: This became apparent when I first started playing with it. My "snaps" had a spotlight look, so just to be sure, I found a garage door to photograph. The Fuji has a 23mm lens, the full frame equivalent of a 35mm. As you can see, the light is concentrated in the center when mounted in the camera's hot shoe. I will say that the light falls off gently at the edges, which can be useful when you wish to highlight a subject near the center of the frame.

When I returned home, I mounted the flash on an APS camera with a 35mm lens, one that nearly duplicates the 50mm focal length considered "normal" for 35mm film. Low and behold, the narrower angle of the lens better matched the beam angle of the flash. I wonder if this was by design.

That's the earpiece of my classes to my right. 

This flash-on-camera selfie was made at arm's length, and you can easily see the light falloff below my nose. The highlight on my forehead is nice and even, and the shadows on my face are softer than I would have expected from a conventional flash. And as I mentioned, the falloff at the edges is very soft. The catchlights are prominent, but not especially large. If I were to make this shot again, I'd take the flash off-camera and aim it a little lower. Incidentally, the flash can function off-camera, which I'll discuss in my next post.

Photo Credit: Streetshooter.com

Inspiration: Photographer Zack Arias has become a well known Fuji photographer, and has done a number of videos for several Fuji camera roll-outs. He and David Hobby were early Fuji X100 adopters, and I'm sure that Fuji listened to what they had to say, as the cameras show definite improvements with each new iteration. When the Fuji X-T1 was introduced, Mr. Arias took it to Marrakech, where he produced a series of twilight photographs at a local bazaar. In this promotional video he can be seen using a one flash technique employing a Fuji camera, a Pocket Wizard, and a small speedlight.

Screen capture from YouTube video

This shot is typical of the shots he made with his simple, one flash approach. It also supports my belief that light placement is sometimes more important than light quality.

Takeaway: So far, the reflector missed my expectations due to it narrow beam angle, putting the Lux into the category of specialty light. My next post will cover things like output, off camera use, and the so-called "universal flash exposure automation". As I test the unit, I am reminded of a quote from Han Solo: "I got a bad feeling about this".

It's Here! The Lux Senior Flash

It's Finally Arrived: My Flashpoint FlashBack Senior (Adorama) a.k.a. the Godox Lux Senior (everywhere else) on-camera flash is set to arrive on Thursday, so I plan on playing with it most of Friday. I'm so excited. I'm about to lose control and I just can't hide it.

While waiting, I spent a good deal of time looking for anyone who has actually handled the flash, either production or prototype, in the hopes of clarifying some of the statements made about its performance. As is the custom of on-line stores, there is a comments section, which at this point is mostly Q & A session by potential buyers. I'll get to those in a moment.

Behold! A lot of writers like to do "unboxing videos" of their latest purchases. I can't find any real value in that, but I rather like box itself. I will say that the Godox Art Department went to great lengths to provide some very eye-appealing packaging. The turquois color of the box elicits a fifties vibe, and I can appreciate that, having lived through it. Inside, you'll find the flash carefully packed in a dense foam, cut to cradle the flash perfectly. 

Works On Any Camera: This is a great selling point, but needs some qualification. Physical joining of the flash to the camera can be accomplished using an accessory shoe (shown here on a vintage Nikon F), the camera's built-in shoe, or an accessory flash bracket.

• Built-in accessory shoes can be found on the earliest film cameras, and were used to attach supplementary viewfinders that matched to view angle of the lens. They were usually placed directly above the lens. 

• 

  Photo Credit: MyNikon.org.

  When single lens reflex cameras replaced the rangefinder as the dominant camera design, the need to mount an accessory viewfinder was eliminated, since the SLR viewfinder allowed the photographer to see exactly how the camera was framing the image. Accessory shoes were available as an add-on accessory, as seen in the classic Nikon F, where it can be seen on top of the film re-wind crank. If you opted to mount the flash in this accessory shoe, you would need a short cable to connect the flash to your camera's built in connector, which was almost always a P/C connector, named for Prontor/Compur, two shutter manufactures who adopted this pin connector interface as their standard. The Lux flash comes with a short flash cable with a P/C connector for the camera and a microphone connector for the flash.
• As electronic flashes became small enough to safely mount on the camera, the "hot" accessory shoe was added the the camera. Initially, they were simply an "on/off" switch that fired the flash. Later on, when TTL flash metering was developed, more contacts were added so the flash and the camera could communicate. However, no matter who the manufacturer, the center contact will always trigger any flash you install, minus the exposure automation. The Lux has "hot foot" (my term) allow it to work in conjunction with any camera's hot shoe center contact. Just a remainder, there are no electrical contacts for TTL  functioning, but you already knew that.
  

I have some very high expectations for the flash. At best, it will provide the kind of light I used to get with my much bulkier Armator conversions. At worse, it is an interesting manual flash with lots of potential. 

More to follow after I've spent some time with it in the field.