What You Saw, What I Saw

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I was checking sculptor Sandra Shaw's website when I discovered this photograph. Ms. Shaw is the sculpture who created the bronze statue to honor the Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II. I knew that there were photographers standing on the raised partition behind me. One of them captured this image.

On closer inspection, I noticed a familiar camera with a familiar flash, held aloft by a photographer. By golly, that's me, using the "Hail Mary" technique to get a better angle on the scene. If you at the image at the right, you can see my trusty Fuji T-2, and a Flashpoint Zoom LI-on X flash with its head angled upwards.

Ethics: When submitting a photograph as "news", there is an ethical standard that photographers must meet. "Photos Do Not Lie" is central to the viewer's trust in our images. and we must follow a standard of "Photographers Must Not Lie" when submitting our images as true representations of what we saw.

It is apparent that my photo was taken at almost the same time from almost the same position. I was closer to the edge of the crowd and slightly lower, which is why the spectators at the edge of the frame are easily recognizable. The only significant difference is the flash, which allowed me to add detail into the shadow side of the nearest spectators.

The human eye is amazing. It can effortless switch between areas of bright sunlight and darker shadow, within reason, and can extract information from either situation. Neither film nor digital sensors can do this without some help. which in my case, was the addition of the flash to the mix. By using flash, I was able to capture the mood of the crowd, and their individual expressions. This supplementary-lit photo also maintained more detail when published on newsprint. For me, it was win-win.

Ethically, some may question the addition of flash was an artificial influence on the subject. I contend the flash merely gave the viewer the ability to more closely examine the details that the first photo didn't. The "golden" tone it gave to the statue was unfortunate, but inescapable due to the flash placement so close to the lens axis. At the very least my photo provided a better sense of the audience reaction to the unveiling. There is one drawback. By optimizing the flash to ambient exposure for the foreground, the people in the distance were too dark. I think that using the flash was the only way to go.

Eugene Smith: There is a famous quote attributed to photographer W. Eugene Smith (1918- 1978). When asked about lighting technique, he said, in effect, that he only used available light, which many assumed to mean natural light. After a pause, he clarified:

"Available light is any damn light that is available!"