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I left Boston for 2.5 weeks for my winter vacation, and just made it out. In fact mine was the one of just two flights that JetBlue didn't cancel on that day. When I got to LA, I thought I'd continue experimenting with lighting techniques. This is the first post of several on these experiments. I'll admit upfront that I'm cheap, and I'm trying to do this photography thing on the lowest possible budget. As a result, the thing I've been using as a reflector is a $4 windshield reflector I got at CVS. It's mylar on one side and white on the other, so I figured, hey, this is pretty close to what I want, right? And it turned out fine, mostly. In fact it's so cheap that it's hard to feel guilty about, say, punching a hole in it, or cutting off sections to use in other ways. The main issue is that it's a folding windshield thingbop, so it has no intrinsic shape or stiffness of its own, which makes it super difficult to work with unless I clamp cardboard to the back. I got fed up with this rig and decided to buy a Flashpoint collapsible reflector from Adorama for like $15. This is the type that is circular with a metal ring to maintain shape, but collapses into ~1/4 the diameter for storage. Comes with handy pouch. Deploys suddenly and spectacularly, which is good for certain impressionable minds. Been pretty happy with it so far. In the long run, the reflective material might be vulnerable to tearing, so we'll see. One advantage about reflectors is that they're portable and easy to intuit. In a static setting, they also produce highly reproducible light. How ironic! Most people would probably argue the opposite, given that the reflector has no intrinsic light of its own and must rely on (constantly shifting) available light to do its job. But recall that my flash units are specially modified $10 thyristor things I got from ebay. The discharge-to-discharge variation in these little babies is pretty substantial, so it's hard to precisely balance two light sources. With the reflector, because angle and albedo are relatively constant, it's much easier. This might make it more feasible to (someday) purchase a better flash, since I wouldn't necessarily have to buy two at once. I'll post more in the next few days on the other experiments, as well as a selection of the usual trip/tourist photos.
