Share Six: {Artificial Light}

This month's Share Six theme is {Artificial Light}.

I think sometimes artificial light gets misinterpreted as strictly camera flash, but it can be so much more than that. I am very much a natural light photographer and haven't touched my flash since I shot weddings many moons ago, so I am way out of practice and was never much good with flash to begin with. I used to use flash when photographing our oldest daughter as a baby because our house can get pretty dark, but after a while I learned that I preferred finding the shadows and highlights and moody, low light images after all. Still, this theme helped me get out of my rut of the same types of images and practice with artificial light. I think it's always good to stray from your typical style once in a while to experiment.

This image is at our local zoo. The lights from the aquarium along with the light from the screen helped illuminate my daughter's face while the shadows portray how dark it is in this room.

My husband wanted to camp in the backyard with our oldest daughter, so we set up a tent and cooked s'mores over a campfire. She loved zipping and unzipping the tent, and I used a flashlight to create a spotlight on her.

Inside the tent, a simple flashlight shines on her face.

She loves making shadow puppets, so I stood behind her with the flashlight aimed on her and the tent wall.

Despite my best efforts, our youngest is obsessed with my phone. She holds it in front of her face and says "Cheeeese!" Here, the iPhone screen lights up her face.

I used my Speedlite flash for this image, which is in my youngest's nursery. There is a window air conditioner unit in the window, so much of the soft light has been blocked. However, there is still a bit of window above the unit, so I aimed the flash sideways at the window to illuminate the room.

I have joined a group of photographers, Share Six, who will be blogging 6 images each month. Each month is a different theme. Please click here to see work from the talented Tori of Roots and Twigs' interpretation of this month's theme.

Join us for this month’s theme by posting your {Artificial Light} images on our Facebook page at Share Six and to our Instagram gallery by tagging #sharesix, #sharesix_artificiallight. A new theme will come out on August 6th.