Reuniting with the Hard Light

I remember my first foray with studio lights. I bought myself a 3 light Smith Victor kit with stands that came in a card board box. Trying to emulate all the photographs I'd seen in books and magazines, I failed miserably. I had no idea what I was doing. I couldn't believe manufacturers of lights would sell such crap! Really though, I would imagine if those companies sold these lights with the instructions to use them with an umbrella or softbox would reap them with many satisfied customers.

That said, it did take me many years to understand what light could do with the various tools available to photographers and film makers. I still get lost in how some scenes in movies are lit. The true masters of lighting can make a effect that is so blatent, but just the same so natural and undefinable.

I went back to my roots and shot this photo with one light, one light with no tool to shape or reshape its natural characteristic. A 500 watt bulb, generating lots of heat, slamming itself against the shiny cone reflector only to be redirected in a hard arrow like direction towards whatever I pointed it at, leaving only razor sharp lines of shadow and light.