"Flashdance"... Yeah, that's a Real THING!

Ahh, the Old Middle School Dances!

Went to a lot of them over the years ... But yeah, this one was DIFFERENT!

I checked, it was back in 2007, from what I can tell (DATA!), and yeah, if I remember correctly (no guarantee there!), for some reason I believe it was an Eighth Grade Dance, you know, just for the eight graders! You know, if we ever had such a thing!

I've slept since then ... And, well, YOU KNOW!

It has been a LONG time!

But, anywho ...

Yes! I had my "real" camera with me that night, and yeah, you know me ... PLAY, PLAY, PLAY!

Slow-Synch, with rear-curtain, flash!

Yeah, I wanted to "Show the Motion"! You know, that BLURRED effect ... Say it with me!

"THE NOTION of MOTION"!

Yeah, that's what I call it anyways! Remember, this is a "STILL" photograph we're talking about here! There is no, ahh, MOTION!

So I had to "fake it".

I just used what NIKON gave me to use ... Yeah, "SLOW-SYNC" flash, as in I used a SLOWER than speed than the "normal" (1/60th), like, say, 1/30th or 1/15th of a second, and/or slower!) shutter-speed to give the "illusion" of movement in a photograph!

And, yeah, even better! At the same time, I also used that whole "REAR-CURTAIN" thing, that allows the flash to "fire" at the "end of the exposure" instead of at the beginning! That allows the "blurrrrr" to "trail behind the subject", instead of being in "front" of the subject which looks a little, ahh, "strange"!

Pretty cool. You know, the "blurrrrrr" is behind the subject,which yeah, "looks better", and more Natural, you know, like the Roadrunner, back in the day!

You know, more "NATURAL" looking!

I know!

Who came up with that little "trick"?

Glad someone much smarter than me took care of "all that" for us, I have no clue as to how they made it all work out so well!

Like I say (and write!), yeah, I just "PUSH THE BUTTONS"! The camera "does all the work"!

And trust me, FLASH has always been the toughest aspect of photography for me! Come on! I NEVER (ever) even tried to use it when I first started out, well, you know, once I shot with it, and then actually saw how bad they looked, that is!

Oh yeah, flash photography back in the 1970s was VERY DIFFERENT than what it is today, trust me!

It was BAD ... And I was "BADDER"!

And yes! In this case, THAT is a "real word"!

Very different!

You know, and don't laugh at this, but yeah, it was kind of, ahh, "LIKE NIGHT AND DAY"!

So, by what? 2007? Yeah, I was FINALLY able to set my camera up the way I wanted to, and actually came away with images, shot with my trusty, Nikon SB-24 flash, that yeah! Actually came out the way I wanted them to!

I just call it "FLASH MAGIC", and let the images do all "The Talking"!

Pure GENIUS on my part, I might add!

Yeah, I bought, and actually watched (a bunch of times, over and over again!) a couple of those old, "VCR thingies", on the NIKON flash system, and yeah, FINALLY "figured it all out"!

Progress was made!

PLAY, PLAY, PLAY!

And yes, I had actually "practiced" all of this stuff with my college classes, so yeah, I had some idea as to what I was doing, you know, by the time this BIG DANCE thing came around!

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

So yeah, although I actually really got into photography (hard-core) back in the 1980s, yeah, it took me to about, oh, like, say 2007, before I really knew what was going on with that wholle FLASH (or "STROBE") thing that Nikon had come up with, to allow "dummies like me", to finally, get the flash images like all the "cool photographers" out there!

Try it!

It is all on the computer, or phone, or devise (or whatever!) that you are reading this on! Like, RIGHT NOW! Check it out.

"GOOGLE IT". Rear-Curtain, Slow-Synch flash!

That simple.

Or, you know, that simple to READ ABOUT, anyways! The rest is up to you!

And yeah, if I can help out, I'd be glad to give it a try!

Again, just use whatever "device" you are reading this on, and contact me!

davidhessell@yahoo.com

Yeah, I think that is still my address, or whatever you call it! Yeah, since I'm retired, ha! No, I don't get too many emails on photography questions! But hey! Give it a try. Oh! And yeah, it's on my website, I'm pretty sure! Give it a try!

Good luck with that.

So yeah, GET OUT THERE, and start shooting with this whole "NOTION of MOTION" thing you see in these images!

YOU CAN DO IT!

Oh! And yes! Before I posted these images, oh yeah!

I made sure none of these images "exposed" anything that their father's would object to! I even asked a female, Eighth Grade teacher, you know, before I shared it on the MORNING NEWS TV SHOW we had back in the day!

Like I said, I taught middle school kids for twenty-four years!

I KNOW!

Now, get out there and enjoy YOUR photography! Wherever, and whoever, you meet while doing so!

I LOVED IT!

Still do.

Enjoy.