two small cameras and a large flash lying on the ground Initially I’d been doing most of my photography in the near dark. Doctors and nurses usually change shifts at 7:00 — a.m. or p.m. after a 12 hour shift. So I’d be photographing either at 5:30 in the morning, or at 8:00 in the evening, but lately I’ve been photographing people on their days off too, so it’s sometimes most convenient for people at noon or two, and as the days have gotten longer the sun seems to be constantly overhead — which is terrible for photography. I’d been using a pretty small flash but as the sun got brighter I’d find I was on full power on the flash even with no light modifier, and just six feet from the subject. I remembered I had this Sunpak 622 in the closet. I’d gotten it years ago when it was advertised as the most powerful hand held flash ever made (I doubt it is any longer) but it requires four C cells and the refresh time on it was absurd — like 10 seconds at full power. Fast forward 14 years of sitting in the closet and battery technology has improved greatly (i found out) — I put four rechargeable C cells in it and the recycle time is maybe 3 seconds at full power now. Which means I can use a softbox in broad daylight if I’m careful. The thing is a beast though. It probably weighs two pounds. 

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