I think shooting flash has got to be the cheat code because you can just take photos of anything with flash and it looks interesting, right?

I mean, anything. It brings that little extra pop.

Especially in color. I find just random crap on the ground and it makes it look so cool.

Got my feet in here. I mean, look. Tell me I don’t look cool.

It’s got a little extra pop.

And yeah, the flash has kind of inspired me to shoot color again because I mostly shoot in harsh light. It’s the only way I can really shoot photography every day around my work schedule. I’m not going out with the best light all the time.

Shooting harsh light in color is just not the best sometimes, but with the flash, it doesn’t matter. You can make anything look good with it, even in harsh light.

Look at that.

There’s light reflecting off the car in there.

Look at that. There’s a whole bunch of these beams. That’s cool. And they’re different colors too. They’re like purple.

Yeah, I’ll probably delete it, but you know what I’m saying. The flash is just the move.

Oh, this is like the Tesla repair center. We’ve got a Cybertruck.

Look at that. We’ve got the Cybertruck in there. That guy was probably just hauling the busted-up Teslas over here.

Look. Flash. You’ve got a yellow piece of tape. That’s all you need. Just a little yellow piece of tape.

Look at that with the flash.

What’s that look like? Look, it’s a masterpiece. That’s a masterpiece, I tell you.

The barbed wire. Of course, you’re not a good photographer unless you take a photograph of some barbed wire.

It’s like a car wash in there. Mercedes.

That’s probably the repair shop for Mercedes. And yeah, they probably wash the cars after they’re done. That’s nice of them. Nice to get a clean car back.

Look. W.I. Simonson. Mercedes-Benz courtesy vehicle.

Oh yeah, they’re vacuuming them out in there.

Nice little spot.

But anyways, yeah, the flash has really rejuvenated me.

This is the Godox iT20 flash. It’s TTL, and it’s not the best for street photography, I’ve found, because it won’t do Auto ISO with the Ricoh.

Once I put it on my mode for Auto ISO, where I have a minimum shutter speed of around 1/1000, it just doesn’t work. It’s always going to the lowest possible ISO, which is 200.

Sometimes at ISO 200, the shutter speed will be like 1/60. And if you’re shooting like that in daylight, the flash isn’t freezing your subject.

So I’ve found that most of the time, for fast-action street photography, this isn’t the move.

But just for static stuff like this? Look at this. This to me is super interesting.

We’ve got some paint on the ground, and you can see a tire went through it, right?

Look at that. That’s an interesting-looking paint splatter.

And now that I’ve got the flash, boom. You can see the tire marks in there.

I’ll get these.

Look at that.

It goes all the way that way. You can just really make everything pop with flash, right?

Got a little dandelion there. Look, include the dandelion in there.

So anyways, yeah, if you’re feeling bored with your photography and need a little boost, just pick up one of these flashes.

And with the Ricoh, because it’s a leaf shutter, I can shoot at pretty much any shutter speed with it. I don’t have to worry about much.

And look how tiny it is. It’s so tiny.

Little graffiti on the pots.

Look, just P mode. Just fire away. I’m not even worrying about composition. I’m just running and gunning.

East LA. Going East LA.

All right. Just some quick thoughts.