I came to a sudden realization last weekend. I've turned into a light snob. I won't settle for light that's just "okay" when shooting pictures.

The US Bowling Congress was in Kansas City to promote bowling by hosting several clinics with a group of pros. They'd hired me to shoot photos of pretty much everything going on. From the Friday night reception to the Saturday clinics held at two bowling alleys in the Kansas City metro area. The photos would be used on their web site, in publications they produce and as handout materials.

If you've ever been in a bowling alley you know that the lighting tends to be a bit dim. There are many times I've been in situations like that and simply bumped the ISO up to 1000 or even 1600 and shot away. The problem with that is that while the photos look okay, that's all they look - okay. The light is fairly flat (no direction to it) and there's the usual loss of saturation and contrast that happens when you go to high ISO's. I've seen enough okay light in my life. I want more.

I heard a photographer once say that we take pictures of light, not subjects. It's true. Most nice photos have nice light going for them. Directional, colorful, unusual, you name it, but good light is often the name of the game in photography. And quite often, the natural light just doesn't do it.

Years ago I started buying big strobes - I mean BIG strobes - when I had the chance. I've got three of them now, and they put out a lot of light. I dragged them in and set one up in the front corner near the pins, aimed at the bowlers as they rolled. The other two lights I placed behind them, to backlight them and add light to the background.

Now I had some LIGHT! By crossing the light - one behind me to the side, the other(s) behind the subject - I now had light with depth. I also had more power dedicated to the back lights so they would create a nice edge light on the subjects. Without that extra power you wouldn't get the rim-light effect. Look at the difference between the two photos of the three women pro bowlers at the front of the lanes - one with the strobes, one with available light.

To make everything work together I used three PocketWizard Plus receivers and one transmitter. That way the lights would fire when triggered by the camera, ignoring all the other flashes being fired by people taking snapshots. And when I needed a bit more light to fill I the shadows, I used a small strobe on the camera, powered down a bit.

The result? Pictures that jump off the screen. Sure, it was more work, but it was also more fun, and definitely made better pictures. Light snob? You bet, and darn proud of it.