Location, Location, Location: The advantage of being a “Strobist”
Using powerful studio flashes has its advantages. They can overpower the natural light and they can shape the type of light you want without too many troubles, but while you are out and around, maybe in a nice and interesting location, sometimes small and light flash units are much more handy. You do not need to carry around heavy heads, batteries packs and huge stands; you can have a complete one light setup in less than a kilogram. Simple, portable and easy.
Clearly you cannot hope to shoot in direct sunlight and kill the sunlight with a Nikon SB-28 or a Canon 580ExII, the power is simply not enough! So there are limitations in terms of power, but the advantage of moving around in various location without the need of a mule carrying tons of heavy equipment is priceless (IMHO).
This photo was taken near the studio we sometimes rent. The interesting lift, its blue door and the industrial look were great for this session, but we did not have the studio flashes available, so I simply used a stand where I mounted my little flash. In few seconds the light setting was up and we were taking shot after shot after shot. In this case, due to the lack of external light to kill, I was able to push the flash power down to 1/16th of power, giving it a fast recycle time and a long life to the four AA batteries inside.
I like using small flashes to shape the light around. It is fun, quite cheap and portable.
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