I just discovered that I am an Available Light photographer....

  "Available Light Photography." In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya, "you keep using that word.... I do no think it means what you think it means....." When most people use the term "available light," what they really mean is ambient light, or whatever light exists already in the situation you are in.

   Not me. What I mean is, if the light source is available and I need it, I will freaking use it to get the images I want! If the sun is all I have available and it does the job just fine, cool, I can live with that. If I need to add a reflector, I will. If I have my speed lights with me, then they count as available, and I will use them to get what I want.

   If all I have with me is the flashlight on my iPhone and I want to get a shot in a pitch black room, I will use the iPhone. It's available, it's light, it must be available light! I have used headlamps, car headlights, flashlights, the flash from someone else's phone.... I'll take it.

  So, let the truth ring out from the hills, I AM AN AVAILABLE LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHER! I will shout it from the mountaintops. (ok, maybe not, I am too tired to climb any mountains tonight).

  I actually think the only true "natural light" photographers are landscape shooters or street photographers. If you are directing your subject so stand somewhere, i.e. near the window, or somewhere they weren't when you initially saw them, you are still manipulating the light. Everything else is just a matter of degree.

Disclaimer: I will still avoid using flash at live performances if at all possible. As long as the lighting designer has provided some form of available light for me to use, I'll try to stay true to their vision, and not blind the performers and put them in danger.