ACTUALLY YOU CAN BLAME IT ON GUNPOWDER:
I wondered if you would make it this far. Flash photography started either on the Chinese New year or at the OK Corral. Flash powder created the bright light for some of those first plates that needed to be exposed. It worked till one of the genius's decided to take pictures in an old mine. You used gun powder in a long pan. You guessed it ...methane. They never found him but they did find the pan. They used it to collect him. 

Hmm, research tells us Flash-powder mixtures pose serious risks of burn, amputation, blindness and death. They are shock-, friction-, and electrostatic-discharge-sensitive, and sensitive to some types of contaminates, such as strong acids and bases.

They should not be handled by those who are unfamiliar with the properties of such compositions, or the handling techniques required to maintain safety. 

WE ARE TALKING ABOUT FLASH

For a pro trained in film use and experience, there is a reluctance to use all the automated features. With the newbie, he thinks the automated features will be the end all and problem solver. Both are wrong.  

Flash is the most essential, viable and valuable tool for the wedding, event, paparazzi photographer and no specific setting or adjustment will solve a problem, you have to. There is no magic, you are the magic and the magician, you are expected to do the tricks.  There will be additional input from some well known PRO friends of mine. The problem is both Canon and Nikon seem to want you to exclusively use their system and thats why both have taken their systems and totally integrated them into their cameras.  

But it appears, no one integrated the scene, the Bride, the location lighting, the alcohol, emotions, and a million other things that can and do go wrong that St. Murphy-Lawes is so proud of into the camera.  Thats when a PRO who understands this takes command and experience and knowledge guides him through. You might be switching gears fast in an environment with no automatic transmissions. 

Today we have Wedding photographers with that same mentality.  I call them tooters, not shooters, Sort of shoot, talk the talk, and not walk the walk. Shoot first and ask questions later. They screw up eventually and get out.

An article in WPPPI, one of the trade magazines indicated about 20,000 new photographers in the Wedding game and 7,000 or so didn’t make the first renewal. Net gain 13,000. More this year. They thought a fast buck is an easy one. The business has a horrific failure rate. "One Wedding doth not a photographer make", it's usually the second or third when he walks in unprepared, and gunpowder and body fluids hit the fan.

I have said on 1000 occasions or so that a Wedding/ Event/ Journalist/ Photographer must have two qualities. He must understand business and light. Business skills relate to the financial, sales, promotion, leadership and focus of the company.  Light skills cover the art of photography including the study of light, subject, composition, creativeness, after all, it’s photography’s most primal and true definition.