El Museo de las Momias was a little bit disturbing. It wasn’t the desiccated cadavers that I found alarming. It was how obsessed I became with photographing the naturally mummified corpses of people so poor their families could not afford to bury them when they died over a century ago. Children, pregnant women, the old and infirm, all preserved right down to their pubic hair. My intention had just been to finish off the role of E100VS still in my camera. But when it was done. I stuck in a roll of black and white and pushed two stops in case the flash wasn’t sufficient.
Since the bodies were all behind glass, this brings up a useful photographic trick. When shooting through glass with a flash, you have to shoot at an angle to the glass to prevent the flash from reflecting into your shot. Yes, you may still get some reflected light, but it won’t dominate your picture.
The other trick is to use your polarizing filter. Yeah, I know, the polarizer effects of range of colors, mainly by deepening the blue of the sky. It’s really supposed to be used outdoors, so why should it make a difference? Well, it also reduces reflections and glare–you can use it to take pictures of fish underwater, for example. If one were ever to spot that, which I haven’t.
