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The exposure length gives him enough time to fire a flash gun manually to illuminate the boat hut surroundings.

In the late 19th century, the photographer and social activist Jacob Riis photographed the urban poor of New York City, bringing a camera with a flash gun into the tenements and slum alleys of the most vulnerable of the urban poor.

He’d look to see whether the ceiling was still there, and then put down the flash gun and go over and open the windows to let out a cloud of choking smoke that made your eyes water.

He’d pour great, gray mountains of the powder into the pan at the top of his T-shaped flash gun, and hold this as far over his head as possible with his left hand, while he burrowed beneath a black cloth at the stern of the camera.

Some of the professional photographers, seeing him load a flash gun, would blanch, mutter, and hasten from the room.