A sad tale of loss...

It seems that I lost my flash Thursday and didn't even realize it until Friday afternoon. I think it fell out of my truck on the side of the road while I was either getting my gear out or putting it up. I had been shooting road construction and parked in a couple different places along the highway. I went back yesterday and looked on the side of the road without any luck, but I am still going to double check the locations I parked again today. I am really upset as it was a good tool (and I had also just bought a light stand, pc cord and umbrella so I could take it off camera for environmental portaits and such) and cost quite a bit as well. Luckily I can either borrow one of the paper's flashes or my roommate Rafael's for the rest of the sumer. Eventually though, I will have to shell out some more money for my own again as it is a valuable tool that can really add a nice element to photographs when used correctly. On the subject of flash, I really think point and shoots have trained people to think about flash all wrong. I can talk about that another time however.
On a positive note, I think I am finally finding my groove here. I feel much more comfortable on assignments and I feel that my work is getting better. I have had many talks and short critique sessions with Mark and the others as well as rereading the words of Henri Cartier Bresson for inspiration and I think I can recognize a good news photograph much better now. I believe that is the first step to creating better photographs.