Betting on Shadows: Second Session in Complete Darkness… for the #monomad challenge

Remember those photos I shared a while ago, taken during a blackout?
That night, using nothing but a flashlight and a bit of instinct, I managed to create a small photo series with some old playing cards and the only light I could control.
Well, last night it happened again. Another blackout, even longer. And without overthinking it, I improvised another session.

There was no setup, no lighting scheme, no plan. Just another power outage stretching into the early morning, a fully charged camera, and the same drive to keep creating.
I had done this before. I knew that darkness, far from being a limitation, could be a powerful tool.

I picked up my Canon 5D Mark III, my reliable Canon 50mm f/1.8, and the ever-intriguing Pentacon 29mm f/2.8, a lens with personality, flaws, and a cinematic soul.

The playing cards were still there. Worn. Dirty. Full of history. I placed them on the table again, but this time tried new angles, new compositions, new storytelling. I didn’t want to recreate the same shots; I wanted to go deeper into the atmosphere I had discovered before.

Lighting was minimal:
• A barely noticeable flash, just enough to give shape.
• And a flashlight bounced off the ceiling, my favorite trick to simulate soft light without any professional gear.

What emerged was a series full of shadows, texture, and visual silence.
The photos feel black and white, even though they were shot in color. Because this time, more than ever, the story lived in what wasn’t shown: in the deep blacks, the hand barely appearing, the negative space between the cards.

It wasn’t a perfect shoot. I never meant it to be.
It was about creating inside the chaos, shooting with what I had, and once again exploring that quiet tension between light and story.

Why do it again?

Because I’ve learned that limits, when embraced, become tools.
And because in places like Cuba, where resources often fail, creativity can’t afford to wait for ideal conditions.
Sometimes all you need is a camera, a flashlight, and a reason to keep pressing the shutter.