A lesson in using my flash.

So posting this last wedding reminds me of a very unique experience that I had at a wedding. So a bit of background to this experience; we, Desiree and I, use Nikon Speed lights a lot. Now a days I use them for most shoots. I'm trying to become really good friends with my flashes so they will treat me right. Anyway, at wedding esp. receptions, we usually shoot two different ways. Speed light on camera in manual mode doing a bounce fill, or off camera manual mode pointed directionally. We have been doing this for many years and we feel that as a general rule, for us, these methods offer the best light in most situations.
So I was at a reception and I went outside to do some pictures of the venue in the dark. I was walking back in and was stopped by a man asking why I had my flash turned up for bounce. We are often asked why and how we do things and I am always willing to share the hows and whys. Well, I started to explain and he immediately cut me off and started to tell me how I was using my flash all wrong. He didn't want any part of me explaining to him why we bounce. He was just treating me as if I were an absolute novice with no understanding of light. And he was trying to force me to accept that his inferior lighting technique was the only way to properly use my flash. His argument was that, in order to get the best light I needed to be pointing the light directly at the subject in TTL mode. AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! he wouldn't listen to a word I was saying, not about glare, ambient light, size of light direction, shadows, NOTHING!!! he said in his 20ish years of photographing in new york (paparazzi style I might add)that he learned that his way was the only way to use the flash... Urgh, I just couldn't take it anymore. He clearly had little concept of light, only that his lens points in one direction so his flash must also!
So, a guest overheard this man getting a little abusive in how he was talking to me and bummed a smoke off of him and I used that as my means to escape!
Don't get me wrong. I still point my flash directly at a subject if the lighting situation calls for it, but I think it's obvious in our work that we know what we are doing. So I was bugged for the rest of the night and wanted to find this guy again, send him to our website/blog and have him call me afterward so that I could teach him how to really use his lights. Well I didn't see him again. Well...
That is not entirely true...
I did see him about a month later, offering my kids samples of chicken sandwiches at Sam's Club...
I guess the photo thing never really worked out for him!!
-Seth