Night Photography Adventure - What You Need!
For those who read my previous blog post, click here, you know I will be adventuring off to Texas for an upcoming camping trip, where I am hoping to do a lot of landscape and nighttime photography. Well, unlike my usual nighttime photo adventures where I just drive home after staring up at the beautiful night sky, I will not have that same luxury. This trip will involve a little more planning if I want to get the most out of my cameras, camera batteries, and memory cards. So I have decided to make a blog post on how I am planning for this trip, and some of the equipment I will be bringing in the hopes that it might help some of you plan for a future camping trip or night photo adventure.
The Rough Game Plan
Other than the photographs from the campsite website and their various social media platforms, I have absolutely no idea what to expect. The only things I know for sure are we will be in Texas, our campsite is along a river, there was an area people can jump off of into the river, and there are some bat caves nearby. With that being known, my personal game plan is to scope out the campgrounds, and surrounding area while it is still light out, so come dusk I might have a few areas of interest for shooting my night photography. You commonly want something in your foreground to use not only as a focal point but as a point of reference for your nighttime photos. Otherwise, your image is just going to look like emptiness and stars, and the viewer a lot of times can become lost in your image.
I thankfully will have four days and three nights for this trip, so the first night will be a lot of testing various settings, angles, and techniques. This is also a good time to see what kind of noise pollution you might get from distant cities. It is something that can be annoying but doesn’t ruin make or break your image. One very helpful tool to use for finding your possible light pollution is darksitefinder.com/maps/world. There are three areas I am worried about in regards to our campsite for light pollution:
Local town about 20 minutes to our north-northwest
San Angelo, TX to our northwest
San Antonio, TX
Austin, TX to our southwest
Other than the small town, 2-4 should be minimalized to just the horizon, as long as there aren’t any clouds for the city lights to illuminate or bounce off of.
The Must-Haves
When it comes to night photography in general, there are a few things you must have. Those include: tripod, remote/intervalometer, flashlight (preferably one with a red light). The red light is important because it has a shorter wavelength and won’t be picked up as well by your camera if the shutter is open. It also might be helpful to bring an extra flashlight or two, just normal ones, to light up a foreground object. Could be a tree, cactus, rock, hill, vehicle, etc.
The Secondary Must-Haves
In addition to the above, you will also want to bring a few (3-4 depending on size) SD cards, and a few batteries. I personally will likely be bring both my 16 GB cards, my 128 GB, and both my 64 GB cards. If I end up doing a timelapse, that 128 GB will really come in handy. I also will be bring at least 4 batteries, since the odds of having somewhere to charge my camera other than my car will be close to nil. That being said, bring your chargers. If you have an adapter in your car as I do, you could manage to charge them if you needed.
When it comes to battery life for your camera, there are a few things to keep in mind:
How long do you keep your shutter open?
What is your display screen brightness set to?
How long does your camera take to render the image?
Temperature → Cold temps = shorter battery life
How long are you planning on being out taking photographs?
All of these have an impact on your camera’s battery life. It is also good to know how good of a battery life your camera has. I for one know that my Nikon D7000 has pretty good battery life. My newer Sony A6000 though does not have a good battery life, which is why I am going to bring extra batteries for that camera. My Nikon, depending on how much I use it, should last almost the full trip. I am still bringing one spare battery for it as well.
Helpful Extras
Some helpful extras you could maybe bring with you include a chair, blanket, hat, gloves, and bug spray. These obviously are seasonal dependent, but be sure to dress appropriately! These extras could make the difference between have an amazing night of stargazing/night photography and a miserable one. I’ve experienced both and wished I would have brought a few of these.
Equipment I Recommend
Below I have linked the equipment I use and would recommend for someone who wants to plan a night photography adventure:
Intervalometer:
** Make sure you purchase the right cable or connection for your specific camera. If you need help, please don't hesitate to ask! **
Did I Forget Anything?
If you think there was something I forget to add, or you have some things you additionally would add, please comment below! Again, this is how I went or am going to go about planning this trip. If you have something you would like to add, I would love to hear it!
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