frostline photography

Mark Erickson hanging out in the woods near Alpental.

I’ve been shooting a lot at night recently — maybe it’s because I have a day job so nights are sometimes more realistic, maybe I like to watch my riders struggle to see in the dark or maybe it’s just that I like that creepy feeling of standing alone in the woods, in the snow, in the dark, waiting for a rider to drop.  Whatever it is, I’ve been doing it a lot lately.  After going over my night shooting checklist a bunch recently, and after forgetting something that could have been a big problem last night, I thought I’d share my checklist and some tips with anyone that’s interested.

The Checklist (stuff specific to shooting in the dark — leaving off stuff like “Camera”):

• Flashes – Yeah, it’s dark so you’re going to need at least one of these.  Since you probably won’t have much ambient to contend with, you can probably get away with little speedlights, but I still prefer a more powerful system so I have more freedom with my aperture.  And don’t shoot with the damn thing on your camera.  Get it off the camera and get creative with the angles.  Strobist has a ton of information for getting started with off-camera lighting.
• Pocketwizards – I use pocketwizards to trigger my flashes.  They suck and I’ve been terribly unhappy with them — for example, they did a new trick last night where they locked up and wouldn’t fire (I had to pull the batteries to reset them) — but they’re way better than any of those crappy eBay triggers you can buy out there.  PLEASE, somebody build a better pocketwizard.  They need some competition to force them to improve their product.
• Lightstand(s) + Elbow Plastic Piece-of-Shit (that thing that connects the light to your stand that’s always breaking) – You need these to hold your lights, or fight off Sasquatch/Bears.
• Tripod – In case you decide to do a long exposure.  Or if more than one bear attacks and your lightstands can’t fend them off.
• Gels – White light can get boring.  I’ll talk about this a little more below in “tips”
• Garbage Bags – To cover your lights (rip a hole in them for your light to poke through).  Your camera may be waterproof-ish (at least my 1D is) but your lights may not be.  Keep em dry and working or, like me a couple years ago, you may fire your flash only to hear a loud pop and see a bunch of smoke pour from the head.  Awesome.
• Headlamps + EXTRA BATTERIES – I should have put this one at the top of the list.  I’m too lazy to move it up there now, but this is super important.  Bring a headlamp.  I bring three.   Seriously.  You’ll need one when you’re shooting so you can actually see what you’re trying to frame up.  Your rider(s) may need one.  Plus, when it’s really dark, I’m always strapping these things to tripods/lightstands/ski poles to light the in-run.  And bring extra batteries.  This almost screwed me last night when I realized two of my three lamps were dying and I was in the middle of the woods with no moon, and my extra batteries were in the truck.  Could have been bad news for sure.
• Glowsticks – These can be handy to mark stuff on the in-run when it’s really dark.  Plus, they can serve as a super backup in case your headlamps fail and you find yourself in complete darkness.
• Bungee Balls (like this) – These can be really useful for securing garbage bags over your lights or for attaching speedlights/heads to things other than stands (like tree branches).
• Duct Tape – Just always have this with you.  You always need it for something.  I take mine off the roll by wrapping it around itself, flat, or wrapping it around something like a water bottle so you don’t have to haul a roll around in your pack.
• Headlamps – I’m putting the list again because I think it’s just that important.  In fact, pack one more in addition to whatever you have right now.  Do it.

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