Lately I have been playing around with (for me) a new way of lighting and taking pictures in the dark of night.
Last month I took a little trip to Copper Basin to do some ATV riding and some photography. The area I was riding was absolutely beautiful and the ATV trails real bladder busters. The first day of riding took me up to some high altitude lakes, five in all, that made me wish for a cabin in the area. If a person were so inclined, there is a campground near one of the lakes that would handle a large party quite well. About 3:30 am I woke up, unable to sleep, and tried to decide what to do to fill in some time so I wouldn't be completely bored. What else, I grabbed the camera bag and went out to take pictures. After playing around for awhile, I remembered the small rapids in Lake Creek not far from my tent that could be an interesting subject. Using a flashlight I set up the camera on the tripod, framed the shot, set the aperture and the exposure time, and set a delayed shutter release. When all was set, I tripped the shutter release and started taking pictures using the flashlight to light the scene. After half a dozen shots that didn't have the affect I wanted, I finally got around to getting the light on the rapids from a location that really showed the rapids the way I had envisioned.
The success of this photo, somewhat, got me to thinking about a picture I had tried to take several years previous. I had even come up with a possible solution, a long exposure with a large flash using a grid to control the angle of the beam. I never got around to that shot and would still like to try it some time. The picture of the rapids being lit with a super bright led flashlight got me to wondering if I could do the same thing with something as large as Upper Mesa Falls. I figured, all I needed was the flashlight. Finding a light that could cast its beam 1500 feet was an interesting task. One day while looking at another photographers site, he made mention of a flashlight he was using. I looked it up on Amazon and eBay and just about had heart failure at the price. I did, after several days of research, find one on sale for half price. After it came, I planned my trip. I left mid afternoon to Island Park and Upper Mesa Falls.
After a dozen shots or so, I came up with this image which consists of five exposures of thirty seconds each with my camera set in multiple exposure mode. So each picture I took of the falls took about ten minutes total. This was to allow the camera to do in camera processing of each of the five exposures for each picture.
I think it turned out very well. I am going to enter it in a photo contest coming up next month. Wish me luck.
