Long exposure shots

I want to do some night time photography. I have some experience with it but not a lot. The areas I would like to shoot are out west in the Colorado and monument Valley area. Headlights are my concern. It’s in popular off-roading areas and I wonder what the traffic will be like at 2am. Is there anything that I could cover the camera with to avoid ruining my shot? Or will it not be a big thing to have a car or truck drive by? I want to shoot the Rockies from somewhere on the Alpine Loop around Silverton, Co.

 

This was my first attempt at it. About 45 minutes.
Took this from the balcony of the View Hotel.

 

The only thing I could think of to keep it all out would be a ND filter, you would just have to multiply your time to get the original exposure. That way, any momentary lights from cars wouldn't really be noticeable. You can get those filter kits for pretty cheap, I would play around with it before heading out on the trails. You can also look at a calculator on your phone to get the right exposure time based on the filter you have on.

 

Yep ND filters will help. I have done a few testing with and without ND filters and headlights. Not on anything more than 4-5 mins exposures. I have had a truck to the side of me with his lights on and did 4 mins shot and it really didn't mess with anything ( attached picture). Now if you have something in your shot for the light to bounce the light off of in your shot, ground, truck, etc.. the sidelight might cause you issues. If you are really worried we have spray painted a red solo cup black and used it as a lens shield then draped a black cloth over it. We were desperate. But ND filters help more than the solo cup haha. Truth is your going to have to just play around and see what works for your lens and camera. Also here are some of the tools I use for planning and routing.
https://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html#4/37.51/-97.91 - Amazing app and website for seeing light pollution.
PhotoPills app - https://www.photopills.com/ was worth every dollar. You can do sooooo much with this app.
Michael ShainBlum youtube
This guy is amazing at some long exposure and timelapse videos.

I could go into much more but if you want to chat just PM me or email me.

 

Thanks for the great info. At least I have plenty of time to practice. My trip to Colorado is in 2021. I will be camping in the Silverton area but only for 2-3 days. This only gives me a few chances to get it right. I would like to go up to Animas Forks and try my luck. It’s an old mining town in the Alpine Loop at about 11,000’ elevation.

 

That sounds like an amazing trip! Be safe out there! One more app I forgot to mention was clear outside does a pretty good job with cloud cover. Can't wait to see your pictures you get!

 

I’ve done this trip about 12 times. I have family in Phoenix, I just take a lot of back roads getting there. These pictures are at the top of Engineer Pass on the Alpine Loop. With my old 2012 model.

 

That's amazing can't wait to get my Tacoma geared out a bit more to do some adventures. Heading to Gatlinburg in April for some adventures with the wife. Should be great. Just traded in my 02 for a 15 trd off road. So now it time to spend money haha.

 

Got my 2020 lifted with only 726 miles! New wheels on now too. I’m broke!
That’s why I have to wait till next year for my trip. I was planning on leaving this June. Not now!

 

The alpine loop is my favorite place on earth. Luckily, people running it at night are few and far between, at least so far... but it won't be long until the expo lifestyle pervades even this corner of earth and you have hordes of instagram ass-clowns running 6 rows of 72" led bars just to crawl down dirt roads at 4 mph.

Sidebar: Nobody on earth needs a LED light bar, or any other high-power aftermarket lighting, to slowly crawl along jeep trails at night. These things have their place, such as bombing down graded roads at a high rate of speed. But using 10x more light than you need, just because you can, is an ass-hole move, 100% of the time. I wish more people embraced the mentality of using the minimum safe amount of light for their driving conditions.

Anyway, for long exposure photography, set up camp as high as you can tolerate, on a dead-end spur that's beyond line-of-sight from the thru routes. Google earth (or just the 3d maps viewer) is a great resource to help you gauge the terrain and whether road traffic will light up mountaintops in your frame. I have my own favorite places up there that have never been disturbed beyond the dusk camp-seeking crowd. You can find them, or others like them, by following this approach.

Higher elevation will help you because there will be less air (and generally, fewer clouds and particulates) to sully your view, and the colder temps will also reduce the dark noise on your image sensor. But if you start to feel sick, or like you're having a heart attack, then pack up and head for lower elevations. Fighting altitude sickness is a losing battle and the photos aren't worth it.

 

incredible! I'm Ormond by the sea and orlando, fantastic photo man

 

I'm in Orlando, I've been dying to try some shots like this but I don't get many opportunities to experiment :/

 

I live in rural West Virginia. Lots of really dark areas with very little light pollution. I need to practice more here to get it right in AZ and CO.