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| Little white LED “Ball” lights had been used to search out my solution to and from these hoodoos in Goblin Valley, Utah. I additionally used yellow coloured ball lights for low-level accent lighting behind the hoodoos. Some had been positioned beneath white plastic consuming cups to supply a smooth, omnidirectional glow. |
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| Goblin Valley hoodoo maze |
Returning to your pre-scouted location: Scouting for a nighttime picture location can troublesome even within the daytime if you’re in maze like Goblin Valley State Park, Utah (enlarge to see the individuals on the backside of this inset picture). Discovering you means again to the chosen the spot for the ultimate Milky Manner alignment could be almost unattainable with out leaving a marked path! What you want are digital “Hansel and Gretel” bread crumbs—not those within the famed story that had been eaten by the birds, inflicting the poor youngsters to wander!
LED Ball Lights could be your digital “bread crumbs!” Strategically positioned, they may mild your solution to your pre-scouted taking pictures location and information you again in your return. I’ve determined to nicknamed them “eCrumbs.” Though I usually use tracks I’ve created in
Gaia GPS to search out my means again on lengthy pre-scouted trails, eCrumbs work a lot better for shorter trails, and to mark strategic turns the place one may get confused at evening.
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| LED “Ball” lights – solely about $0.15 every |
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| Turned on by pulling tab between batteries |
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| Fairly shiny at evening – battery life is 2 to 4 days |
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| Ball mild in daylight marking the path |
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| Two ball lights mark the path at evening |
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| CAUTION: The LED Ball lights can appeal to critters! In a latest nightscape picture shoot at Rainbow Bridge close to the Utah / Arizona border, we found that at almost each spot we positioned a lightweight on the bottom or a rock there was a scorpion subsequent to the ball mild! |
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Brick coke ovens lit inside by ball
lights. Picture by Robert McKendrick |
A number of Makes use of: These LED Ball Lights may also be used to mark the areas of the place you’ve got pre-placed Low-Stage-Lighting (LLL) within the daytime, so you may return and switch these lights on. I’ve additionally positioned the little lights beneath the tripods of cameras doing timelapse sequences so I can discover them at the hours of darkness with out utilizing headlamps or flashlights. My good friend, Robert McKendrick, who first launched me to those little lights makes use of them to do LLL accent lighting behind foreground options or to mild inside these pioneer coke ovens in central Utah. You need to use the white LED shade lights and wrap any shade filter round them, like he did utilizing a warming gel, or you should purchase the LED shade you favor (I favor the yellow and white LEDs). You possibly can management the depth of the sunshine by including or subtracting the variety of ball lights you utilize at every location, and by used diffusion instruments like the other way up white plastic consuming cups or tissue paper.
Choose Up Your Trash! As I return from my taking pictures areas, I choose up my lights, one after the other and place them in a zip-lock sandwich bag that accommodates the little tabs (that had been pulled to activate the lights). You possibly can place the tabs again in between the 2 little batteries and reuse the ball lights at one other time. Two or three reuses is about max, as the sunshine solely has about 50% of its unique brightness by the tip of 72 hours of use.
Water Resistant? I lately obtained rained out at a nightscape picture location. As I headed again to the automobile, I gathered up every little ball mild, some partially coated with rain water and dust, however each one was nonetheless glowing!
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