Isle of Lewis

People must think I'm crazy!  Who else would think it was just wonderful to stay up all night at a neolithic stone circle in Scotland?

But there I was at Callanish on the Isle of Lewis. The sun had gone down and the dusk was growing murky. But at this high latitude these things take a long time so it was nearly midnight before I even thought about heading back to the comfort of my hotel. By now the sky was a rich dark blue in the north and I realized that it wasn't going to get any darker.  By and by the blue patch would slide over to the northeast and by 3:00 a.m. dawn would begin to glow.

 So why leave?  When would I ever get this sort of chance again?  I could stay out amongst the stones, taking pictures all night long. Mostly, it would give me plenty of time to use my favorite lighting technique: painting light onto things with a flashlight during long time exposures. It's a beautiful technique and I thought it would be perfect for these ancient stones, some 5,000 years old. 

For the rest of the night I was dancing around the stones. My camera was set on a tripod because of the 30 second exposures and I was hoping back and forth to light first this stone and then that one.  Sometimes I raced over and hid behind on stone in the picture so I could light up another.  Sometimes I ran over and hid behind the big stone in the middle and shone the light on the grass in the darker places.

 And I did this over and over and over.  Probably that's why a couple of friendly guess came out walking their dog at about 2:00 a.m. I guess I'd be curious too if I saw this going on in the middle of the night. So I shot a picture of them -- and their dog -- too.

 Sure enough, by 3:00 a.m. the glow of dawn was coming on strong and my night of photography was about over. My flashlight had been on almost continuously all night. (That's why I always load it up with Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries.)

 Then I went back to my wee hotel and my cozy bed.

Round the World

Last year I found myself packing for an around-the-world job – five countries, six weeks, take-everything-you-need sort of assignment for National Geographic Magazine. As if the visas and inoculations weren't enough, when I finally got everything into my equipment case one tug on the handle and I knew it weighed way too much and would never get on the airplane. Looking inside for stuff to remove, I spied the horde of AA batteries I was taking for my flash units. A quick mental calculation and I had my answer: I switched out all the alkaline batteries for Energizer_® Lithium batteries. In addition to lasting much longer (so I could pack fewer batteries), they were also a lot lighter. With the new batteries in place, I could make the weight limit (and save my aching back, too.)

Beltane in Edinburgh

It was pitch black up on Calton Hill in Edinburgh as the annual Beltane Fire Festival got underway at midnight. Besides me, there were 300 performers and 10,000 fans stumbling around and running into each other amid the torch-lit processions. It was as close to photographic chaos as I could imagine.  However, I kept my cool because the first thing I did before it got dark was to load every piece of equipment with Energizer_® Lithium batteries so I had one less thing to worry about. Changing batteries in those conditions would not have been fun. As it happened, everything worked straight through until the very end, which came at about 3:00 am.  While I was dead tired, it was worth it because the pictures were stunning.