Photography in the Dark

I just got back from South Africa, where I spoke at the Annual Congress of the Photographic Society of Southern Africa, and also went on a three-day photo safari. What an incredible experience!

As seems to happen often, this photo trip reminded me of a valuable ability that might otherwise be taken for granted. I’m talking about being able to photograph in the dark.

I don’t just mean “not light”. I mean “dark”. As in pitch-black really super dark. The kind of dark I’ve experienced on camping trips when I was far enough away from city lights. The kind of dark I saw on a moonless night driving through the desert on a lonely road when I turned off the car’s lights for a brief moment (note to any law enforcement types reading this blog post, I totally just made that last part up for dramatic effect). That sort of dark is intense.

It was just this sort of darkness I experienced on safari in South Africa. No moon, and no lights other than those of the vehicle. Those lights, of course, were pointing forward, and not illuminating me at all. As a result, changing settings on my camera, lens, and flash were done in the blind. I had to operate all the controls by touch. I was grateful I was familiar enough with the camera and lens to operate the controls from memory by touch. The flash was different, as it was borrowed and I wasn’t familiar with it. But I learned quickly.

This experience reminded me of how important it is to be familiar with the tools you use in photography so you can work as effortlessly as possible under any circumstances. In this case it was darkness I was contending with, but there are many other challenges we face, and knowing our equipment can mean the difference between getting the shot and simply being a spectator.