Embracing Darkness

Nov 10, 2021

By Christian Begeman

The days of darkness are here. No, that is not an ancient prophecy now come true. Nor is it some scare tactic about the state of the world. It is simply the time of the year when I leave for work in the gloaming and return in the dark. As we head into winter once again and the daylight shortens, one may think that finding good photo opportunities diminishes with the light, but that is not entirely true.

I first notice the shortened days in early autumn. My custom is to take a fall colors trip West River and I’m always a bit surprised how soon the sun sets in the first days of October compared to the usual long days of summer when I typically visit places like Custer State Park and the Badlands. This year I wasn’t ready to quit making photographs when the sun set, so I set out to try something new. I tried to find interesting roads with curves in the respective parks and then set up my tripod for long exposures and waited for the day to dim.

My interest in night photography has always been strong. The problem is that as I get older, the more I loathe giving up sleep. Last summer, something happened in the northern sky that renewed my willingness to overcome the loss of sleep and make images in the small hours of the night. Comet NeoWise graced the sky for a few short weeks in July. With that celestial object, my night photography interest was renewed. Fast forward to late February 2021 and you would have found me taking long exposure sequences of Sioux Falls city scenes to make short time-lapse videos for Midco Sports coverage of the NSIC and Summit League basketball tournaments. A long exposure (anything longer than a couple seconds) at night allows you to capture moving cars with the headlights as streaks of light.

I wanted to try this same concept in the parks this fall. The goal was to find interesting stretches of road with passing cars and shoot them at dusk to create unique images. It was a learning experience, as I discovered that a strong night breeze plays havoc with a long lens even when it is on a tripod. If you look closely at the image of the Big Foot Pass road at Badlands National Park, you’ll notice the taillight lines are not smooth. Wind on my lens caused this, not crazy driving. I also tried this technique along Needles Highway and Spearfish Canyon National Byway. My favorite image is from the canyon. A small white tour bus came by, and with its lights positioned higher, gave an added vertical element to the streaks.

One last note about shooting night scenes in winter. With the air turning colder, the normal humidity and dust particles in the air are reduced, so the stars are seen more clearly. Add in the fact that the solar cycle is turning active again and there are new possibilities for glimpsing (and photographing) the elusive northern lights while gazing out and up into the night.

Christian Begeman grew up in Isabel and now lives in Sioux Falls. When he's not working at Midco he is often on the road photographing South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.