My light-painting gear for 3 weeks in Uyuni
We recently took quite an exhausting trip to Uyuni, Bolivia, where we shot 19 straight sunset nights + stars, many mornings and some middle-of-the-night moonsets. In this post, I’m listing the equipment I brought. In case you missed it, check out my previous post about my equipment from last summer (8 months difference between the two). Things have change a bit.
My gear list, from top to bottom, left to right (more or less)
Light-painting tubes - I had a lot of prototype tubes on this trip. I’m always trying to improve our work and make yours easier. There were a few surprises on this trip like the “sugar” and “sunset” that didn’t work at all. The main reason was that we never really got a deep-blue sky during the blue hour (more on this in a few weeks). You’ll also notice a couple of “whitish” tubes. I’m mostly trying to get white color when using different white-balance values. This was a success. The xWarm has been an absolute winner once again (when shooting late at white balance 3200k with the stars)
Holographic feathers - DIY style
Holosquares, which we used only once (it was so cold!!), but we managed to get this image.
Walkie-talkies - usefull when working hundreds of meters away from each other.
Flashlights - I used the Olight Warrior Pro nearly the whole time (the orange one). I had some plans for the other models, but that didn’t turn out the way I wanted
LiteBlades - didn’t get the chance to use them
Pressure switches for the flashlights - can’t live without this
My beloved low-to-the-ground tripods. These are amazing. So sturdy for their size (when not extended)
Platypod plate - this is the lowest option I have. I mount a low-profile neewer ballhead on it and this is what I used when shooting giant sunset (see the image of my kit below)
Electric black tape (always useful)
Wipe clothes. I had about 30 total… used them all due to the salty wind blowing madly into the lens faces 😆
Electric adapters
Lenses: EF24mm f1.4, EF35mm f1.4, Art 14mm f1.8, RF50mm f1.2, EF400mm f5.6, 2x teleconverter
Cameras: R5, R5, R5c
Extra batteries for the cameras
Wireless triggers for the cameras: Yongnuo RF-603C II Wireless + cables
CFexpress Card reader
Multi-tools
Insta360 go 2 + clip for my cap
Dimmers for my flashlights
Smartphone tripod + clip
Rode mic
Now let’s put that into context a little bit. We did many type of shots during this trip. We’ll focus on the Spirit balls and the light-painting for the moment
Telephoto shots - spirit balls
400mm f5.6 on a R5 body. I need to be as low as possible in order to get rid of most stuff sticking out of the water. On that shot, the water level is quite low. In some cases, I was on the verge of scooping water with the hood (ok, this actually happened once! Yikes!)
Sunset shot @ 400mm + 2x = 800mm
Moonset at 6am using the 400mm lens, shooting very low to the ground
Attempting for a second moonset in a row, this time at 800mm. That morning was too cloudy and we didn’t get anything.
Light-painting
Of course, this was the main reason of our 4th trip to the salt flats. We got amazing conditions and we can not be happier about what we created
Ready for the light-painting night! 10mm, 24mm, 50mm on low tripods. All of the cameras are ready to switch from photo to video. I have one wireless trigger on each of them. This is a line up only for a family shot, but when shooting, I often move one of the cameras on the side to get a different point of view for timelapses or behind-the-scenes videos
Did we mention how cold it was? 😆😆
Sugar Holosquare light-painting
This is a single exposure shot at about 2 degree Celsius on that freezing night
Fitting everything in our bags
I can’t believe everything fit in these bags. That is all our equipment including Kim’s large dresses, our day-to-day clothes, warm clothes, boots (yes, big boots!), our computers, and maple syrup for our friends 😆.
Thanks for reading! If you have any question, please ask either in the substack post or in the Facebook learning group 💕