Essential Kit No. 4…

LED Head Torch – safety first - safety second!

One of the great hidden truths about taking landscape images is that - to get the stunning view, you will need to walk, sometimes a couple of hours over rough terrain. I came to photography through a love of the outdoors, so the mountain and hiking aspect comes as no surprise to me, but in all the magazines and books I've read on the subject - very few mention that you are likely to need to equip yourself to be safe and comfortable in the middle of nowhere!

 

Writers always stress the importance of the "golden" hours at dawn and dusk - when the light quality is at it's best, throwing long soft shadows and putting the maximum colour and drama into the sky. If you've ever looked at an image of a stunning winter mountain sunset or beautiful summit sunrise, the question that most people aren't asking is - "how the hell did that guy get down from there in the dark"?

In order to get the most out of a sunset, you will have to stay there until the sun is right the way down and that means either staying put on some summit until dawn or retreating back to the car. Similarly, if you want to shoot sunrise from the summit of Ben Nevis, you will have to climb it in the dark first. It's a basic fact that nobody wants to talk up in between the glorious vistas!

A few years ago, I was out walking with my brother on Great Moss in the Lake District. We'd started late, but it was October so the days were still fairly long. We set out to bag Scafell Pike. After getting to the summit, we headed straight back down without a problem, but as the light dropped we lost the trail and even though we were near it, never found it again. I had packed snaplights and I knew where we were on the map, where the car was and we had a compass. After a brief man tantrum from my sibling, we set about walking on a due south compass bearing holding a snaplight each over our heads, falling over every 3 paces. Much effing and jeffing ensued! We walked though chest high ferns, had to cross 3 rivers and it took 4 hours, but we did navigate right to the car! My brother had left his rag well behind by this time and now he never goes anywhere that isn't paved. I, on the other hand, took this as a lesson hard learned and went right out to buy a head torch! I've been back several times in the daylight and there are so many ravines and waterfalls where we were, it's amazing we didn't die (more than once I did consider killing him when the whining got too much)

So - with this in mind - my essential kit this posting is a good head torch.
I've had 4 or 5 over the years, of various designs and there are several things to look out for when selecting one:

• Look for one with a fully adjustable strap, preferably with a centre strap that goes over the top of the head. The elastic will sag over time and without this, keeping the lamp in place is impossible.

• Go for an LED torch over a standard bulb or halogen. These have become widely available more recently and they offer a better light for less money and the battery life is far better. Nobody wants their lamp to go out half way home (done that, got the T-shirt then used that T-shirt as a bandage!)

• Carry spare batteries! 

• Look for some adjustability so the lamp can be pointed where it's needed.

• Many lamps now come with several bulbs in the array so you can run them brighter when needed or dimmer when you want to save the juice.

• Water is the great killer of head torches. I've used cheap versions and expensive waterproof ones and these days I wouldn't pay over £10. If your cheap torch dies - get another cheap one. I used to own a top of the range Petzel waterproof torch, which was great, but had some drawbacks. The battery pack on the back of the head weighed a ton and as it was pre-LED, the light wasn't great either. In the end the elastic perished way sooner that the torch, rendering it useless anyway. My advice is to buy a good light weight cheap torch and if it rains, run it from under your hood. 

Finally, a head torch will come into it's own while you're setting up your camera in the dark or packing away your gear and unlike a regular torch, it's hands free so you won't have to jam a regular torch in your mouth to see what you're doing - good-times!

I recently spent a morning shooting on a beach (more of this in the next posting) and had to walk 40 minutes along cliffs and then descend to the beach in the dark - but with my torch on, everything went to plan perfectly and I was on the sand and set up as the sun came up - the beach was deserted apart from a single fox.

If you're planning an early or late trip into the countryside, get ahead - get a head torch!
Nothing puts a dampener on the day like a depressed dish fracture of the skull.