Sunrise at Haleakala
10 thing you should consider before you go to shoot the sunrise @ Haleakala…
1-Dress Warm!!! If you have a knitted pull over beanies caps plan on wearing them. The 1st part of your body that you will loose feeling is your hands then your ears. you’ll be able to keep your hands a little bit warmer by sticking them into you pockets or under your arm pits, but your ears will exposed without a beanie cap.
2-Wear gloves, your camera body & the tripod legs will get so cold you won’t want to touch it with your bare hands! I lost the feeling in my fingers & had to look as the shutter button to be sure I was pressing it.
3-Use a wired or wireless remote
4-Use a tripod
5-Weigh down your tripod, very important. In my shots a lot of the images was soft due to the fact that I didn’t weigh down my tripod & with a consistent 20-30mph wind blowing directly into your face & camera will introduce camera shake.
6-If you have a ND filter or polarizing filter use it. The sun seems to be brighter up there, not sure if I’m imagining it?
7-Get there early, about 45 minutes before sunrise.
8-Stake your claim & don’t back down to anyone, there will be a lot of people up there. If you move you will loose your spot!
9-Bring your backpack & whatever equipment with you. I forgot my backpack in the bus, I was afraid that if I left I’d loose my spot or that my tripod would go flying.
10-If you have a game plan to get certain shots, write it down & keep it in your pocket. I did have a game plan but, I didn’t write it down & because I was so cold I forgot to do a lot of things that I would normally do, such as bracketing some of my shots.
Hope this help anyone who is planning to go to Haleakala in the future. If there is something I missed I’ll add it on later=)
