5 Dec
Los Angeles City Lights & Maximizing Your Battery Life
Posted in California, Locations, Los Angeles, Photography, Stock Photo by JimThis weekend I was back in Los Angeles visiting family and couldn’t help myself in going out to photograph some areas I’ve long been meaning to. Being a little rushed before flying out I forgot to bring freshly charged batteries for my camera. The result was a weekend of shooting on a batteries 1/3rd fully charged and another 1/8th fully charged. Yes, I’m embarrassed to say I fell prey to a variation of #5 of the 5 Most Common Digital Photography Mistakes.
Los Angeles City Lights
In the end it all worked out and I got most every shot I wanted, but only after I employed a trick of the trade for freshly dead batteries. Even after my batteries first died I was able to get another 20 or so shots out of them. The trick, at least when in cold weather, is to warm your batteries.
Shooting on a cool winter evening in Los Angeles putting my batteries in my pant pockets for as little as a few minutes would extend their life. I was able to do this a few times, but eventually I succumbed to the inevitable… dead batteries.
The best solution of course is to plan appropriately when it comes to battery power, but if you’re in a bind try the battery warming method to squeeze out a few more shots.
Technorati Tags: Los Angeles, photo, California, battery, trick, battery life, photography
komod
on December 5 2007
There’s another chance to hold on - just scratch the contacts of your battery with something sharp
noeltykay
on December 5 2007
I too fell prey to a battery issue over the weekend. Problem was I setup umbrellas and wireless flash in a park…I did not charge the batteries in either flash and the spares I had were drained. My flashes weren’t recycling fast enough to truly capture the best images of my 9 mos. old son for our holiday card
I got a winner…but truly missed THE winning shot because of drained batteries.
Richard Wong
on December 5 2007
nice shot Jim. I have photographed L.A. once, Olvera Street. in general it ain’t my cup of tea so I admire your efforts.
i went down to the coast last week on two nearly empty batteries! I found out right before I left the house, so I charged one of them for 10 minutes. neither one of them died luckily enough
Jim
on December 5 2007
@komod interesting tip. I’ll have to give it a try to confirm it. I’ve never heard of that before.
@noeltykay and @Richard Wong Looks like this was a bad weekend for photographers with their batteries. Perhaps its the result of being distracted due to the holidays approaching.
browserFruits für den 07.12.07 | KWERFELDEIN - Martin Gommel
on December 7 2007
[...] Jim Goldstein erklärt, wie er aus einer Notsituation heraus das Leben seines Fotoakkus verlängerte. Wer auf Jim’s Blog Wissensdurst bekommt, sollte sich “5 Most Common Digital Photography Mistakes” nicht entgehen lassen. Lesenswert ! [...]
Eleven Blogs » Don’t missed the moment
on May 15 2008
[...] It’s easy to loose track of how long you’ve been using one battery and if your battery status is 1/4 full what does that really mean? Is a 1/4 battery going to last 30 minutes or 20 photos? It’s tough to tell and you might not know it, but battery life is dependent on how cold it is. Yup that’s right cold batteries don’t last as long, but there is a way around that as I discuss in a recent photo outing “Los Angeles City Lights & Maximizing Your Battery Life“. [...]