We’ll be spending a considerable amount of time standing around in the dark during aurora and night photography. And it’s important that we don’t go blinding ourselves with our own flashlights or headlamps. To that end, I bought a headlamp at REI.

I originally bought the Black Diamond “Spot,”  and it’s continuously being improved and updated.

It has some features that I really like. First of all, it’s got a pretty powerful white light, though I don’t really plan on using this all that much while we’re shooting auroras. The white light modes include distance (a powerful spot beam) and proximity (a wider beam). It also has a red light. The feature I really like is the ability to dim these lights to whatever level you need. Even more important, once I set it in the red light mode, when I turn it off and then back on, it’s still in red light mode. No need to cycle through blinding white mode first.

To dim the light all I need to do is turn it on and just hold down the button. The light will go to its brightest setting and then start dimming. Release and hold again and it will continue to dim until it’s the dimmest that dim can get. Release and hold again and it will brighten up. And it should be easy to use while wearing thin gloves.

Many headlamps on the market probably have the same or similar features, but I was sold on this one by the recommendation of the helpful REI associate. And the price seemed pretty reasonable; it was pretty much in the middle of all the models they had.

You can check it out the Black Diamond headlamps as well as explore some of the other options at the REI site.

(these are not affiliate links; I’m not profiting from posting them. These are just examples of what’s available)