I basically just followed this guide from David Kingham because I had no idea what to do, but here you go…

• Get a camera that can handle high ISO (Nikon!) and an intervalometer built in or attachable.
• Lens that has small mm length (wider view) and wide aperture to capture more light (mine is 18mm f/3.5).
• Extra battery (mine lasted 4 hours taking 400 pics but still, mine died with ~hour left of night and like a few minutes before a meteor burned up in frame which was totally lame).
• Tripod is a necessity.
• Blankets are probably a good idea too… yea blankets and mats to lay on, get those.

• Have all the gear? Ok, now go somewhere with low light pollution, set up your camera and take pictures all night.

"Take pictures all night". The camera will do it for you. You can just set the intervalometer to shoot every 2 seconds (for example) and set the number of photos as high as it can go. Be sure to check the camera every now-and-then because it will stop shooting if it outruns the buffer. Make sure it's still in focus while doing this, the last thing you want to find out after a whole night shooting is that all of your photos were out of focus.

When picking a spot to shoot, having something in the foreground helps give a sense of depth I think.

Keep the horizon in view by being on a hill or something because there were a bunch of Perseids burning up near the horizon from my perspective. -- Probably because there is literally more sky towards the horizon, making it more likely for a meteor to burn up there -- I missed out on a bunch of meteors because the first night I was shooting with a hill obscuring the horizon, trying to focus on getting meteors near the radiant instead.

You can just point it at the sky too but that is kind of boring. Also, you can either face towards the radiant point (like I did) and get something like this...

...or face away from it and get shots like this from Sean Parker.

Either way, later in post, you will need to trace out the meteors and rotate them so they are facing the same direction roughly. It is just a little easier and more accurate if you have the north star in view.

Sean was in Tucson as well and was up on Kitt Peak for that shot. He was shooting at a lower ISO than me but he also had a wider aperture, better camera and darker location than me sooo yea. He was invited to go up the mountain and they close the road in the afternoon so I had to stick with Mt. Lemmon (closer to the city, more light pollution).

ISO -- 3200 or 6400. Stay lower if your camera can't handle higher ISOs without adding too much noise. 3200 will capture all the meteors that are bright enough to be worth your time in the photo. I haven't tried shooting in 1600 so I can't vouch for how well that works. Aperture -- Widest it can go (lower f-stop is wider: f/2.8 vs f/3.5) Exposure -- 25 seconds works for me but 30 seconds also works. Longer exposures cause star-trails but you will just crop out the meteors later in photoshop anyway. Quality -- Shoot in RAW. The larger file sizes allow you to play around with details like White Balance (and much more) in post. Focus -- Use the lens and the digital zoom to focus on city lights in the distance or a bright star/planet. I didn't need to tape down the focus ring after it was set but if it's a problem for you then do it.

Shooting the Leonids might be a little difficult. They aren’t as active and there also happens to be a full moon around the peak which will ruin the show until it sets and it doesn’t set until close to sunrise. -- Leonids in 2014, the Moon won't be a problem then, so go for it.

I would just wait until the Geminids a month away, peaking December 12-14 with about the same activity or more than the Perseids. There is an almost-full moon then as well, but it sets closer to midnight than sunrise which is better. The Geminids are much stronger however and more meteors will be able to power through the light pollution from the Moon. I’m definitely going to try for the Geminids and maybe the Quadrantids because they put on a decent show last time.. -- Geminids in 2014 will also have a Moon out all night but it will be waning (getting less-bright) and only ~50% during the peak, so a lot better. -- Perseids in 2014, will have a near-full Moon out all night as well which wasn't a problem this year. (But I'm still gonna watch/photograph it. Can't ruin my Perseids, Moon!)

I’ll add one more thing on here since someone just asked me this...

Well I’m not an expert but all I really want is a lens that has a wide open aperture so I can capture more light. Mine is 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 which is alright but I NEED MORE LIGHT AZIZ!

Now for the mm length, I would go for a wider view but I don’t like fish-eye personally but they would be great for meteor showers to capture as many as possible. Also you just have to look at the field of view, maybe the 50mm f/1.8 sees more than the 18-55mm. You could also check out lenses around 14mm that don’t zoom, I bet you could get a wider aperture for those and still keep it cheap.

For the 50mm f1.8 (going back to David Kingham again) he said they suck at night photography but are good if you want to do multi-shot panoramas. I’m too poor to buy any of those, maybe you aren’t, but hey there’s my two cents on that.