Passing the time

Slapping a x10 ND filter on the front of a lens and locking the shutter open for umpteem seconds is all too easy to create blurred movement in images, especially where water is involved. Nevertheless, adopting this approach takes away any possibility of detail in those 'fuzzed-out' areas.

Today, I'm trying to convey movement in my subject, but in a more precise way. Still using the aforementioned filter, I juggle ISO and aperture settings to give me a slow enough shutter speed to achieve a soft effect, but not so long as to turn the wave motion into (too much) mush.



70-200 f/2.8 EX Sigma lens. 1 second at f/8. ISO 320. x10 ND filter. Tripod and remote release.



© 2019 

Only me

After the sun drops below the horizon and the lights come on, there's that special glow before darkness that a lot of photographers often miss. When it happens it can be stunning, and I shoot for a further 42 minutes after sunset, by which time I'm the only one left on the beach.



12-24mm f/4 AF-S Nikkor. 30 seconds at f/16. Matrix metering. -1 stop EV compensation. 81B and 0.9 Lee ND graduated filters. Tripod and remote release. ISO 50



© 2019

High tide

Something of a cliché these days, but the use of long shutter speeds to blur water and clouds for pictorial effect is almost as widespread as the tobacco graduated filter of the 1980s. Having said that, at least the former retains some realism in the colours, unlike those ridiculous, brown-skied Kodachrome slides that some photographers have (you know who you are), tucked away in drawers, never to see the light of day again.

But in this case I do it just for the sake of shooting something while the autumn light I crave remains absent. There's a brisk breeze blowing today, and I choose the time of high tide to shoot to get maximum effect with the rolling waves.



12-24mm f/4 AF-S Nikkor. 30 seconds at f/10. x10 ND filter and 0.6 Lee ND grad. Tripod and remote release. ISO 50.



© 2019

Getting better

It's 1º Celsius outside, and I'm off to the beach whilst it's still dark, hoping for a good sunrise. For the past week it has not been for the want of trying, but I am failing to find something colourful to photograph. Winter isn't the best time to look for radiant hues, but surely sunrise or sunset will give me what I want?

The answer is: possibly. The morning looked promising, weather wise, but ultimately the sky fails to deliver at the crucial moment. I make a number of photographs before the sun is up using long exposures, and call it a day.

At least it's better than all that grey cloud, though.



18-35mm f/3.5 - 4.5 ED Nikkor. 30 seconda at f/11. Matrix metering. x10 stop ND filter. Tripod and remote release. ISO 200




© 2019

To kick, or not to kick...

The sky at 4:00am looked promising: clear, with a waning crescent moon and a waxing Venus, both shining brightly to the south east. Inspecting the conditions two hours later - and seeing there is still no cloud - I decide on a dawn shoot and head off to the beach an hour before sunrise.

Unfortunately, cloud cover rolls in as I arrive, and it's obvious I won't be getting anything spectacular in the way of light. Now improvising, I fit a x10 ND filter to the lens and start making long exposures of what's on offer. It's becoming an overused technique (and I am guilty as anybody in this respect), but short of kicking the tripod during the shot, I can't think of anything else to make it different.



18-35mm f/3.5 - 4.5 ED Nikkor. 60 seconds at f/8. 10 stop ND filter. Tripod and remote release. ISO 200



© 2019

Cliché #14,497

I actually took the long exposures under the local pier yesterday afternoon. After processing the image I uploaded it to here, intending to write a short piece of text to accompany it later in the evening... then promptly forgot all about it. Returning to finish the blog post 24 hours later, I decided that the original colour photograph would look better in monochrome.

After the mono conversion I still wasn't happy with it, so I decided to change the crop to a square format, before finally replacing the picture altogether with this one.

I got there in the end.

Probably...



12-24mm f/4 AF-S Nikkor. 20 seconds at f/11. 10x ND filter. Tripod and remote release. ISO 100



© 2018

Yeah, says you.

Terence Donavon, the 1960s fashion photographer, once went on record saying: "The problem for the amateur photographer is that he/she has no reason to take a photograph."

So, self indulgence it is, then (insert winking emoji here).



12-24mm f/4 AF-S Nikkor. 30 seconds at f/11. Tripod and remote release. ISO 100



© 2018

Last shot of the year

Okay, so I lied about the pier photographs... but hear me out. My original intention was to take some long exposure shots underneath the pier. You know the type of thing; all hard angles and milky seas, and I did just that. Possibly even a monochrome conversion.

But, once all of the above started happening during what had been a mainly stormy day, I wasn't going to waste the opportunity.


12-24mm f/4 AF-S Nikkor. 6 seconds at f/11. Matrix metering. 10x ND filter. Tripod and remote release. ISO 100



© 2017

A long time coming

Out early and out late, today, and two different approaches to the same subject. This morning (previous post), I took the shots in real time, but with this image I used a long exposure to give photograph a more etherial look.

As with the earlier shot, the sun was below the horizon at the time.


12-24mm f/4 AF-S Nikkor. 30 seconds at f/8. Matrix metering. 10x ND filter. Tripod and remote release. ISO 100



© 2017

Restricted freedom

Whereas I enjoy the mobility of shooting hand-held, I equally enjoy the freedom that the tripod gives me when using one to support the camera. For one thing, the composition stays the same once I have lined everything up, and for another I am able to use what ever aperture/shutter speed/filter/ISO combination I choose for total control over the image. On top of that, with correct use you are assured of sharp images.



12-24mm f/4 AF-S Nikkor. 10 seconds at f/11. Matrix metering. Tripod and remote release. x10 ND filter. ISO 160



© 2016

Thinking about it

Taken from almost the same spot as yesterday's image, but a few minutes later in the day, it illustrates the difference between an impromptu shot and something far more considered. Planned in advance, I used a tripod instead of a make-shift rest, allowing a long shutter speed to be used to blur the waves of the sea; something I wanted as a strong element in the composition. However, with such a long exposure I would never have captured the lone figure on the beach as I did yesterday.

I am not saying that one photograph is better than the other; that would be up to the viewer to decide anyway, but they both have a divergent feel about them, created by a different thought process.



24-70mm f/2.8 AF-S Nikkor. 15 seconds at f/11. Matrix metering. Tripod and remote release. ISO 160.



© 2016

Having fun

Try as I might, I find it difficult to find anything interesting about the main (Bournemouth), pier in Poole Bay, Dorset. I am speaking from a photographic point of view, as it is clear where the money went when both piers were refurbished nearly a decade ago, but the lowly one at Boscombe definately has more going for it from a graphical standpoint.

In spite of its shortcomings as far as this photographer is concerned, I am out again armed with a 'big stopper' ND filter, purely to have some fun with it.



12-24mm f/4 AF-S Nikkor. 60 seconds at f/11. x10 stop ND filter. ISO 160. Tripod and remote release.



© 2015

Photo essay

 

There hasn't been much in the way of colour to photograph recently, what with the seemingly continual rain and grey skies, so I thought I would shoot and post a short photo essay of one of my local piers. I choose to shoot once the sun has set, allowing everything to be lit by a mix of reflected and artificial light.



Top: 12-24mm f/4 AF-S Nikkor. 46 seconds at f/11. x10 stop ND filter. ISO 160
Middle: 24-70mm f/2.8 AF-S Nikkor. 1.6 seconds at f/10. ISO 160.
Bottom: 24-70mm F/2.8 AF-S Nikkor. 160 seconds at f/6.3. x10 stop ND filter. ISO 160. All images photographed with a tripod and remote release



© 2015

75 miles to France...

I have often photographed a local pier, either from on it - or alongside - but rarely from underneath, so today I made some attempt to redress the balance. To be truthful I have tried from this angle before - the images never being successful - but since I was out shooting with long shutter speeds again I thought it worth the effort. I like the way that the structure is completely isolated from its surroundings, blurred by the long exposure, while the black and white rendition makes the eye concentrate on shape and form.

Drawing a line from this view directly out under the pier and over the horizon, it is 75 miles to France; Cherbourg, to be precise.



12-24mm f/4 AF-S Nikkor. 180 seconds at f/16. ISO 200. 10 stop ND filter. Tripod and remote release.



© 2014

From Warren Hill...

I had all but given up on yesterday's shoot at Hengistbury Head, Dorset. Having uploaded the ten or so images I shot using the long exposure technique, there was nothing that jumped off the screen at me. I tried several different approaches to produce the effect I was after, settling for a more high-key rendition before closing the editing software down and calling it a day.

It wasn't until another viewing this morning - hence the tardy post - that it immediately struck me the picture had more of a pencil drawing feel about it than a straightforward photograph. The image was there all along.


24-70mm f/2.8 AF-S Nikkor. 15 seconds at f/16. 10 stop ND filter. Tripod and remote release. ISO 200



© 2014

Thinking ahead...

Granted, it's not the sort of light that usually makes the landscape photographer all of a flutter, but with a bit of thought -  and an idea -  even the flattest of conditions can produce something interesting. In fact, having kept an eye on the weather forecast over the weekend, I had planned the above photograph a couple of days in advance.

The use of a strong neutral density filter  - which reduces the amount of light transmitted through the lens by 1000x - allows me to use a long shutter speed to create the ethereal effect. Even though there were people on the pier at the time they do not appear in the image since they didn't remain stationary long enough for the long exposure to record them




24-70mm f/2.8 AF-S Nikkor. 72 seconds at f/16. ISO 200. 10 stop ND filter. Tripod and remote release.



© 2014

11/12/13...

The last of the consecutive dates of the century - you had yours a month ago, America - and I plan to shoot something to mark the occasion. I had planned to take a photograph at nine minutes past ten this morning, but that idea fizzled-out shortly after I woke, purely because I had no location in mind.

Instead, I set off to the river with a selection of lenses to see if anything suggested itself as a subject. I stopped at a pond that I used a year ago to take images of leaves, and made a number of exposures before deciding to move on and try my luck further upstream.

As I'm riding towards a local weir on the Dorset Stour I am inspired by an idea that comes out of nowhere; to photograph a heron with a long exposure. It had not, for one second, ever occurred to me that a strong ND filter would be of any use for wildlife shooting, but the possibilities of how it could be achieved soon became all to obvious to me. All I needed was the subject.

I am gladdened by the sight of said heron as I approach my chosen spot that runs adjacent to a golf course, and hope that it doesn't fly off the moment I arrive. It doesn't, but merely stands patiently awaiting its next meal. I have time to set up my tripod; frame; focus; note the exposure value and apply the filter factor to compensate for the loss of light; screw the filter on to the front of the lens and fire the shutter. Frankly, I can't believe my luck with it all; being able to get the images I had in mind within five minutes of my arrival.

The bird does move position several times, but I am able to reframe and shoot as it feeds, making a good many exposures to be sure I get what I'm after. The fact that a heron will stay motionless for long periods of time whilst it eyes-up its prey is the key factor for getting shots like these, as the slightest movement ruins the image. I am more than pleased with the purchase of the filter, and wish I had bought one a year ago when I first thought about it. So many missed photographs; so many to come.


300mm f/4D AF-S Nikkor. 2 seconds at f/8. ND 1000 filter. Tripod and remote release. Mirror lock up. ISO 400



© 2013

Having fun...

No doubt about it. This new filter is giving my photography a much needed boost and I'm having a lot of fun with it in the process. I never have been a big user of filters for photography, apart from the occasional grey graduated or polariser, but for this one I make the exception. I am hooked.


I am on a local beach during late afternoon, and the sea and sky are exactly what I wanted: calm and cloudless respectively. I make a number of long exposures as the sun dips to the horizon, but it is after it has disappeared altogether that I start to make the photographs I am here for.

I have always been struck by the colour contrasts of the sky and water once the sun has set, and I use this to great effect to produce a simple, yet striking, image.


24-70mm f/2.8G AF-S Nikkor. 80 seconds at f/11. ND 1000 filter. Tripod and remote release. ISO 200



© 2013