Walking between Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton over the weekend, in south Devon, I spotted this interesting rocky outcrop. The sun was beginning to drop to my right and threw an captivating shaft of light across the scene. The tide was washing close to the top of my Wellington boots and I had a camera bag full of kit precariously balanced on the rocks next to me. I had just enough time to grab a couple of shots before having to clamber up the rocks. Definitely worth it.
Last weekend, the UK was battered with gale force winds and heavy rain. I headed down to Sidmouth in Devon to try and capture some of nature’s drama. The first shot was from a rock jetty by the sea. I used a Little Stopper, which caused an interesting colour cast in the image. The sea was a deep red from the churned up sea bed.
I move along the beach to grab this shot of the waves breaking against the concrete causeway. The evening sun was behind me but the clouds to the east reflected the evening glow, behind the crashing waves.
I was almost at the hotel after a long drive to Death Valley from Los Angeles,when I spotted this scene. It was insanely hot, well over 40 degrees Celsius but Death Valley is such a fascinating place, I had to stop and grab a couple of shots before sunset.
The shot above was moments before the sun dropped behind a cloud. The one below was a little later, as the sky was lit up with the afterglow.
I heartily recommend a trip to Death Valley to anyone. Just a word of warning. Make sure you have a car with air conditioning and that you can handle temperatures of over 50 degrees Celsius as it hit 125 degrees Fahrenheit (51.7 degrees Celsius the following day).
Half an hour after the previous entry was taken, the Hong Kong skyline looked like this. Long exposure (16 seconds) has softened the water and sky. This was also taken from Kowloon, southwards towards Hong Kong island. Definitely one of my favourite places on earth.
Which cityscape would you photograph if you could choose anywhere to be?
My view from Kowloon of a tug boat gliding away into the setting sun as it dropped behind downtown Hong Kong. I love Hong Kong. The geography, both natural and manmade are both arresting.
Whilst out one evening in Devon, I was walking along the Jurassic coastline when the light made me stop in my tracks. Using a Lee Filter Big Stopper, I softened the rolling waves into silky smooth wisps, lapping against the groyne.
As the light changed, the waves became ever more energetic. Soon, the pinky orange hues gave way to the grey blues post sunset, making the whole scene feel palpably colder.
A couple of other extra long exposure shots from last weekend. This one was taken close to the Millennium Bridge. As the river was low, I was able to walk down to the beach, to take a lower angle shot of the Thames and Shard. The sun had finally broken through the clod, albeit temporarily, to illuminate the scene and bath the Shard in light.
This next shot was of HMS Belfast, across the Thames, of the Walkie Talkie building with the Gherkin also visible. As the ship was floating on the river, it tended to bob around, so I diminished the length of the exposure to compensate. You can see this in comparison to the tub boats in the foreground, which are blurred.
This weekend, after gaining inspiration from a couple of YouTube tutorials, I tried my hand at some extra long exposure shots in London. The weather on Sunday was perfect, with a mixture of sun and cloud.
I walked around Tower Bridge and the London Assembly. However, it was the view from London Bridge that caught my eye. The image above is made up of 8 long exposure images stitched together. Each image was a 90 second exposure. The whole shot took around 15 minutes, including set up and transition time.
One thing to look out for is battery usage as extreme long exposure shots use up a lot of power, so I recommend carrying spares.
The shot below was my first shot of the day. Being a film photographer at heart, I used my handheld lightmeter plus Lee Filter Big Stopper app, to deduce the exposure.
Back in late November, 2015, I went to visit my sister in Berlin over a weekend. On the Sunday, we wondered around downtown former West Berlin and for the briefest of moments, the weather was kind. Less than an hour later, whilst standing by the Brandenburg Gate, it was a very different story, with heavy, sustained snowfall for the rest of the afternoon.
As I was travelling light, I had only my Nokia 1020 with me, which I took this shot on.
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