The Long Exposure

-
First of all Happy New Year and I hope 2012 is kind to each and everyone of you.  I'm sorry I haven't posted over the Christmas period but this was mainly due to a lack of internet access where we were staying on the Isle of Mull for the past week.  Despite some very stormy and wet weather I managed to squeeze in some time for photography during our break and I will post some of the images I took from Mull over the coming weeks.

Calve Island, at the entrance to Tobermory Harbour
With the light being so poor most of the time, the choice was either to crank up the ISO or get the tripod out and go for a long exposure.  Luckily most of the subjects I choose to focus on suit the long exposure method. 

After a stormy ferry crossing from Oban to Mull on Boxing Day (26th December), the weather on the morning of the 27th was very kind and I walked down to Tobermory harbour in almost perfect conditions.

Tobermory - this image is available to buy as a limited edition print HERE

The first shot of the harbour front was taken with a 30 second exposure at f11 and the effect of the long exposure was to smooth out the sea in the foreground with some movement recorded in the clouds.


Swinging my lens around I recorded the sunrise over the boats in the harbour. The scene was also captured with a 30 second exposure, using an ND8 neutral density filter (+3 stops) to allow such long shutter speeds.  The danger with using a long exposure with objects such as boats is they can move due to wind or tides during the exposure.  If you look closely some of the masts are blurred, but the overall effect of the image is pleasing.


The waterfall image was taken down at Loch Na Keal and is an 8 second exposure at f14.  Again long exposures are perfect to capture the movement of the water over the rocks.


The final shot was taken at midnight on Hogmanay and shows the firework celebrations in Tobermory to mark the start of 2012.  A 5-second exposure captured the explosions and the lights in the harbour.  Stupidly I had left my tripod at the cottage and had to resort to holding the camera on top of a fence.  Not the ideal solution but when needs must!

Tobermory Harbour

ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION.

MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON  FLICKR
Location: Argyll and Bute, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

REVIEW: The New Fujinon 2x Converter

-
Image
Yesterday Fujifilm launched the latest edition to the Fujinon XF lens line up, the XF 2X TC WR teleconverter for use with the XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6 zoom lenses.  In April I was invited by Fujifilm to test the new converter and here are my thoughts on this new lens. Before I go into details I need to be upfront about something.  I've never been a fan of 2x converters because the optical quality of the lens is usually affected to a large degree.   I did have a 1.4x and 2x converter for my lenses when I was shooting with Nikon. While the 1.4x converter was regularly attached to my long f2.8 lenses, the 2x converter was probably used about three times in the 18 years I used Nikkor lenses.  I didn't like the results when using the converter so tended to not use it. Anyway back to the X-Series!  The 1.4x Fujinon converter was launched in 2015 and I have been a fan of this diminutive lens attachment on both the 50-140mm and 100-400mm.  The optical qu
Read more

REVIEW: Using Nikon Lenses on a Fuji X Camera

-
Image
I've been using the Fujifilm X-Pro1 for the past month and I haven't enjoyed my photography so much since I bought the Fuji X100 12 months earlier.  The only issue I have with the X-Pro1 is the lack of a long telephoto lens.  The longest lens I have is the 60mm f2.4, which is the equivalent of a 90mm telephoto; it's a great lens but I sometimes wish my Fuji system had a bit more pulling power.   Fuji have provided the X system with a telephoto zoom, the 55-200mm f3.5 / f4.8 R LM OIS and I will be testing this lens next week for three days. I will be showing the results on this blog. However my Nikon kit has one of the best short telephoto zooms in the world, the Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8 AF-D.  I bought this lens brand new in 1996 for £1600.00 and it has been a faithful companion ever since. I've bought and sold plenty of SLRs / DSLRs in the past 18 years but I've never felt the need to upgrade the 80-200mm because it is still optically the best lens I own and it ha
Read more

Rode Wireless Go for the Fujifilm X-T4

-
Image
One of the things I learned very quickly when using video is the need for clear audio. It doesn't matter how good the video looks, if the audio is poor, then the video is not going to be well received. Over the years I have invested in good, portable microphones even invested in a radio mic system.  This worked really well but when working in a motorsport environment, a broad range of radio frequencies are used for various uses and radio microphone frequencies are strictly controlled.  in some countries you also need to buy a licence, which can cost hundreds of pounds, so I quickly reverted back to wired microphones. This brought its own problems as when interviewing drivers the surrounding environment can be noisy, so you need to get the microphone as close as possible.  Of course, the extra added complication in the last few months means the interviewer has to stand at least 1.5 metres, which means wires trailing across the floor, which isn't good. In March
Read more