When used well, long exposures (where the camera’s shutter stays open for longer than a split second) can add a certain ethereal mood or drama to photos. Not every scene suits them of course – usually there needs to be some sort of motion that you want to capture, or the photo is being taken in very low light. Here are some of my favorite long exposure photos:
1. Cathedral Cove
The classic shot from Cathedral Cove. On this particular morning, the light wasn’t all that great at sunrise, however I did notice that the few pink clouds that were present were moving quite fast.I used a 10-stop neutral density (ND) filter to allow a shutter speed of 30 seconds, and this blurred the clouds to give a dreamy feel.
2. Rangitoto Island from Auckland’s North Shore
This is one of the very first photos I took, not long after I got into photography, and still remains one of my favourites. Here I was experimenting with a 10-stop ND filter that I had just bought and was still figuring out how to use properly, and the resulting photo came out really well (probably more by luck than by skill!). The long exposure blurred out the water completely, making it look almost like ice or fog.
3. Auckland Harbour Bridge at Night
A simple 10 second shot taken at night, but I really like colours in this one. The Auckland Harbour Bridge was being lit up on its 60th anniversary, and all I had to do was wait for a calm night to capture the colourful reflections.
4. Kaikoura
This shot was taken before the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake, so the coastline looks a bit different now. The jagged rocks made a very strong foreground element, and an exposure time of 13 seconds gave the water a misty, ethereal look.
5. Moeraki Boulders
This shot barely counts as a long exposure, as the shutter speed was 1/2 sec, but it was enough to capture the streaky wave motion as the water rushed back towards the sea. These sorts of shots are all about timing and a bit of trial and error. It’s always quite difficult to predict how the waves will behave and how each shot will turn out, so it’s often a case of taking many photos and then picking the best once you’re in front of a computer. In this shot, I really like the leading lines produced by the water movement, combined with the simple composition and nice light.
6. Glenorchy Willows
Sometimes a long exposure can turn an otherwise ordinary scene into something quite special. That was the case with this shot, where the sunset wasn’t particularly good and the wind prevented any sort of reflections in the lake. The long exposure captured the rapidly-moving clouds and smoothed out the water, making the end result quite dramatic.
