Folowing on from my last post, while in the Philippines I also experimented for the first time with long exposure photos during daylight hours. I've done plently of long exposures before, mainly nightime shots where they have been a necessity, never during the day.
While in the Philippines, there was a surf spot we constanly would go to. Cemento Reef. To get there you had to take a 15 minute tricycle ride (the common mode of transport in the Philippines where you could see 5-7 people all cramed into, around or where ever they could find a place) follwed by a 10-15 minute walk through a mangrove covered reef to a rock sitting in the middle of the ocean. A very unique and different way to get to a surf sport which was also incredibly picturesque. It was here where I thought would be the perfect place to try out some long exposure daytime shots and the results were pretty awesome.
The long exposures made the small crashing waves look like mist and had a really creamy texture. Its fair to say that after my first experimental photo I was hooked.
For daytime exposures and absolutle necessary piece of gear is a ND filter. I had my Heliopan Vari ND with me so in the bright sunlight I could get exposures up to 5 seconds long. Even though this provided enough time I wish that I could have exposed for longer to see what results I could have got.
Below's photo is one of my favorites but it involved quite a lot of luck. I was shooting back at the rock where you view the surf and I knew that every now and then a bigger set would come and spray over the rock, however I would have no idea when this was going to happen. Along with this, I also had to people standing on the rock and with 5 second exposure, any slight movement would cause a blur. Luckily for me I managed to catch a splash and the people barely moved so I got an awesome photo. B&W or colour? I haven't decided yet.
The walk through the mangroves provided some interesting photos. I find the water texture simple facinating.
After finishing my first long exposure session during the day I know that I will try and find any opportunity to shoot like this again. The results are completly different to what I've done before and I can see them becoming very addictive to shoot.
Robin