Moloka’i High Cliffs from Mo’omomi
Waves peacefully swirl
Against protruding cliffs,
Inspire wonder inside me.
This is a long exposure perspective of Molokai’s high cliffs shown in my previous post. My workshop associates were all around me. I was totally engulfed in the moment and scene in front of me. I felt completely alone with Mother Molokai’s wonderful gift. I long to go back.
Palm Grove – Moloka’i
Warm, calm, relaxed
Eyes first close, then slowly open
A new perspective appears
I set up to photograph the sun setting over the horizon. I anxiously waited as the sun descended slowly. Every so often I would shoot a set of exposures for a HDR combination later. I started to relax and just enjoy the scene. Then the idea came to take a long exposure. This resultant image best depicts the peaceful feeling I had watching the sunset.
Bandon Beach, Oregon
Part of what intrigues me with Black and White long exposure photography is the ability to really work with tones to create different moods. I shot this image underexposed to present a deep calm mood. In post-processing a dodged the sky slightly around the center sea stack and burned the corners of the frame slightly.
“Struggling for Life”
These two trees struggling for life caught my attention while I was doing some long exposure photography. My interest quickly focused on them. I walked around to get the best perspective I could find. I focused on keeping the angle of the trees leaning to the center, maintaining a separation between the small sea stack and the cliff, and eliminating some distracting rocks and dirt on the right edge. I blended two images together to achieve a tonal range between the sky and the cliff. I did a little dodging on the tree trunks and a little burning in the sky to get the contrast I was looking for.
I am getting better at taking my time to look around before becoming engrossed in shooting.
Face Rock – Bandon, Oregon
I looked and looked and looked. I could not see the face that this rock was named after. It was a dark, cloudy morning. The sun broke through for a moment and lit up the side of the rock. There was the face.
Can you see it. Hint, it is looking up at the right corner of the image.
Second Beach – La Push, WA
This image is another perspective from my long exposure practice exercise. This time the focus was to highlight the sky and the smooth tide. I used dodging and burning in the sky, dodging on the sea stack and water. I am looking forward to an upcoming workshop on the Oregon Coast with John Barclay and Cole Thompson. It should be enlightening.
Second Beach, La Push, WA
I took a special trip to the Washington Coast to experiment and practice long exposure photography. My first day of practice resulted in a disappointing set of images with many, many, pure white and pure black frames. I am thankful tor digital photography! I knew the steps I needed to take. However, my excitement took over and I made multiple mistakes. Toward the end I started to engrain the process into my sequence of shooting. The next morning, I slowed down and did much better. This image is from that morning. I have a lot more of experimenting and practicing to do.
Bandon Beach
I just got a new B&W conversion SW plug-in (Macphun Tonality). I picked out some photos of the beach near Bandon, Oregon to work on. I played around to explore some of the secondary features. After converting to B&W I added a “misty/dreamy” look. I then added a paper texture and a vignette. Sometimes I just need to play to get my creative juices flowing.