Often when I'm on the beach, I get the feeling that there's a different reality, just beneath the surface. Sometimes, attempts to reveal that hidden reality by using long exposures work, and other times, the image is just a dud.
Encouraged by work done by Wynn Bullock and really inspired by the glorious, beautiful long exposure work done by David Fokos, I've been experimenting with long exposures on the beach, sometimes making them when the light is low and soft, and sometimes using neutral density filters to allow very long exposures.
What I've discovered is that, on the beach, long exposures often produce images that reveal processes in a way that short exposures just can't.
| With a long exposure, the flow patterns made by the water moving the sand become apparent, and the breaking surf turns into a white fog. |
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| Looking down on the beach my first impression was that the driftwood logs looked like a huge boneyard. The long exposure turns the breaking waves into long white streaks, and the clouds turn into long layers. |
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| This was one of my first long exposures - a few seconds long, just enough to blur a wave as it breaks, rolls in, then rolls out. |
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| The short exposure version of this is quite boring, but the long exposure turns the flowing sand and water into smooth patterns, and turns the breaking surf behind the rock into a less distracting fog. |
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| The beautiful flow pattern in the center of the image wasn't visible when I made the image - it was only revealed by the long exposure. |
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| Inspired by Hiroshi Sugimoto's seascapes, I
made this long exposure one afternoon when the tide was partway
in. The bird obliged, staying quite still for most of the exposure, then turning his head. |
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