Hi Guys. Yes, I know I’ve been a little quiet – here is the reason why.
Right now I’m travelling up the east coast of Australia with my family in our little pop-up caravan. We have been on the road now for 4 weeks, and we are loving it.
What you can learn from my travel photos…
Here are some of the images I have already created, and the settings and thinking that went into capturing them. Make sure you click on the images for a bigger view.
Fast Shutter Speed – Long Lens:
Above: Wave action at Jimmys beach. Using a long lens (400mm) and a very fast shutter speed (1/2000 sec) I wanted to capture the “barreling wave”. The wind was blowing off-shore and this helped make this wave look perfect – for a surfer that is. BTW this wave is only about 1-2 feet high, pretty small.
Lucky Shot: Who has the horns in this image?
Here is a lucky shot – see the bull riders horns? Every now and then I get a lucky shot like this, something unexpected comes out of a photo shoot. We were in Rockhampton and I was shooting these bull-riders and experimenting with different shutter speeds. What do you think?
Slow Shutter Speed – Action
How slow a shutter speed can you go, when shooting action. In the image above I wanted to show movement (blurring) plus have enough sharpness to make the image tell a story. 1/30th of a second shutter speed was used. Do you think I could have gone slower?
Sunrise through the clouds:
Sometimes it pays to wait a little longer – be patient. After shooting this sunrise at the town of 1770 (yes, that the towns name – it’s where captain Cook landed in 1770) I waited a little longer and was rewarded with these suns rays. I zoomed in with my lens to 105mm (24-105) and shot this at 1/400 sec (fast shutter speed) and at f/10 (mid range aperture).
Strange Ship Wreck – Long Exposure:
After spotting this Yacht wreck at Airlie Beach, I had to go and photography it. I chose to use a long exposure technique to make it look a little more “arty”. Wider angle 24mm (24-105 lens) using a 10 stop ND filter to long exposure 30 seconds, at f14 aperture. Do you like the way the water is so smooth and the clouds are blurred?
If you want to follow me as I travel, then checkout Google Plus or FaceBook.
What do you think of these travel photo’s? Did you learn something new? Please comment below.
Cheers, Brent
Brent, I like the contrast of the first shot with the last. It is a great illustration of shutter speed effects. ND filters are still a mystery to me, but your result leaves me intrigued. The ship wreck almost makes you want to feel the paint on the surface. I really like your input about exposure. The sunrise is my favorite. Looking forward to more. Thanks
Brent, I have your sunset, Children’s, and Landscape (the bridge) courses and find them very good. I am having a hard time with my filters though and it looks like going to Lee may be worth it. A screw on 10-stop is pretty hard to manage having to then screw on more filters and a polarizer. I wanted to ask, however, how much of a stop do you allow for a ND grad filter, say as 2-stop? It only covers half the frame. I gather you add 2 stops for the polarizer. But you could end up with 12 or 13 additional stops and a long exposure of six or seven minutes in the evening, then an equally long noise recovery exposure and only get a few pictures on each outing. Do you leave long exposure noise off? Is the ten stop only for mid-day?
Thanks, John
Firstly thanks for investing in my courses John. Glad you are enjoying them. I only use the 10 stop when it’s very bright. When it gets closer to sunset I use my 3 stop nd with my polarising filter. The Lee system works great to stack the filters. I started with a screw on filter but it was too restricting, and I have the noise reduction exposure too – takes forever. The grad I use for sun rise of set. Hope this helps. Brent
Hi Brent, I am assuming the last photo would have been impossible without the nd filter? I am trying to learn photography, and this may sound ignorant… You really couldn’t use a 30 sec shutter speed in the middle of the day, correct? The 14 aperture would not limit enough light without the filter correct? Anyway, great shots, enjoy them all and do try to learn from them.
Correct Gary. That is exactly why you use an nd filter in the middle of the day to create these beautiful long exposure images. I have a course on it too. Brent
Love the last cool blue shot of the ship wreck! Did you use the ND filter the full 10 stops? What time of day was it? Would this at midday you think? I gather there were no waves or perhaps the ND filter smoothed them out! Great photos of your travels. Thanks for sharing and thanks for the tips!
Thanks Mary. Yes it was taken taken at midday. Not to many waves. B
Nice photos Brent. I love the way the fast shutter speed, combined with the off shore wind froze the water droplets in mid air. And yes I think the long exposure which melted the water and blurred the clouds was a very nice effect. It made an interesting photograph become almost mesmerizing. I’m assuming because you was using your favorite 24-105 lens that you were shooting with you Mk 2 ? Can’t wait for you Great Barrier Reef shots !
Hi John. Left my favourite camera at home (full frame body) with my staff in the studio, so all I have is my 7D and 60D for making videos. I do miss the full frame sensor – less noise in the images. Thanks for the comment. Brent