rebeccajoyce.com
Long Exposures
Since I first learned how shutter speeds work, I started experimenting with long exposures. I experimented with cliché photos of cars whizzing by on busy freeways and streets, water fountains, and waterfalls on a 2001 trip to Yosemite.
Fast forward to now and I’m suddenly obsessed with long exposures! The way it can create movement from stillness and stillness from movement. It can hide things in plain sight, or let us see what is otherwise invisible. It’s awesome!
Slow shutter speeds can be used in any context. In these images from 2007, I used slow shutter speeds to “hide” cars in an urban landscape and to give a band photograph a sense of separation from the background by using motion blur.
Like I said, I’m suddenly obsessed with long exposures. I’ve invested in some very dense neutral density filter that allow me to make exposures several minutes long, even in bright sunlight. I focus on clouds as my main subject. I love clouds. Clouds have so much life and movement, but seem so still to us down here. A long exposure can really show how much motion there is in the clouds, how much turmoil storm clouds can have. Southern California isn’t really an ideal place for cloud photography; we suffer from neverending blue skies, but there have been a couple of cloudy days I’ve photographed.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
