Even though I specialize in wildlife and underwater photography, I take great joy in experimenting with all different kinds of photography. One of my favorite powers of a camera is to take a long exposure photograph. This is when the shutter stays open, gathering light, for longer periods of time. It could be 1/10 of a second to get the moving flow of water, or it could be 10 seconds to take a photo of the night sky.
The trick with long exposure is to keep the camera very, very still. A good tripod is usually the best answer, but when you are traveling overseas on a long hike, it may not make sense to lug around a heavy tripod. This is where a well placed rock and the camera's self timer can be used.
Here are some of my long exposure shots and the stories behind them. I hope you enjoy!
One of my favorite long exposure shots I've taken, glowing lava flowing into the Pacific Ocean on the island of Hawaii. I hiked out over miles of cooled lava just before sunset to set up in a good spot for this spectacle. After the sun went down the orange glow of the lava just got better and better. It wasn't until it got very dark that I noticed all the cracks around where I was standing were glowing as well.
I was leading an expedition deep into a cave system in Southeast Alaska. The camera angle is from the ground because I had no tripod with me, so I set the camera on some rocks and used the timer to avoid camera shake. The hardest part was getting the guests to stay very still while not pointing their headlamps directly into the camera.
This was off the beaten trail in Bali, Indonesia. My girlfriend and I were exploring a temple, when this scene caught my eye. I set up my tripod with a 10 second timer and ran to this location just in time for the long exposure.
This long exposure was taken inside an ice cave, under the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska. The black and deep blue above are the bottom of the glacier, arcing above the meltwater river below. The cave could collapse at any moment but it was worth the shot.
I was awakened around midnight by my deckhand saying 'northern lights!' I grabbed my camera and tripod and headed to the darkest part of the boat. Even though it was calm, and we were at anchor, the movement of the boat still made the sky a bit soft. But I was shocked to see how well the aurora borealis was captured in the long exposure.
Another Northern Lights photo, this time the aurora was streaking across the entire sky.
Another impromptu shot. I was checking out a waterfall in the Philippines when I imagined this shot. Getting my girlfriend to pose motionless was a nice addition.
My girlfriend posing again in front of another waterfall, this one in Reunion Island. This turned out to be one of my favorite waterfall shots.
I hope you can agree that the long exposure capability of cameras is an amazing feature. I love being able to capture scenes that the human eye can't see. Just as much as I love being able to share it with all of you!
-Dai Mar Tamarack
