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Jordan McChesney's picture

Picking out the details with long exposures

I recently took a trip up north to the Akita prefecture and Yamagata prefecture, where I drove over 200km, hiked, and photographed waterfalls for about 13 hours (combined) in one day. I woke up at 5am, took a quick shower, ate a banana, and then had to overcome my fear of driving as I left my hotel parking lot at 5:45am for the hour and a half drive south... which took a little longer due a wrong turn, but hey I got to look at the Sea of Japan a little longer, so not all bad.

Any many of you may know, I'm a huge fan of "pulling out the long lens to pick out the details", a habit I picked up from watching Thomas Heaton. So it should come as no surprise what kind of lens I used. My goal was to take some long exposure, abstract-ish nature photos.

This was a trip I have been looking forward to for a few months, so upon my arrival at the first waterfall (Mototaki) I was beyond excited to pull out my 70-300mm to find some fine details. It proved a little harder than I had expected. There was so much going on, so it was hard to even decide where to start. However, the biggest challenge was my gear. I use rather cheap gear, so getting things into focus was beyond a pain. I walked away after an hour and a half (I easily could have stayed longer, but I had 3 other waterfalls to get to) with a few decent photos, but two that I might consider portfolio worthy.

I arrived at the second, much bigger waterfall about 30 minutes later (again due to my horrible ability to not go the wrong direction), and I was able to pick out another nice detail with my long lens. I got a full shot of the waterfall in all of it's glory, but the long shot I took was definitely my favorite from that particular location.

I know these kinds of photos my not be everyone's cup of tea, but I'm interested to see if y'all notice anything I missed or if my love for these photos is overblown. Also feel free to share your own long exposure photos picking out details.

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14 Comments

as i am a heaton fan swell i applaud your willingness to look beyond the grand scene and find the details that most people only look at after the fact. detail shot can be just s strong as grand vistas. these abstract turned out nice try them in B&W or convert the color and see if you can get a different look to them so the abstract element is made more profound. love the beginnings/start of these images. i did a detail this morning which i will post later

I originally had the first 2 in colour because the rocks are covered in moss, but I felt converting them to black and white helped with the contrast.

The third one looks the same in color or black and white since the rocks are jet black anyway, haha

These are really cool. I love the Second shot. I would focus on leading to a specific detail and convert to b/w to further abstract the image. I want to try some shots like this now. Thankfully where I live there is no shortage of waterfalls to visit.

I’m glad you like the second one, it’s actually the one I’m most on the fence about, I feel like too much is going on.

I strongly recommend trying something like this. It’s the best way to get multiple shots from one location!

yeah the shot is a little busy, but if you can adjust the flow of light a little you can build a good trail for the eye to follow. I can help but think of Yoshitaka Amano when I look at that shot.

I must admit Thomas Heaton is only #3 on my list, but I like the concept. It's essentially isolation through long exposure.

#3 blasphemy!! haha just kidding

Top 3 ain’t bad! Who would you place at 1 and 2? I’m always curious to check out new photographers.

#1 - Mads Peter Iversen, love his style, breathtaking images, king of long exposure, the direction I'm headed

#2 Peter McKinnon, not a typical landscape photographer, rather a high quality video maker

I’m a big fan of MPI, I’d put him as number 2 for me, but that’s because I just prefer Heaton’s simple style, in terms of processing.

I used to watch Peter, but after a while, I just lost interest in his videos. I felt there was too much b roll and faffing about to extend the video time. That being said, I totally get why people love him.

I don't watch many vlogs anymore, actually, I'm just interested in their work. With Peter McKinnon it's, of course, different as his videos are his work and there's tons to learn from just watching those. Landscape photography vlogs on the other hand seem more like click-bait, promising some major insight in the title and then turn out to be just another "look where I've been", I've grown tired of that.

I actually did something similar in February this year, maybe I beat Thomas Heaton to it ;-)

I love these. Especially the third one. And I join the rest of the commenters for applauding your focus on the details. I just came from looking at some truly gaudy, overedited, oversaturated landscapes and it is refreshing to see something so original and clean. The use of long exposure to mask some details while highlighting others is really a strong technique for emphasizing the chosen detail. Great job.

Thanks, I’m glad you like them.
I typically try to keep my stuff on the more realistic/reserved side and I’ve been pulling out the long lens more, as of late.

Unfortunately, I feel like a lot of people like the over edited stuff. It’s seems like if you want anything over 4 stars in the community you need a grand vista with a Milky Way or an epic sunset with some birds composed into the sky. There’s nothing wrong with those, but it’s a little disheartening to see simple realistic shots get rated as 2s with no feedback. But hey, everyone likes what they like.