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Playing with the passage of time is one of the great priviledges enjoyed by photographers of all sorts, but one that is so seldom used by the casual snapper.
From the hyperfast flash photos capturing a bullet exploding an apple, to the hours long exposures made in the days of film that showed the rotation of the earth relative to the heavens, stretching or compressing time relative to what we consider as standard viewing has enabled the production of some outstanding and memorable images.
As predominantly a photographer of the great outdoors, where things tend to move slowly, I'm more interested in stretching time than compressing it.
This is so that slowly moving objects such as clouds and water can be allowed to blur, thus conveying an impression of movement and dynamism that isn't apparent when you just look at a scene.
To achieve this impression of movement you require a slow shutter speed, far slower than the usual fraction of a second that a normal daylight exposure usually needs.
So some specialist kit is required, first and foremeost being a tripod to hold the camera steady though an exposure that can be several seconds (or even minutes) long.
In addition, if shooting in normal daylight, some means of reducing the light entering the camera is needed, otherwise the images would end up grossly over exposed and unuseable.
Bring on the neutral density filters.
I now have two of these highly useful filters, a 6 stop and 10 stop from Lee Filters, which are essentially darkened pieces of glass which fit over the front of my camera lenses and seriously reduce the amount of light hitting the camera's sensor.
This reduction in light allows me to increase my exposure times from a fraction of a second to several seconds, or even minutes.
I used the 10 stop ND filter to good effect to make this image of a surreal sky over the pier at Llandudno on the North Wales coast, in which the clouds have blurred into swirling patterns of light and dark while the pier sits, seemingly suspended, in a milky white sea of fog, which was actually the sea of course.
In fact, the only things not moving in this image are the pier itself and the headland of the Little Orme in the background over on the far side of Llandudno Bay.
After I'd taken this image, just for a comparison, I removed the ND filter and took the same photo at a 'normal' shutter speed.
The result was just a boring snapshot, devoid of any eye catching drama or interest.
It just goes to show what an important role the passage of time can have in a photographic composition, and how useful a tool the ND filter is in achieving exposures and effects that would otherwise be impossible.
Filename - llandudno pier 22.jpg
Camera - Canon EOS 6D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 60mm
Exposure - 76 secs @ f11, ISO100
Location - Llandudno, North Wales
This image - 800x533px JPEG
Conversion - Adobe Lightroom
Comments - 2 stop ND graduated filter used in addtion to the ND filter to balance the exposure between the sky and sea
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