When Only Long Exposure Photography Will Do

So storms were forecast but they were forecast for like an hour this afternoon so I looked at the weather map and I could see the storm front passing by at around about 6 7 p.m and it comes right over the northeast coast and out to sea and that's what you can see above us now it's kind of the dregs of the storm and I always think the best light comes before and after a storm so I thought that's going to make some great coastal photography maybe do some long exposures maybe exclusively do some long exposures and then I checked the tide table and it just so happens that high tide is about 6 30 p.m which is now so we have a retreating tide a passing storm with clear skies behind it I think that this could be a fantastic evening of photography well let's see looking for some long exposure photography I really fancied it so when I saw that everything was coming together with the passing storm the high tide and of course the clear skies to the west wow sorry guys the detail in the sky is incredible yeah I um I thought we've got to just do some long I've not done proper long exposures for ages so we've got a polarizer on beautiful texture in the sky first composition just warming up 10 stop filter pop that on there and we're going for a two minute exposure at f11 looking forward to this that's all right the sky looks very cool but compositionally I think is a bit messy I went for this or I was attracted to rather this stack of rocks here but I can't really separate them from all the mess and the clutter behind them so that image you know it's it's got the ball rolling shall we say but hopefully they'll get a lot better than this going forward okay this feels uh feels a little bit better this is like one of my favorite ways to practice photography is just on a deserted beach like working the scene working with the waves dramatic light nice it's perfect let's have a look ah it's not working it's not working right forget this shot the last minute of footage never happened but there is something catching my eye over here which may or may not work all right well this looks a lot more promising you see the problem I was having with my first shot and then that composition I tried to set up there it was just too busy too chaotic stuff everywhere distractions everywhere it's not really what I'm going for when I come to the coast I want simplicity and I really want to show off the sky and I feel like we've done that here we've stripped away everything and basically what caught my attention was this slab of rock here and the way the waves are rolling over it so nicely they come over and then the cascade off the edge here just like that and I reckon with about a half second exposure and all of this moving water and foam we can create a nice simple image it's great what a great way to enjoy photography clouds are looking really cool as well I don't know what's going on can anybody tell me the name of these clouds please comment below where the underside of them is bumpy that's my scientific technical term bumpy upturned clouds inverted bumpers you see this is what I absolutely love about coming to the beach on a retreating tide you can start off with no compositions at all and then as the tide goes out things are revealed formations rocks all kinds of composition something's developing here probably give it another 10-15 minutes as the water drops a little bit and hopefully the sky will remain but this is very cool a serious risk of getting wet here but I think it's worth it all right let's have a look oh yeah there we go so this is just wonderful everything's coming together nicely as the tides retreating we've got this great composition that leads this dramatic sky so we've got a quite striking image these are looking great but I want to try going back to the 10-stop filter don't know why I'm taking my bag off my filters are hooked onto my trousers yeah I want to go back to the 10-stop filter I don't feel like it works before because well the image was too flat there wasn't enough contrast there wasn't enough water but here the water is quite literally covering me and my camera so I'm going to go for a 10-stop much longer exposure and see what we get because this the more that the tide goes out the more striking this composition becomes and we still have the sky the sky is moving on unfortunately but there's just enough left over here to get quite a dramatic image so let's have a look we're at f16 probably one I want something you know well over a minute maybe two minutes there we go two minutes but unfortunately two minutes is going to blow out the sky and long gone are the days when I would use graduated filters I could really do with one now actually but what I'll do is I'll take two exposures so two minutes for the water and everything and then I'll just drop that down a bit so we can get the sky without it all being blown out so let's have a look at this I think this is going to work really well and actually a two minute exposure flip a neck is the perfect amount of time to let you know about today's video sponsor which is Squarespace so thank you Squarespace sponsoring this I'm sure most of you know who Squarespace are but for those of you that don't they're an all-in-one website building platform and what that means is basically if you want a website a nice professional looking website that does everything you expect of a modern day website but you can do all yourself at Squarespace using their drag and drop system it's easy it's intuitive you don't need any skills any experience any computer skills nothing easy anyone can do it and you get a really nice looking website with an online gallery an online store a members area there's even AI to help you out with your copy and your images so if you're fancy giving that a go go to squarespace.com forward slash heaton and you'll get a free trial and if you like that free trial use the offer code heaton for 10% off your first purchase sorry I keep looking at my uh my camera here waiting for the big reveal because we've got some lovely light reflecting off the rocks that's coming from the brighter portion of the sky yet we still have dark clouds I think this is going to be something good I love it the images they feel let's get better and better and better as time goes on oh let's have a look come on nice that is nice I think it's different to the shorter exposure of around half a second so I will show both of the images and please let me know in the comments if you prefer the half a second exposure or if you prefer the two minute exposure but I think they're both going to be quite dramatic I'm going to wait until sunset now and see what happens slow down a bit because most of the sky now is blue above my head there's still some really nice clouds out to the horizon but they are dissipating quickly so I don't know what's going to happen sunset is in about 45 minutes time hmm oh hang on a minute hang on a minute I'm uh I'm doing a talk this isn't a this isn't a plug right I mean it is a plug but it's not it's not a sponsorship thing I am in London talking at Fujikina so if anyone's interested in that so I'm just looking at my calendar I don't even know I don't even know what day it is today let alone on there 26 right Friday the 26th of September I'm speaking at Fujikina in London I'm doing a talk a presentation which is all about my trip to China and Laos and then I'm also doing a discussion panel but there's obviously tons of speakers on and it just goes on over um you know a couple of days over a couple of weeks so check it out just google Fujikina I don't have any more details for you unfortunately I'm useless but if you're yeah if you fancy coming along to London or you're in London come and check it out I'll be there 20 Friday what did I say God's sake give me strength did I say Friday the 26th yes Friday the 26th of September well this is glorious the sun is now about set we just have some lovely light on these clouds this will be my final image as we look over these rocks up the coastline north ah and it's just glorious man what a great little session this was and I've said it before such a small area so just get out see what you can find if you're lucky enough to live near the coast then get out at a retreating tide you will not be disappointed so thank you guys so much for enjoying the final image and I will see you all next week