10 Minute Long Exposure, Madness or Genuis?

When visiting a location for the first time, there is always an expectation that it will be epic, and for this trip, it certainly was that plus more.

So far, Bernard and I had photographed calm boats on an idyllic lake, found an incredible tree in lush Irish green, witnessed light rays dancing in the sky above stunning mountains, and practiced patience when waiting for the light to lift another idyllic scene.

However, as I have mentioned before, it was the trip to this last location that had me most excited. When we were rewarded with some stunning light in last week's adventure, I felt we had reached the crescendo of the trip and it couldn't get better than that. Thankfully, I was 50% wrong in that assumption, as we still had sunrise to go.

Before continuing, I feel it would be remiss not to address an elephant in the room. Many of you have asked in messages and comments where this place is, and some might have wondered why I wasn't revealing it. The truth is, there are many locations I share because they are well-known. However, this particular spot, while not hard to discover, is one I chose not to disclose in my videos or in response to comments.

There are several reasons for this. One of my main motivators is to avoid turning this island into the next Instagram selfie spot. It's not my place to start that trend. I also wanted to respect the location and its residents. I've already seen litter along the coast, which is disappointing. While some might think I'm acting as a gatekeeper, I have principles I stand by. If someone wants to find out where it is, they should do the work and look for clues. It's not that difficult. Don't be a lazy photographer expecting everything handed to you just because you left a comment.

Rant over, let's continue with the tale of this week's adventure.

So it was now going to be the turn of sunrise, and given that it was the middle of "summer," it meant we had a very early rise. Even though the walk to the shooting spot was less than 20 minutes, the sun at this time of the year wants to show its face at 4:30 a.m., so we needed to ensure we didn’t have too many celebratory pints the night before and got up to be on location well in advance of it showing.

As we took the final steps to the edge of the cliff, the subject of the shoot revealed itself. A stunning sea arch sat below us, and my excitement began to build even more when I could determine where my shooting spot would be. The sun would rise directly opposite and cast its glow right on them. Well, that was the plan, anyway, but the clouds seemed to have a different idea.

The wind was still blowing from the night before, so I opted to go for an ultra-long exposure of 10 minutes. This would totally smooth out the water, but more importantly, it would allow the movement of the clouds to create streaks in my image. This works particularly well when the wind is either blowing directly towards the camera or away, as it creates bright and darker areas in the direction of the frame. Now, I didn’t calculate exactly what I was going to set my exposure, aperture, and ISO to; I just winged it, and when the image had finished cooking, I was happy with what I had on the back of the camera. I used my 10-stop filter to achieve this, and while I knew it would be a gamble, I was kind of sure I wouldn't blow my highlights, then I would be able to recover the shadows in post later.

With that shot in the bag, the sun was still being outdone by the clouds, but it didn't perturb us from sticking around and seeing what would happen. There were gaps in the clouds, and if we waited long enough, they would move into position to allow the light to break through and cast its golden glow on the cliffs and sea arch below us. This eventually did happen, albeit for a brief fleeting moment, and given that we both had our cameras set up and ready, we were able to pounce on the opportunity when it happened.

The very subtle glow that we got was enough to lift the scene, and as I watched the sun quickly be swallowed up again, I was glad to have got the shot. The texture in these cliffs was amazing, the way they curved around the scene was incredible also, and I felt lucky to be there. Granted, we were still sleepy and not firing on all cylinders, but it was most definitely worth every moment we had to enjoy this amazing place.

I opted to take a short walk to the highest point on the island, and while it may not have been the best for a photo, it did give me the opportunity to see the entire island in all its glory. It was stunning and is definitely a place I want to return to again and again. It’s that good there. I had only scratched the surface of the possibilities from this place, but I needed to make the most of the time I had there for now, which I think I did when I reflect on the trip.

I couldn't wait to get home to start editing my images and video from this trip, and while I was editing the images from this final installment, I saw something that reinforces my principles I mentioned earlier about not sharing its location. A discarded bottle of pop lay on the grassy cliff below us. I hadn't seen it while there, possibly due to the bleary-eyed state we were in, but I could see it as clear as day when it came to editing. Simple to edit out of an image, but not as easy to eradicate from the landscape. Why some people think this is okay is beyond me.

This was the end of my trip with Bernard. We both enjoyed ourselves immensely and are already looking to arrange and hit the road on another trip again. I do hope you enjoyed coming along on the adventures and you also enjoyed watching the shenanigans on the accompanying videos.

You can see the images I shot from this morning and watch the video below.

Thanks for reading and for your continued support.