As life here in Vancouver is starting to ease into new phases of lifting lockdowns, we're thinking of our 365 community and wishing you all a safe and healthy future. Both for those who are returning to 'normal' and especially those who are in parts of the world still facing great challenges against the pandemic.
Thank you to everyone who submitted photos for May's “Botanical” theme. Your photos really brought some colour to our month! Scroll down to view our six finalists and vote for a winner! (You can also check out all of May's entries here.)
But first, we'd like to introduce our next theme. Each year we like to set a few technical, skill-based challenges and this month we've picked one of our favourites. That's right, June's theme is "Long Exposure".
We last hosted this theme in September 2019 and had some great feedback from both seasoned photographers and new shutterbugs.
Below, we've highlighted our favourite 'go-to' long exposure shots, all of which are far easier to achieve with these key photography accessories:
- A Tripod - essential for capturing crisp lines around the area of movement.
- A Natural Density Filter - highly recommended for daytime use as it limits the amount of light entering the camera lens
- Shutter Release - another tip for minimizing any movement
For specific tips and guidance to help nail shots like our highlights below, check out these super handy blog posts from our archives:
1. Soft and Silky Waterfalls
One of the best ways to capture the beauty of a waterfall is to use long exposure shots to get that stunning effect of silky, cloud-like water cascading over the crisp lines of rocks and foliage.
We especially like this example by @paul10.
2. Real Life Ghosts
Create ghostly images of people wandering through a shot, or get your subject to stand still and capture the movement in their hair and clothes caused by the wind.
We love this cool example by @overalvandaan!
3. Deserted Scenes
The beauty of a long exposure is that if you keep the shutter open for long
enough, everything that moves will eventually disappear, leaving you with a
deserted scene – particularly effective in places where we are used to seeing
lots of people such as:
- Train Stations
- Main Roads
- Shopping Malls
- A Theme Park or Attraction
We can't stop looking at this shot of rush hour in Paddington Station by @pasttheirprime.
4. Night Time Light Trails
As well as focusing on the flows of water or people during the day, setting up in busy urban spots at night is a really accessible way to experiment with long exposure photography.
This shot by @ryanjasonphotography has great composition, with a dark night's sky and the light trails from passing vehicles leading the eye deep into the frame. We also love the crisp neon light contrasting against the soft light trails and the shimmering reflections of all the lights in puddles.
5. Luminous Light Paintings
Using bright, fine lights - like sparklers, glow sticks, neon lights or the torches on our phones - we can use long exposure to have fun writing or 'painting' with light on a black night-sky canvas.
This shot by @novab is the perfect example of how to have five minutes of fun with sparklers!
6. Star Trails
Something like a star trail can require exposure for at least a couple of hours, so when experimenting with long exposure, remember to keep an open mind (and diary)!
This shot by @byrdlip is simply gorgeous, we love simple silhouettes of the trees framing the spinning stars!
7. Smooth and Serene Skies
Looking up and focusing on the skies during the day can have it's advantages too! We love the serenity long exposure can bring to even the stormiest of skies. Teamed with a coastline and the smoothing effect on both the sky and water, the juxtaposition against rocks, cliffs and people can make for a spectacular shot!
We think this photograph by @inthecloud5 is a stunning example!
As always, we hope you all have loads of fun experimenting with this month's theme, we can’t wait to see what you get up to!
How to enter this month’s theme
When uploading your photos use the tag section (on the edit/organise screen) and insert this week's theme tag: theme-longexposure (all one word!).
Entry Guidelines: Photos must be your own and must have been taken and uploaded between Monday, June 1st and Tuesday, June 30th. 6 finalists will be chosen in the first couple days of July, then you'll get to vote for the winner!
p.s. Don't worry if you spot tagged photos from a previous theme, when choosing our six finalists we'll use a special algorithm to only filter the images from June 2020.
Vote for a Winner of May's "Botanical" Theme
This is always a popular theme topic and this month didn't disappoint! Thank you for submitting so many beautiful photos. Reviewing your images for the “Botanical” theme really boosted our morale and made us excited to keep getting outside to enjoy the colours of nature.
It was very difficult to choose just 6 finalists, but we got there eventually! Now it's over to you to vote for the winner of the “Botanical” theme. To cast your vote, simply reply to this blog post with the number (in digit form) of the photo you would like to see win, before June 14th. We’ll announce the winner in a separate post shortly after!
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Really hard to make a choice. Fabulous pictures!