Monthly Theme - Long Exposure (September 2019)

As we come into the last third of 2019, we're feeling that back-to-school feeling of starting fresh and realigning with our goals for the year - which means now is the perfect time to kick-start your 365 projects with an exciting new theme!

But first, we'd like to thank everyone who entered photographs to August's “Landscapes” theme. It was as tricky as ever to select just six finalists, and remember, you can also check out all of August's entries here. Scroll down to view the six finalists and vote for a winner!

Now, it's time to introduce September's theme - "Long Exposure".

While we have some amazing long exposure photographers on 365 project, it's likely that many of us still marvel at how these mesmerizing shots are achieved! Well, this month is the perfect time to have a go and play with mastering yet another photography style.

Below, we've highlighted our favourite 'classic' long exposure shots, all of which are far easier to practice 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:

• A Guide to Daytime Long Exposrues


• Nailing a Night Time Long Exposure

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 @moonmtn.

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 @dide - the moody New Years Eve beach setting really adds to the effect of the shot!

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 @adi314 is super fun and has great composition, with the light trails from passing vehicles leading the eye deep into the frame.

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 an exposure for at least a couple of hours, so when experimenting with long exposure, remember keep an open mind (and diary)!

This shot by @byrdlip is simply gorgeous, we love simple silhouettes of the trees framing the spinning stars!

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 Sunday September 1st and Monday September 30th. 6 finalists will be chosen in the first couple days of October, then you get to vote for the winner in the following month!

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 filter all of the images from September 2019.

Vote for a Winner of August's "Landscapes" Theme

We've had a blast looking through last month's entries for the “Landscapes” theme. It really felt like we were right there with you, in some truly incredible parts of the world!

It was super tricky, but we finally managed to choose just 6 finalists so now it's over to you to vote for the winner of the Landscapes theme. To cast your vote, just reply to this blog post with the number (in digit form) of the photo you would like to see win, before September 14th. We’ll announce the winner in a separate post shortly after!