Inspired #10

How to use water to create mood and emotion

Hello and welcome to Inspired, a weekly email for my paid subscribers. In this series I want to explore topics which I hope might spark some inspiration for your own photography. I will talk about my thought process for creating images, both in the field and in post processing. The posts will be linked in some way to the monthly challenges, hopefully giving you all lots of food for thought.

Covehithe - 6 second exposure using a 6 stop ND filter

I am lucky enough to live by the coast and frequently find myself on the beach with a camera in my hand. Seascapes are one of my favourite subjects to photograph and I love to play with different shutter speeds to get the best from each location. Over the years I have experimented with long exposures (over a minute) to create calm, minimalist images and faster exposures of 0.25 - 0.5 second to create slightly more dynamic images with plenty of lines and textures.

Understanding shutter speeds and how water moves is key to creating the right mood for an image. In this week’s edition of Inspired I am going to be looking at seascapes and talking about creating tranquil long exposure images, working with textures to create more dynamic images and experimenting with motion in more intimate scenes.