The second day of our shore trip greeted me with rain and overcast skies, just like I had last year. Realizing this I headed down to the Ocean City Inlet where a pier extends into the Atlantic. The dark clouds assured me there would be no sunrise this morning, so I would need another subject to photograph. I used some long exposure techniques to photograph the waves as they crashed on the beach. With the shutter of the camera open for a long time the fast moving waves even out their placement in the picture and fast moving crests disappear. The water appears calm because the camera compresses time. To get a better idea of how this works, here’s a picture (with a fast shutter) to capture the waves as they crashed through the pier’s supports.
Faster shutter speed of 1/60 of a second
Nikon D4 Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 40mm f/5.6 ISO 6400 1/60sec
With the camera recording information over the course of half a minute the fast moving waves only occupy specific areas for short periods of time, so they are virtually removed from a 30 second picture. The Pier’s wooden legs don’t move and therefore are filmed for the full exposure and are firmly etched onto the camera’s sensor, yielding these pictures.
Long Exposure
Nikon D800 Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28mm f/18 ISO 100 30 seconds
Long Exposure
Nikon D800 Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 40mm f/9 ISO 100 30 seconds