Photographing Flowing Fog with a Long Exposure

Landscape photography is one of those genres of photography where everything is beyond control. You have to respect whatever nature chooses and react accordingly. This is especially true during long-exposure photography, when slight changes can cause major abberations in the final product. To give a sense of all the things that can go wrong, as well as the prize you can get when things go right, photographer Michael Shainblum takes you behind the scene of an excursion he took to nab long-exposure landscape photograph:

As you can see in the video, nature can be ruthless at times. For Shainblum, the conditions were far from ideal, but what could he do? He doesn’t quit. Instead, he has a couple of contingency plans along with a good amount of patience and persistence.

“It’s funny how things can change in a split-second. I was so ready to give up, and all of a sudden I turned around and the fog lowered.”

Sometimes, even when you put in your best effort, things may not work out. This is where the luck factor comes into play. If you’re lucky enough, you could come across a magical window in which you can get your shot.

“I was kind of giving up hope for a little bit. I thought of actually starting hiking back. I’m really glad that I didn’t.”

Toward the end of the video, you can see how all of Shainblum’s efforts really paid off. The resulting image is absolutely fantastic. So next time you’re out for landscape photography, think of all the problems you might face beforehand and prepare accordingly. Rising to the challenge will feel a lot better than giving up.

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