Tag: long exposure

January 14th – I experimented in an area where Panasonic have always been streets ahead – very long exposure. The interface for this on those cameras is so much nicer than the Canon, but there is one caveat: if you have the device set to silent – meaning it uses electronic shiutter – the mode is castrated. That confused me last week and I couldn’t work it out until I read the manual.

The toll road was quite busy as I shivered and stomped in the cold.

I’m really not well.

November 30th – Heading home that evening I hit the canal at the Black Cock Bridge and rode into Brownhills in peaceful, cold darkness.

I stopped to have a go at one of my favourite muses – Clayhanger Bridge by night – and by removing the bike light, putting it on full and shining round, I don’t think I got a bad pic. 

That’s ice on the canal, by the way.

November 4th – As is traditional on a weekend where bonfire night falls on a Sunday, the annual firework binge took place on Saturday. But as I crossed the motorway bridge on Mill Lane in Great Wyrley, I decided to experiment with long exposure photography, having totally forgotten the firework display about to take place.

This is an otherwise unremarkable spot in a semi-urban, inhuman scale landscape, which at night, comes alive. This evening, my companion and I found it very special indeed.

March 17th – Coming back from Lichfield, tired after a hard week, I stopped on the motorway bridge at Summerhill and tried long exposure photography again. 

I finally got just what I wanted. and the experiment of setting the camera on the ground looking down the hill towards Sandhills worked better than I could have imagined.

That’s taken a while, but I’m happy with that.

February 5th – Long exposure experiments I’m not entirely happy with, taken from the A5 bypass flyover at Jerry’s Lane, Packington and the Alan Woollatt bridge over the A38 at Thickbroom.

For some reason these aren’t as sharp as my earlier experiments and I’m not sure why. The wiggle of the road as it winds up Rock Hill was also not as evident as I would have hoped.

I need more practice, and maybe to read a manual or two…

November 5th – Stopping on the Pool Lane bridge over the M6 Toll to try another long exposure shot, I noticed the lights here seem to have been changed to LED white from the old orange sodium ones.

Whilst the change is undoubtedly for the better, I miss the orange glow and the peculiar light of the older types – but it’s interesting to see a shot like this with such clear and true colour.

November 5th – It was bitterly cold as I headed out just after nightfall on a run up to Chasewater and back to the supermarket to get some shopping.

I’m fiddling with the camera settings, and it’s getting better, but I still can’t find that magic spot I had with the TZ70. Perhaps I never will with this one, it’s an odd box.

I was lucky to catch the firework at Chasewater on a long exposure. I was less lucky at Catshill Junction where I tried repeated shots to just miss the action every time. Still, the view wasn’t bad.

Practice makes perfect, I guess.

November 3rd – I hadn’t been up on the old Clayhanger railway bridge for a wile, and thought I’d try some long exposure shots. Sadly, the traffic wasn’t heavy enough to make it work well, but I had fun playing around. 

I must get around to trying this somewhere busy, like the footbridge over Great Charles Street in Birmingham, or maybe Junction 9 of the M6 if I can find a good vantage point. 

February 13th – I wasn’t very well, so I only cycled out on a quick errand to deliver something in Walsall Wood. On the way back, I decided to hop onto the canal at Hollanders Bridge. There was little wind for a change and the canal was pretty flat. Even though it wasn’t late, everywhere seemed eerily quiet.

Walsall Wood, despite being part of the lumpen sprawl of North Walsall, is still lovely and retains a village atmosphere.