Long Exposure at Saint Thomas Church

I almost missed this. At 4.40am I arrived on location at the viewpoint for Saint Thomas Church in anticipation of a nice misty sunrise. Alas I got the mist, but so much that I couldn’t see a thing. Hence there was no sunrise.

However, knowing that it would clear at some point I waited. I’m a very patient person when it comes to photography and know from experience that often when you leave is the moment things get better.

After two hours though, and Mother Nature teasing me every now and then with the idea that it would clear, I gave up. I packed away and bade farewell to the other two local photographers and began to drive off.

I drove down the road to find a safe place to turn around. As I headed back past the spot and waved again at the others, I immediately saw that the mist had suddenly broken and beautiful light was breaking through.

Screeching to a halt, reversing back and parking once again, I jumped out, grabbed my gear and hurriedly setup again; much to the amusements of my two fellow toggers.

From that moment on the drama unfolded. Numerous great moments presented themselves until finally this one happened. I used a 6 stop ND with a 3 stop soft grad, and then took 9 exposures which were blended together into one long one using the multiple exposure mode feature on the Canon EOS 5D m3.

It’s hard to know to know when to give up. You can be the most patient person in the world when it comes to landscape photography but we can’t wait forever. At some point we have to make a decision.

Thankfully, I was rewarded for my patience just at the right time.