NZPhotographer Issue 34, August 2020

dark areas and some illuminated elements in the
scene. Mid tones can be boring. I personally love
using the moon or even the sun to create a graphic
scene with high contrast.
My image of the moon setting behind the flanks of
Ngauruhoe just after dawn is one of my favourites.
Not just because of the final image but because of
the fact that a lot of planning went into me being in
the right place at the right time to pull it off. In fact,
it nearly didn’t work out at all because I woke up
to thick fog. It was tempting to just roll over and go
back to sleep but luckily mind over mattress prevailed
and I made the hike from the hut to the correct
location just as the fog cleared. The long lens, graphic
composition, and high contrast nature of the scene all
help to make it successful.
The second secret ingredient is the right kind of sky. Just
like colour photography, grey overcast days rarely work
and fluffy clouds require a lot of skill or luck to pull off a
decent fine art image. Stormy skies are the holy grail.
Preferably stormy skies clearing at sunset! Unlike colour
photography, clear blue skies can also work well.
My image of a church in Iceland was taken on one
of those disgusting weather days, with rain and
wind making me glad for the shelter of the car and
regretting the decision to save money by camping.
We were driving across country when I spied this lovely
little church sitting in front of some hills, just as the next
major downpour approached. We quickly pulled off
the road and I lined up this shot hand held. You can
create a sky like this in post by applying a grad filter,
and it can be successful in black and white, but you
can’t recreate the rain and the overall mood of the
image. Naturally dark skies always work best, and real
weather always beats post production.
The third secret ingredient is long exposure. Time
creates movement and movement creates leading
lines. Because black and white photography
emphasises form, the shapes and patterns created by
long exposures just work really well. I love a windy day.
Normally standing exactly upwind or downwind works
best, as the clouds streak into the centre of the frame,
but crosswinds can work if your composition has some
balance to it. With little or no wind it can be a long
wait for a boring image. Try a different ingredient.
My seascape was taken in Dorset, England in the
middle of the day. It was quite windy so I used a long
exposure to blur both the waves and the clouds. Even
though the clouds are heading across the frame,
there is enough balance from the sea to lead the eye
around the image and back to the main subject of
the white cliffs. Although I don’t own one, there is a
reason why the Lee Big Stopper became so popular a
few years ago!
ICELANDIC STORM
F5.6, 1/1000s, ISO400, 70mm