Xposure 02 (iPad Optimised)

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Fuji X-Pro1 with 14mm lens, ISO 200, 42 seconds at f/11 Seven5 0.3 ND hard grad, polariser and Big Stopper Photograph by Graham Merritt

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Welcome Welcome to the second issue of Xposure, the online magazine from LEE Filters. Our first issue proved enormously popular, and we are pleased to bring you even more inspiration and advice with this edition.

With each edition of Xposure, we aim to demonstrate the huge scope for creativity that exists in modern photography, and who better to help us do so than a photographer whose name will already be familiar to many. David Noton has been taking pictures professionally for some 30 years, and for much of that time his core income was derived from stock photography. Read how the drastic changes in that industry forced Noton to rethink his own approach on page six.

If our inbox is anything to go by, the trend for long-exposure photography shows no sign of abating. With its Big and Little Stoppers, LEE Filters is at the forefront of making this style of photography accessible to all. You can learn how to get the best out of your long-exposure images in our workshop with Steve Gosling on page 16.

Another photographer who has embraced the technique is Kuwait-based Sarah Alsayegh. A self-confessed ‘rooftopper’, she takes many of her images from the top of the skyscrapers that form such a distinctive part of her home city. Find out more on page 52. At the opposite end of the scale is landscape photographer David Ward, who is renowned for his detailed close-up images – he sees what most of us would overlook.

He explains his approach in Composition Masterclass on page 22.

We hope you enjoy the magazine, and if there are any subjects you would like us to cover in future editions, please let us know via the email address on page 62.

Contributors > David Noton

> Pete Bridgwood

> Ross Hoddinott

> Steve Gosling

> Lizzie Shepherd

> Mark Sisson

> David Ward

> Mark Daly

> Mark Smith

> Norman McCloskey

> Patrick Pedersen

> Sarah Alsayegh

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features

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SIGN OF THE TIMES When photographer David Noton realised that the market which had served him so well throughout his career was transforming, he decided to make some dramatic changes

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GALLERY

Immerse yourself in a showcase of some of the finest photographs shot using LEE Filters

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TAKE THE LONG VIEW Long-exposure photography can introduce a whole new creative element to your photography. Steve Gosling explains how, when and – most importantly – why he uses the technique

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COMPOSITION MASTERCLASS A landscape photograph doesn’t always have to be about the grand view. Smaller, more intimate details can reveal just as much about the world around us and the way we see, as David Ward reveals

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TROUBLESHOOTING Stumped by your filters? We can help

ANATOMY OF A WILDLIFE PICTURE Visualising an image is one thing – making it a reality is quite another. Three photographers explain how they reached their photographic goals

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VERTIGO-INDUCING SCENES Kuwait-based photographer Sarah Alsayegh has found her niche as a ‘rooftopper’, photographing from the top of skyscrapers. Here, she reveals how she goes about it

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Dawn on the Charles Bridge, Prague, Czech Republic. Canon EOS 5D Mark III with EF2470mm f/2.8L II USM lens at 59mm, ISO 100, five seconds at f/11, 0.6 ND soft grad

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Sign of the times

WHEN PHOTOGRAPHER DAVID NOTON REALISED THAT THE MARKET WHICH HAD SERVED HIM SO WELL THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER WAS TRANSFORMING, HE DECIDED TO MAKE SOME DRAMATIC CHANGES TO THE WAY HE EARNED HIS LIVING – WITH IMPRESSIVE RESULTS In January of this year, travel and landscape photographer David Noton found himself standing on the edge of the dramatic Iguazu Falls, on the border of Argentina and Brazil. It was the middle of the night, and the stars of the Milky Way were glinting above him. As he carefully composed his shot, and opened the shutter on his camera to take the long exposure that would capture both the flow of the water and the drama of the sky, Noton began to consider how both his photographs and the audience for them have evolved in recent years.

As a photographer who, like many of his peers, used to derive the majority of his income from the once-vibrant

The Milky Way over Iguazu Falls at night, Argentina.

Canon EOS-1D X with EF14mm f/2.8L II USM lens, ISO 12,800, 120 seconds at f/5.6

and lucrative stock photography market, changes in the industry have led him to explore a whole new area in order to continue making a living from the subject he is so passionate about.

Noton has been a photographer for almost three decades. He started in 1985 with nothing more than a camera, three lenses, a bicycle, and a table that served as an office space in the bedroom of the shared house he lived in with his wife, Wendy. He also had bags of youthful vigour and – as he admits himself – naivete.

“There’s a lot to be said for jumping in at the deep end,” he says with a smile.

It’s a maxim that has served him well throughout his career. Many readers will already know him from the columns he has written for photography magazines, his books, his instructional DVDs and his roadshow – the last of these being much more than your average slideshow.

During this time, however, it was the stock photography market that served Noton well, and which he served well in return. At one time, he had some 12,000 images placed with various libraries across the world. But it is a market that has undergone dramatic changes over the >>

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past ten years or so. Whereas the imaginative and astute stock photographer could have hoped to make a more than reasonable living from it in the 1990s, in recent years, the fees commanded by such imagery have plummeted. “It’s now at the point where people pretty much expect images to be available for free,” Noton sighs.

He knew it was time to seek out new audiences for his work, so he began to explore an idea that had been bubbling under for some time. “I had to reinvent the wheel,” he says. “Everything I’ve done in recent years has been to broaden my horizons and make sure I have my fingers in lots of pies, because that’s the way it has to be these days.” And this is how he found himself producing Chasing The Light, a monthly online magazine, complete with video as well as written content, for an ever-increasing number of inspiration-thirsty members who, crucially, are willing to pay for the product.

“Over the years, we’d attracted quite a following with our activities,” Noton explains. “We’d made numerous films and were producing all this content, and we realised that maybe the best way to deliver it to an audience was to make the most of the website and its download capabilities.”

There were to be no half measures with the launch of Chasing The Light – Noton and his team knew they couldn’t start small and build on it. Having said that, however, the magazine and website now features around double the amount of content than it did when it was first launched. So how did he attract subscribers?

“Essentially, over the years, we’ve attracted quite a following with our activities,” he explains. “We publish a monthly newsletter, which goes out to 10,000 people.

Then there’s social media, and I do road shows where I make sure that everybody knows about the magazine.

Word of mouth is always the best way.”

Its success is made all the more impressive when you take into consideration that, as Noton puts it, “there is a huge resistance to paying for anything on the internet”.

The most surprising part of the magazine’s success, for Noton, has been the creative shot in the arm it has given his own work. “I’m now taking trips all over the world with the prime objective of producing material for the magazine,” he reveals.

In the past, the constraints of the stock photography business imposed limitations on his photographic >>

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Moustiers-Sainte-Marie at dusk, Alpes-deHaute-Provence, France. Canon EOS 5D Mark III with EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens at 88mm, ISO 100, 30 seconds at f/8

Tombstone Pass and the upper valley of the North Klondike River, Tombstone Territorial Park, Yukon Territories, Canada. Canon EOS1D X with EF200-400mm f/4L IS USM lens, ISO 800, 1/500sec at f/9, polariser

12 Wendy on the coast at Budir with the mountains of Holsfjall and the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, western Iceland. Canon EOS 5D Mark III with EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM lens at 53mm, ISO 100, 30 seconds at f/10, 0.6 ND soft grad, Big Stopper

shoots, meaning he would have to approach the taking of most of his pictures with a potential client or sale in mind. In its most basic form, that might mean leaving enough blue sky or azure sea in the frame to allow space for a headline or advertising copy. When he is producing pictures for use in the magazine, however, he is at liberty to shoot as freely as he desires – something he couldn’t have imagined years ago.

“I’ve gone from creating images for one type of client to creating images for another type of client,” he explains.

“Selling reproduction rights is a market that is pretty much done. Now what we’re doing is selling the story behind the pictures. We’re accessing a different client – a photo enthusiast who might be professional, a complete beginner, or something in between. It’s a huge stimulus for my own photography, and it’s pushing it forward in a very positive and enjoyable way.”

Producing the content for the magazine is something that he constantly has in mind. For example, he might lead a workshop in Iceland, and spend the days before and after it producing images and videos for the website.

Wendy accompanies him on many of his trips, and is often the person behind the video camera. “It’s time-

consuming,” he admits, “but it’s a great way of telling the story of how a shoot comes together.”

In many ways, what Noton and his team – which includes editor Freya Dangerfield – are doing is coming up with an idea, then producing the images to illustrate that idea. It’s the reverse of the stock photography approach, which is about second-guessing potential clients by producing images to match an idea that might not even exist yet.

Nowadays, Noton’s client is his reader, rather than an advertising executive or art director.

There’s just one thing, though. Doesn’t this approach expose Noton as a photographer? Is he afraid of revealing the many frustrations, mistakes and failures that are such a big part of his chosen profession? After all, there’s something almost untouchable about a photographer who makes his living by travelling the world and making the kind of breathtaking images the rest of us can only dream about. He laughs. “I’ve always done that [been honest],” he says. “I’ve always felt very strongly that it’s all relevant. A lot of people will look at a set of images and see only epic scenes in wonderful light, but such pictures come about only after days and weeks of hanging around. Mistakes >>

A nun at Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon, Myanmar. Canon EOS 5D Mark III with TS-E17mm f/4L lens, ISO 200, 1/100sec at f/8, 0.9 ND soft grad

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in Canada, I decided that I’d like to dabble in wildlife photography, which I managed.”

There is a pressure for the photographer who creates his or her own briefs, however. “Once I have a specific idea or location in mind, I feel a huge weight come off my shoulders,” he admits, “because that aspect of it is the hardest part.”

The Milky Way and night sky over Kathleen Lake and the St Elias Mountains, Kluane National Park, Yukon Territories, Canada.

Canon EOS-1D X with EF14mm f/2.8L II USM lens, ISO 12,800, 301 seconds at f/5.6

are all part of it.” And then there’s the writing. “I enjoy that part of it very much, too,” he says. “The actual business of writing about what I do is very satisfying.

The whole thing is a rewarding and creative process. But at the end of the day, it has to be all about the pictures.

It’s as simple as that. And this game of photography stimulates we photographers to go out and experience environments that we would never see without photography to drive us.”

Is he able to appreciate these experiences at the time, though? “I am,” he states, emphatically. “You need to stand back from the tripod and consider what you’re looking at. Sometimes afterwards I will give myself a quiet hour or two to come down from the experience.”

Once he started to travel extensively, Noton soon realised that he would have to become very self-disciplined with his picture-taking when out in the field. His skills are wide-ranging, from travel portraits, to candid imagery, to landscapes. As such, he takes care to avoid the scattergun approach.

“Every time I go out the front door, I have an objective or an idea,” he explains. “Just hoping to stumble across opportunities very rarely works. The better the plan, the better the pictures. So when I went to Prague recently, it was with cityscapes in mind, but on a trip to Yukon

While trips to New Zealand, Iceland, Bolivia and the like are what he is known for, Noton also tries his best to work locally as often as possible, too – although that’s sometimes easier said than done. “There are so many potential distractions at home,” he explains. “When we’re on a trip, there’s only one objective, the photography – and everything else revolves around that. It’s simple, and I love it. Back at base, however, there is the tyranny of the computer and modern communications. So, in order to shoot closer to home, I have to block off several days in my diary, in the same way as I would if I were on the other side of the world. I really do enjoy producing pictures of the area I live in – Dorset is very beautiful and I have a very strong bond with it – but familiarity can breed contempt. You can start missing things, so I work hard to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

He’s also grateful for the improvements in modern camera technology – improvements that have opened his eyes to the potential for yet more creative images.

“I’ve always thought it’s important as a photographer to challenge yourself. It would have been very easy, ten years ago, for me to say that panoramic landscape was my ‘big thing’ and always would be. It’s still a very important part of my work, but now, technological improvements in modern cameras have meant that it’s possible to shoot using incredibly high ISO settings in low light. As a result, over the past 18 months, I’ve started to experiment with the kind of nocturnal photography that wasn’t an option five or so years ago.”

It’s thanks to this technology that Noton can find himself at the edge of a waterfall in Argentina at night, gazing at the stars above him – and thanks to Noton’s boundless enthusiasm for photography that the rest of us can share his vision. Not a bad exchange, in anyone’s mind. n

Visit: davidnoton.com/chasing-the-light.asp

Mupe Bay, Jurassic Coast, Dorset, England.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III with TS-E24mm f/3.5L II lens, ISO 200, 240 seconds at f/8, Big Stopper, polariser

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VIEW LONG-EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPHY CAN INTRODUCE A WHOLE NEW CREATIVE ELEMENT TO YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY. STEVE GOSLING EXPLAINS HOW, WHEN AND – MOST IMPORTANTLY – WHY HE USES THE TECHNIQUE Funningur Church, Faroe Islands.

Olympus E-M1 with 12-40mm f/2.8 lens at 12mm, ISO 200, 90 seconds at f/16, 0.6 ND soft grad, Big Stopper

xposure 17 Trollkonufingur, Faroe Islands.

Olympus E-M1 with 12-40mm f/2.8 lens at 40mm, ISO 200, 63 seconds at f/22, 0.9 ND soft grad, Big Stopper

The Tree, Brimham Rocks, North Yorkshire. Olympus E-M1 with 12mm f/2 lens, ISO 200, eight seconds at f/22, 0.9 ND soft grad, Little Stopper

Nobody can have failed to notice the surge in popularity of long-exposure photography in recent years.

Photographers such as Michael Kenna and Rolfe Horn are at the forefront of the movement, with their ethereal images that are the result of exposures lasting several hours. In order to produce similar effects, photographers began to use ND standard filters, often stacking them one on top of another. It was the introduction of the Big Stopper – and, subsequently, the Little Stopper – that saw the technique really take hold. With exposures being extended by ten and six stops respectively, a world of creative image-making opened up to the photographer.

Yorkshire-based photographer Steve Gosling came to the technique from a slightly different direction. It was when he purchased a Zero Image pinhole camera, with the aim of making landscape photographs, that he first fell in love with long exposures and the effect they had on an image. “For the next few years, it was all I did,” he recalls. “I had two Zero Image bodies – one loaded with ISO 100 film, and the other with ISO 400 film. The latitude of black-and-white film suited the imprecision of the process, and I became fascinated with wideangle photography at long exposures.

“I never see the landscape as a static subject,” he continues. “It’s a dynamic thing, so long exposures suit the way I see. In many ways, a long exposure is several decisive moments, as opposed to just one.”

Once Gosling moved across to digital photography, he began to seek out ways of recreating the same atmosphere that he had made his signature look – which is when he began to use neutral-density standard filters, eventually turning to the Big and Little Stopper filters.

However, he likes to be judicious in their use. “I don’t do long exposures exclusively,” he explains. “The technique is a tool and needs to be used appropriately. I think it’s more important to ask myself what it is I want to say and what I feel about the landscape in front of me. It’s

more about an emotional reaction and long exposures help me to communicate that message. Sometimes it’s about energy and movement, sometimes it’s about differentiating between textures – and sometimes it’s as much about subtlety as it is about drama.”

Gosling’s equipment of choice is either an Alpa TC with a Phase One back, or the Olympus OMD system. It’s with this latter kit that he uses LEE Seven5 filters. “Despite its small sensor, I can make 30x20in prints with images taken on the OMD system,” he explains. “And when I travel, I can get my hand luggage under 8kg, so I can carry it on budget airlines.”

Gosling appreciates the challenge that exists in returning to the same subject many times, and always does his best not to have any predetermined notions about how he will photograph a scene, even when it’s a landscape he knows well. For instance, he might decide on one occasion that the main subject should be very dominant in the frame, and, on another, that it plays only a small part. Often, he will find a dramatic sky first, then look for a landscape subject to go with it. But always, his choice of lens, framing and filters will be influenced by how he feels. “I try not to pre-judge the landscape,” he says, “but I appreciate that any photograph I take is a dialogue between me and the subject. Whether it ends up being a long-exposure image is an aesthetic choice, but also an emotional response. If I don’t feel peaceful, then I’ll choose an exposure that gives lots of movement, or vice versa. But there’s a choice, too. Because a long exposure can actually create a very calm-looking image from a turbulent landscape.”

In this feature, Gosling takes us through the process of creating a long-exposure image. >>

Visit: stevegoslingphotography.co.uk

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Fountains Abbey Before Fountains Abbey, in Ripon, Yorkshire, is a Cistercian abbey now under the ownership of the National Trust.

On a busy summer day, there were plenty of visitors, and the grass was being mown.

After A two-stop soft grad brings more detail and texture into the sky, while a Big Stopper extends the exposure to nearly one-and-a-half minutes. The long exposure means that the man on the lawnmower and any tourists have completely disappeared.

Olympus E-M1 with 12mm f/2 lens, ISO 200, 87 seconds at f/22, 0.6 ND soft grad and Big Stopper, processed in Photoshop and Silver Efex Pro

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The Wrestlers Before As a straight shot, the sky is rather uninspiring, the reflections in the water are contrasty and the visitors in the distance are distracting.

After There was enough breeze that even an exposure of less than a minute produced this far more dramatic result, with the clouds appearing to explode out of the statue.

The water has flattened to a soft sheen, and any people in shot have not been recorded. >>

Olympus E-M1 with 12mm f/2 lens, ISO 200, 56 seconds at f/22, 0.6 ND soft grad, Big Stopper, processed in Photoshop and Silver Efex Pro

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How Hill No filters Without any filters, the scene is rather static and bland. Although the scene was shot at 1/15sec, the breeze wasn’t blowing sufficiently to introduce any movement.

0.6 ND soft grad The use of a 0.6 ND soft grad introduces detail into the sky. Shot at 1/10sec, the difference between this and the unfiltered image is obvious – thanks to waiting for a breeze to blow.

Olympus E-M5 with 17mm f/1.8 lens, ISO 200, 1/10sec at f/20, 0.6 ND soft grad

0.6 ND soft grad plus six-stop ND The Little Stopper, which extends exposures by six stops, creates a misty, almost watery appearance to the image.

0.6 ND soft grad plus ten-stop ND

Olympus E-M5 with 17mm f/1.8 lens, ISO 200, five seconds at f/20, 0.6 ND soft grad, Little Stopper

The Big Stopper extends the exposure to just over two minutes. Nearly all texture in the grasses are lost, and there isn’t enough interest in the sky to inject any drama into the scene.

Olympus E-M5 with 17mm f/1.8 lens, ISO 200, 122 seconds at f/20, 0.6 ND soft grad, Big Stopper

xposure 21 Final image The final image has been cropped either side, to lead the viewer’s eye straight to the distant tree. It has been processed to give an airy, quite high-key result.

Interestingly, this is the image that was shot with nothing other than a 0.6 ND soft grad, with a 1/10sec shutter speed to blur the foreground grasses just slightly, proving that long exposures don’t always have to be the result of extra filtration.

Of course, you may prefer one of the other images, because photography is nothing if not subjective! n

Long Exposure Tips 1. Not all subjects or situations respond well to or require long exposures. Ask yourself what message and mood you want to convey, and whether a long exposure will help strengthen that communication.

2. Sometimes a less obvious effect is more successful. I use my two, three and six-stop (Little Stopper) ND filters as often as I use the Big Stopper.

Consider using them not only for effect, but also to remove passing people from a scene.

3. Look for contrasts between the static (rocks, buildings, trees etc) and the moving (water, clouds and foliage).

Long exposures can accentuate texture: rough stone against blurred water, for example.

4. Unless you’re deliberately aiming for an impressionistic look (a valid reason to use ND filters, of course) then long exposures require the camera to be mounted on a solid tripod. It is a worthwhile investment and essential for high-quality images.

5. Long-exposure photography is unpredictable, which is one of its attractions. Embrace the uncertainty, enjoy the randomness of the results, experiment and have fun!

Olympus E-M5 with 17mm f/1.8 lens, ISO 200, 1/10sec at f/20, 0.6 ND soft grad, processed in Photoshop and Silver Efex Pro

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Composition Masterclass A LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPH DOESN’T ALWAYS HAVE TO BE ABOUT THE GRAND VIEW. SMALLER, MORE INTIMATE DETAILS CAN REVEAL JUST AS MUCH ABOUT NOT ONLY THE WORLD AROUND US, BUT ALSO THE WAY WE SEE, AS DAVID WARD REVEALS Around 20 years ago, landscape photographer David Ward decided to start looking at the world around him a little more closely – literally. Up until that point, like so many other photographers, he had been attracted by the wider landscape, or what he calls “the vista”. So what brought about the change in approach? “I realised there was no point in me trying to be another Joe Cornish!” he says, laughing as he talks of his great friend and fellow landscape photographer.

But the decision to concentrate more intently on the details of what surrounds us wasn’t taken only because of the competition in Ward’s chosen field.

He realised that doing so would mean his pictures would express more about him and the way he perceives the world. “I came to realise that when I make a close-up image, it’s easier to make it personal. With a vista it’s much harder to do that.”

He continues, “My photography has become a way of me exploring the visual realm. I’m not so concerned about what I photograph – it’s more about how I understand how the world looks.”

This exploration has led him to become fascinated by the notion that photographs are not a true representation of what we see when we take them. “For instance, every individual sees colour in a different way,” he says. “And the lens we choose makes a difference to how we perceive a scene. Photographs are written by the light coming off the object, but what we see is a puzzle or intrigue that we wouldn’t otherwise see.”

There’s a quote by the late curator and critic John Szarkowski that Ward calls “one of the

most insightful things I’ve ever read”. He said, “To quote out of context is the essence of the photographer’s craft.” As Ward goes on to explain, “If you put the widest possible lens on your camera, the picture you take is still a quote out of context. If someone takes a 360-degree picture, it’s still a quote out of context. Photographs are not a representation of what we see.”

Ward still predominantly shoots on 5x4in film, preferring the control over plane and perspective it gives him compared with shooting digitally, and suggesting that using a digital back such as a Phase One would give him a “reduced experience”. On placing the darkcloth over his head, all distractions are eliminated, allowing him to study the ground-glass screen and lose himself in the composition in front of him.

But it’s the inverted image on that ground-glass screen that is the most important part of the process. “It’s a perception thing,” he says. “You have to really look. When the image is upside down, your brain is forced to think about colour and line, and how one tone relates to another.

It slows you down. For the kind of work I do, slowing down is quite a good thing.”

In conclusion, Ward says, “One of the biggest gifts that photography has given me is the ability to see things. We’re only in this world once, and most people walk through life with their eyes closed. Any visual art is a gift.”

Visit: into-the-light.com

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Linhof Technikardan with 210mm Schneider ApoSymmar f/5.6 lens, Fuji Velvia 50, 1/8sec at f/22

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Lofoten Islands, Norway “I’d been to this beach on the Lofoten Islands once before, but I struggled to resolve the compositional problems with it. I love the way in which the rock is sculpted but I couldn’t figure out how to make an image of it.

I treat photographic composition as a problemsolving exercise – it’s a multi-dimensional puzzle where I try to find a solution that fits inside a rectangular frame. Compositionally, detail images are harder puzzles to solve. Quite often, I try to push myself technically in terms of what’s possible with focus and lighting, perhaps making an image that has a very high contrast range or is taken in very low lighting levels.

With this image, one of the things I was inspired by was Andrew Nadolski’s series The End of the Land. In some of his images, the subject is the negative space between the rocks rather than the rocks themselves. Photographers can be too concerned with the ‘star’ subject, such as a tree or a boulder. So I was keen to explore other ways of solving that problem of composition.

I loved the curve of the rocks and the shape of the sand in between them. In terms of making it work, I really did need the movements of the view camera to achieve focus – it took me 30 or 40 minutes to get it right. With some pictures, it can sometimes take even longer than that.” >>

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Ice cave Iceland “I’ve been going to these ice caves for about four years and they are completely different each time, because the previous year’s melting ice forms the shapes. You never know what you’re going to find there. We were blessed on this occasion with the largest cave I’ve ever come across – it was about 200m long and some 15-20m wide. Four or five shafts admitted light into the cave, so there were pools of light all the way through.

the wall at the mouth of the cave for about 25 minutes. I noticed strange shapes where the cave reflected not only the sky but also the ice around the mouth of cave. I decided to go for broke in terms of ‘quoting out of context’ and used a 400mm lens to focus on a section of the wall. It’s actually about 3-4m high, but by removing all traces of anything that shows the scale, you become lost in it being series of shapes and colours.

It’s an incredibly difficult location to photograph. We aren’t accustomed to being in environments where everything is lit by coloured light, so this skews our perception of that colour. And composition is as much about colour as it is about form.

The image is actually presented upside down – so it’s as you would see it on the ground glass. The composition is more balanced this way. I used a one-stop grad across the lighter portion of the frame on the bottom right. This allowed me to get more light into the dark shapes in the top left. No highlights were going to blow – I just wanted to get more light into the dark areas. There’s a tension and uneasiness to this image which is entirely deliberate.” >>

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I spent five or six hours in the cave and only made two images prior to this one. It was getting towards the end of our time in the location, and I had been looking at

Linhof Technikardan with 270mm Nikon T*ED f/6.3 lens, Fuji Velvia 50, 1/2sec at f/22²/3

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Old red sandstone Achnahaird, Scotland “This is a real objet trouvé. I was in Achnahaird, in Scotland, and was casting around for something to photograph. There was full sunlight and blue sky, and I was trying to work out what to do in such hard light, when I noticed this arrangement of grass on sandstone and lichen. I loved the coherence that arose out of chaos – the grasses had just ended up in that configuration.

The balance between the lines and colours of the grasses against the background was wonderful.

I propped my camera bag on one side in order to create some shade, and from then on it was very simple in terms of focus and composition. Having said that, though, the image works on quite a complicated level, because it’s about line, tonality and colour. The grasses provide subtle lines, and there is a colour contrast between their warmth

and the bluish background stone. It’s a photograph that embodies what I try to do when I take a close-up – the longer you look, the more you find in it. Working out the composition takes quite a while, because there needs to be a balance of simplicity of form alongside a complexity of texture. That’s what takes the time.

At some point, when I’ve stared at it long enough, a scene reveals to me how it wants to be photographed. There are probably hundreds of compositions you could make with different lenses and media. All would be valid solutions, but you have to pick one that you feel most corresponds with what you want to say in a photograph. By looking at things, studying them, and making images again and again, you train yourself – and that effectively becomes your style as a photographer.” n

Linhof Technikardan with 210mm Schneider ApoSymmar f/5.6 lens, Fuji Velvia 50, 1/8sec at f/22

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Gallery IMMERSE YOURSELF IN A SHOWCASE OF SOME OF THE FINEST PHOTOGRAPHS SHOT USING LEE FILTERS

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Kenmare, Ireland

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Norman McCloskey Tree Newfoundland Bay, Upper Lake Killarney National Park, Ireland

I spent three years photographing the iconic Killarney National Park, and the project has culminated in a book.

When you intend to say something new about a subject, you really have to work hard and take advantage of anything that might present a scene in a different light.

After so long working on the project, I had become aware of the dramatic rise and fall of the water levels in the lakes and how quickly this occurs after heavy rain.

This tree stood on a grassy plain beside the lake and I hoped it would flood enough someday to isolate it and

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with EF 16-35mm lens, ISO 50, 1½sec at f/13, 0.9 ND soft grad

make a more interesting composition. The rain came in abundance, but waiting for it to stop was the tricky part!

Finally, a window presented itself and I drove to the park through flooded roads, which were all good signs for what I wanted. Wading out the short distance from the road in the flood was a little tricky, but it was the only way to achieve the composition. The brooding skies and last bit of light beyond provided just the atmospheric composition I wanted and it remains one of my favourite images from the project.

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Devil’s Island Muckross Lake Killarney National Park, Ireland I wanted to capture the Lakes of Killarney from the water before dawn, so I hired a boatman to help me. We set off in total darkness under a blanket of fog, much to his bemusement. Once the light began to break, we were able to make out the shore a little; the islands appeared out of the fog and disappeared again just as quickly.

This small island surprised me and although we killed the boat’s engine straight away, I wasn’t quite ready to

make a photograph. I scrambled to take just two frames, manually focusing my 24mm lens and shooting at 0.3sec, handheld – all in a boat!

Amazingly, the image is sharp and I managed to get it just in time. Only 30 seconds later, the little island was shrouded in the dense fog again and had disappeared – but I had an image I had been visualising for more than two years in the bag. >>

Canon EOS 5D Mark III with TS-E24mm lens, ISO 100, 0.3sec at f/6.7, 0.6 ND soft grad

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> Lough Leane Killarney National Park, Ireland After a period of storms and heavy rains, a still morning came as a welcome relief, and a gift of driftwood and high water presented itself to me as I walked around the shore of Lough Leane.

Although it was quite an obvious composition, it didn’t quite work from my viewpoint on the shore, so I had to wade out a little to find a balance that worked for me.

I found that limiting myself to only two or three lenses for the entire book project resulted in a compositional style emerging, albeit a relatively simplistic one. The final exposure was almost a minute long, not for obvious effect, but to ensure the smooth appearance of the water, which was catching the odd light breeze. >>

Parklight: Images from Killarney National Park

by Norman McCloskey, can be purchased at www.normanmccloskey.com/parklight, price â‚Ź29.99

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Canon EOS 5D Mark II with EF 16-35mm lens, ISO 50, 57 seconds at f/16, ProGlass 0.9 ND standard and 0.3 ND soft grad

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Pete Bridgwood Nottingham, England

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> Another Place Crosby, England Compact system cameras are reshaping the world of landscape photography; their small size and light weight facilitates a more reactive shooting style, enabling us to respond very quickly when photogenic scenes present themselves. Creating photographs with outstanding image quality even when shooting hand-held has never been more accessible.

Consequently, it can be therapeutic to occasionally slow down and enjoy a more mindful experience, imbibing the ‘moment’, rather than the ‘instant’.

This image was made on the beach at Crosby, the home of Antony Gormley’s creation, Another Place.

One hundred cast-iron life-size sculptured figures, all modelled on Gormley himself, are permanently installed on a wide and relatively flat expanse of beach.

The statues all look out to sea and are submerged by incoming tides, creating a minimalist photographer’s dream location, no matter what the weather conditions.

As the tide swirled around the statue, I selected a raised viewpoint and attached the Seven5 Big Stopper to ensure the sea was rendered as an ethereal blur of negative space, removing texture, removing detail, enhancing the presence of the figure and hopefully creating a compelling connection with the viewer. >> Visit: petebridgwood.com

Fujifilm X-Pro1 with XF55-200mm lens at 200mm, ISO 200, 30 seconds at f/10, Big Stopper

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North Yorkshire, England

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Lizzie Shepherd Callanish Stone Circle Isle of Lewis, Scotland

Callanish needs little introduction – it is a magical location on the west of the Isle of Lewis, and is made even more special by the fact that you are allowed to wander freely among these magnificent Lewisian Gneiss stones.

This image was taken a little after sunrise in early autumn.

The light was gorgeous and the clouds very pretty, but I felt the latter were fighting for attention with the stones,

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III with Canon TS-E 17mm lens, ISO 200, 155 seconds at f/11, Big Stopper. Converted to black and white with Silver Efex Pro on a new layer in Photoshop

which I carefully aligned through the viewfinder and kept vertical by shifting the lens upwards.

The wind was not strong on this occasion, so I needed a very long exposure in order to blur the clouds sufficiently.

I like the idea of the movement of clouds over time, set against prehistoric stones that have stood on this island for so many thousands of years.

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Nikon D800E with 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5 G AF-S ED lens at 18mm, ISO 100, 30 seconds at f/9, Little Stopper and polarising filter. Converted to black and white with Silver Efex Pro on a new layer in Photoshop. The opacity of the new layer was around 95% to allow a hint of colour toning to come through.

Waterfall Upper Wharfedale Yorkshire Dales There are a number of rather elegant waterfalls above the tiny and picturesque village of Cray in Yorkshire. This one is almost hidden within the undulating landscape, but I was struck by the lone ash tree guarding the top of the falls, and the fast-moving clouds that were coming

towards me from above made it a perfect candidate for a long exposure. The light was fading, so the Little Stopper was the perfect choice of filter to create the kind of cloud patterns I was hoping for, balanced nicely by the soft flow of water in the stream. >>

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Showery Copse Near Boroughbridge North Yorkshire This little copse, set in a farmer’s field, is one of my favourite local spots. The mixture of sun and showers on this afternoon provided wonderful light and definition to the scene. However, although the clouds from the unfiltered exposure looked very striking and dramatic, the use of the Big Stopper has simplified the scene,

and allowed the winter trees and the plough lines of the field to stand out better against that moody sky. >> Visit: lizzieshepherd.com

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Nikon D800W with Zeiss 35mm f/2 lens, ISO 100, 42 seconds at f/11, Big Stopper

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Mark Daly Vancouver, Canada

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Farm Building

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The Palouse Washington State, USA The Palouse is a large region of farmland in Idaho and Eastern Washington State, and produces primarily wheat and legumes. Each spring, the gently rolling hills turn various shades of green, brown and yellow, creating a beautiful patchwork of colour. For this particular shot, I drove halfway up Steptoe Butte, the highest point around. I wanted to get a fairly high vantage point, so I could capture the rolling hills at the proper angle.

I took this photograph in the evening when the low light created nice, long shadows, providing depth to the image. From my vantage point, I could see for miles.

I settled on this farm building as my subject, as the evening light was hitting it perfectly. I wanted a very warm image, so I used a LEE Coral filter to accentuate the warmth and brown tones.

As far as composition goes, I used the rule of thirds for the building. I like the minimalism of this image – a lone building adrift in endless acres of rolling hills. I was blessed with great light, as well, and the shadows really helped to provide definition to the hills, and depth to the overall image.

I prefer to use minimal post-processing and this image was no exception. All I did here was a bit of sharpening. >> Visit: natureasart.photoshelter.com

Canon EOS 7D with 100-400mm lens at 350mm, ISO 100, 1/6sec at f/16, Coral filter

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Patrick Pedersen Fredrikstad, Norway

> Fredrikstad Bridge Norway This is my hometown’s biggest bridge and has been photographed extensively over the years – both by me and many other photographers. I had never seen any really decent shots of the bridge taken using a long exposure, and although I had tried it myself several times, I had never really nailed it. The temperature was minus 18 degrees and I waited for about an hour before the clouds and movement of the skies was exactly how I wanted it. It was well worth it, though, and the picture went on to receive more than 2,500 ‘likes’ on my local newspaper’s Facebook page. >>

Nikon D800E with Nikon 17-35mm lens at 17mm, ISO 50, 247 seconds at f/20, 0.3 ND hard grad, Big Stopper

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xposure 43

Nikon D800E with 17-35mm lens at 17mm, ISO 50, 125 seconds at f/20, 0.6 ND hard grad, Big Stopper

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Hvaler, Norway

Homlungen Lighthouse

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Storesand

Hvaler, Norway Storesand, on a little island in a tiny commune named Hvaler, is one of my favourite places in Norway to shoot long exposures. When taking this picture, as with most of my images, I used hyperfocal distance focusing, to ensure everything was in pin-sharp focus from front to back. Usually, I work between f/8 and f/22 – though f/16 is my favourite aperture to use with my 1735mm lens. After focusing, I choose which (if any) neutral-density grad to use, and carefully slide it into the second filter slot (never the first – that’s for the Little or Big Stopper). Once it is in place, I take my light reading, choose which ‘Stopper’ filter to use, calculate my exposure, then fit the filter into the slot nearest the lens.

I always do my best to get all my images right in camera. That was definitely the case with this image of Homlungen Lighthouse, which lies just a few hundred metres from the island of Kirkøy – where another of the pictures in this set was taken.

After composing the shot, I always make sure I lock the tripod handles as tight as I possibly can, so that the camera stands as securely as possible on the well-locked ball head. A good tripod is more than essential – it is a must-have piece of equipment for a long-exposure photographer. n Visit: 500px.com/xtrick

Nikon D800E with 17-35mm lens at 17mm, ISO 100, 270 seconds at f/16, 0.6 ND hard grad, Big Stopper

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Trouble-

Shooting YOUR FILTER QUERIES ANSWERED

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RESIN AND GLASS FILTERS? LEE resin filters are individually handmade. The 2mm optical resin is cast in our factory, hand-dyed and cut to give a very high-quality product, in terms of both colour accuracy and optical quality. They are hardwearing and ideal for use on location.

The glass filters that LEE offers tend to be specialist filters that are not available in other materials, such as the ProGlass series, Big and Little Stoppers or polarisers. They are hard-wearing and scratch-resistant, but tend to be expensive. Do not drop!

CAN I USE MY EXISTING SCREWFIT POLARISER WITH THE LEE SYSTEM? Yes, you can, so long as your polariser has a repeat thread at the front edge to take another screw-in accessory (some slimline polarisers do not). You can attach the polariser to the lens and then screw the adaptor ring into the polariser.

Bear in mind that this will increase the possibility of vignetting and does make the polariser tricky to access.

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SHOULD I TURN ON LONG EXPOSURE NOISE REDUCTION (LENR) WHEN SHOOTING WITH THE BIG STOPPER? Yes and no.

For long exposures of more than 30 seconds or so, you can get increased noise from the sensor, which is caused by heat generated from the sensor over-working. This often shows as individual ‘hot pixels’ in the image. Some cameras suffer from this effect more than others, and the longer the exposure, the worse the effect.

By using LENR, your camera will take a second ‘blank’ image of the same duration straight after your actual exposure. This allows the results to be compared inside the camera and a noise-free image to be produced. The downside of this is that all long exposures take twice as long and photographers can find the wait exasperating, preferring to remove any noise in postproduction.

However, many photographers see it as part of the fun of long-exposure photography and are happy to use it.

IF I HAD TO BUY JUST ONE FILTER, WHICH WOULD YOU RECOMMEND? The 0.6 ND hard grad is probably the most useful single filter. You can use it with almost any landscape shot, and although it’s not perfect for everything, it will markedly improve almost every shot you take with it. n

WHY IS 82MM THE LARGEST WIDEANGLE ADAPTOR RING AVAILABLE? Wideangle adaptor rings have a countersunk thread to allow the filter to be positioned as close to the lens as possible, thus maximising the angle of view. The 82mm ring is the widest we can manufacture that still allows this countersink – anything larger would have to effectively sit in front of, rather than over, the lens.

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>ANATOMY

OF A WIL

VISUALISING AN IMAGE IS ONE THING – MAKING IT A REALITY IS QUITE ANOTHER. THREE PHOTOGRAPHERS EXPLAIN HOW THEY REACHED THEIR PHOTOGRAPHIC GOAL

Nikon D800 with Micro Nikkor 200mm f/4 lens,

BANDED DEMOISELLE

ISO 50, 1/8000sec at f/4.2, 0.9 ProGlass ND filter, tripod

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Lower Tamar Lakes, Cornwall, England

BY ROSS HODDINOTT If there’s one thing that’s crucial to a successful wildlife photograph, it’s planning. And Cornwall-based photographer Ross Hoddinott had had this particular image of a banded demoiselle at sunrise in mind long before he actually got the opportunity to take it.

“At certain times of year, you target certain species,” he explains. “And early in the morning during summer, the

insects roost among the reeds, so they tend to be still enough to photograph.”

A 4.30am start gave Hoddinott the best chance of capturing the image in the way he hoped, but even then, he knew his time would be limited. “I found this demoiselle in just the right position,” he explains, “and I was able to set up my camera so it was parallel with

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LDLIFE PICTURE the insect for sufficient depth of field – which is crucial with macro photography.”

As he was shooting directly into the sun, the meter suggested an extremely fast shutter speed. However, it was essential for him to use the widest possible aperture, otherwise the sun wouldn’t record as a perfect circle.

“The only option was to use an ND standard filter, to bring the shutter speed within the camera’s range,” he explains.

Although it was unlikely that the demoiselle would be disturbed, the speed with which the sun rises presented its own problems.

“It moves surprisingly quickly,” Hoddinott explains, “so it’s tricky to control the composition. I had to make lots of very fine adjustments to the tripod head and legs, and even then I only had three or four minutes before the sun had risen too high in the sky.”

The translucence of the insect’s wing makes it the perfect subject for a silhouette.

A wide aperture ensured the sun would record as a perfect orb.

By leaving room to the right of the frame, the viewer is able to imagine the insect taking off into the space.

Focusing is critical with such a tiny subject. Hoddinott used the live view facility on his camera to zoom in and ensure the banded demoiselle was pin sharp.

The curve of the reed is important to the composition, giving a flow to the image and allowing the eye to sweep across the frame.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER Ross Hoddinott has been passionate about wildlife photography since the age of ten, when his parents gave him his first camera. Only a year later, he won the junior flora and fauna category in BBC Countryfile’s annual photography competition.

Nowadays, Ross is as much at home in the landscape as he is with a macro lens, stalking the tiniest of insect subjects. He is author of a number of books, including Digital Macro & Close-up Photography and

The Landscape Photography Workshop, and he has been on the judging panel of the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards.

He is particularly inspired by the subjects around his home in Cornwall, in the southwest of England, where he lives with his wife and three daughters. >> Visit: rosshoddinott.co.uk

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WHOOPER SWANS Lake Kussharo, Japan

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BY MARK SISSON For wildlife photographer Mark Sisson, the grace and elegance of swans makes them one of his favourite families of birds. “They symbolise many of the endearing qualities of the natural world,” he says.

Sisson has photographed whooper swans on several occasions, not only in the UK – where they visit in large and noisy groups during winter – but also at their breeding grounds in Iceland. “They are challenging to photograph in both locations,” he reveals. “Both in terms of the setting of the images and in their approachability.”

It was on a trip to Japan earlier in 2014 that Sisson travelled to the northern island of Hokkaido and found himself in the ‘truly stunning’ setting of the 80-square-

kilometre Lake Kussharo – the largest lake in Japan to freeze over in winter.

“The lake’s geothermal springs mean that patches of the lake remain unfrozen,” Sisson explains, “and it’s in these that the birds gather. The local people revere the swans, and feed them while they are there. As a result, the birds’ instinctive shyness is removed.”

He spent several days absorbed in the swans’ behaviour, and during that time he experienced vastly differing weather conditions, including high winds and heavy snowstorms. “Then, one afternoon, the sky was clear,” he says. “I simply had to take this low-level wideangle image to place the beautiful birds within their stunning setting.”

Canon EOS-1DX with 24-70mm lens at 63mm, ISO 400, 1/400sec at f/13, polariser filter

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ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER Mark Sisson is an award-winning UK-based professional nature photographer. His work is widely published across magazines such as BBC Wildlife and the RSPB’s Nature’s Home, and is represented in leading image libraries including RSPB Images and FLPA. He has had four books published, including The

Secret Lives of Puffins and Bird Photography: Art and Techniques. He jointly owns and runs the leading wildlife photography holidays and workshops business Nature’s Images, which offers both local and international photo opportunities and coaching.

Visit: marksissonphoto.co.uk

or natures-images.co.uk

The preening bird complements the swimming one, and helps give a sense that this is just part of a bigger scene where all aspects of whooper life are carrying on.

The use of the polariser has helped to eliminate any surface glare on the water. It has also intensified the blue colours and emphasises their contrast with the swans’ white plumage.

Sisson lay on the shore with his camera hand-held just above the water, placing the viewer at swan height, which increases the intimacy of the image.

This reflection is critical to bringing life to the image, as well as the dynamics of the reflections. The fact that the swan is looking out of the frame, while its body faces in, creates additional tension.

The two birds on the right both cut the line of the horizon, but a higher viewpoint to avoid this would have lost the impact of the low point of view. >>

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URBAN FOX

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North London

Canon EOS-1DX with Canon 16-35mm lens at 27mm, ISO 3,200, 1/50sec at f/2.8, 0.9 ND soft grad (upside down), two flashguns on wireless remote with LEE Filters 1/2 Colour Temperature Orange gels

BY MARK SMITH Having travelled to Africa, Asia and even the Arctic to pursue his passion for wildlife photography, in 2013, Mark Smith decided it was time to look for subjects closer to his north London home. The urban fox seemed the obvious choice. “Little did I know it would become an obsession,” he says.

He set about the project by waiting on a street corner where he’d seen a number of foxes over the previous few years. As a fox passed him, he tried to follow it and learn its route. Within a few weeks of starting, he had located a number of dens and learned the routes of several foxes.

But his first images didn’t quite turn out as planned.

“They were terrible!” Smith exclaims. “My camera wasn’t good enough to focus in the dark, and it didn’t have a high enough ISO to expose the background sufficiently.

But also, I didn’t really understand fox behaviour at that point and I was too impatient.”

Once Smith invested in a more sophisticated camera, refined his technique and became more patient, he began to get the results he had envisaged from the outset. In particular, he started to use off-camera flashguns and would fit neutral-density graduated filters upside down in the filter holder, in order to prevent the foreground road or pavement from bleaching out.

“Grads are very important when working this close to the ground,” Smith explains. “When you use a flash only 30cm or so above the ground, and a wideangle lens at the same height, the foreground can be very overexposed.

The grad helps to balance out the exposure.” In addition, he uses LEE Filters colour-correction gels to balance the

xposure 51 fill light with the ambient light. “Without them, the pictures look too set up,” he says.

shot, a male from a neighbouring street was behind me and the two ultimately came to blows.”

Becoming more familiar with the behaviour of the foxes was as important as any photographic technique.

“Generally, the older the fox, the more they’ve learned that people aren’t that scary,” Smith says. “The fox in this picture was from a very active family whose cubs were old enough to roam the streets. When I took this

As Smith plans to move out of London soon, he is making the most of this project while he can. “Most people have no real idea that at least one fox visits their streets every night, and quite possibly their gardens, too. Several of the dens I’ve encountered are in gardens where the owner has no idea about it.”

Subtle touches, such as including the window light in the frame, offer a reminder that this is a residential area, where foxes and humans live their lives in parallel.

I waited until the fox’s ears were pricked before taking the shot. It had spotted a potential rival in the street – such encounters usually end either in confrontation or a hasty retreat.

By placing Colour Temperature Orange (CTO) gels over the two flashguns, the flashlit foreground is balanced with the ambient light.

Leaving space at the lefthand area of the frame creates a more balanced composition, appearing to leave the fox an area to move into.

The 0.9 ND soft grad covers the lower two-fifths of the frame.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER Mark Smith is a freelance wildlife photographer who has travelled widely for his work, and who has won a number of awards, including several highly commended images in the British Wildlife Photography Awards, as well as category wins in both the portrait and behaviour categories.

His pictures have been published in national papers such as The Times, Daily Mail, The Telegraph and

Outdoor Photography, and in European publications such as GEO France, Le Figaro and Terra Mater.

For the past 18 months, he has been working on his urban foxes project, and the behaviour he has encountered has even caught the attention of the BBC Natural History Unit. n Visit: marksmithphotography.net

VERTIGO

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inducing scenes KUWAIT-BASED PHOTOGRAPHER SARAH ALSAYEGH HAS FOUND HER NICHE AS A ‘ROOFTOPPER’, PHOTOGRAPHING FROM THE TOP OF SKYSCRAPERS. HERE, SHE REVEALS HOW SHE GOES ABOUT IT

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When did you first start photographing cityscapes?

Sarah Alsayegh I fell in love with photography in 2005, when I started taking pictures as a hobby. I found that there was something captivating about capturing the beauty of what I saw in front of me. Perhaps it fits with my personality type, as I love the quietness and stillness of waiting for the perfect moment, as well as the challenge of scoping out an area for the best point of view and observing how the light changes.

As someone who was born and raised in the Middle East, I had to look for a different kind of beauty in my country, the State of Kuwait. The >>

Dusk over Kuwait Having checked the weather, I knew that the sunset would be full of vivid colours and perfect for a skyline view of Kuwait.

I took three pictures and merged them into a panoramic.

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LEE Filters

Canon EOS 5D Mark III with Canon TS-E 24mm Mark II lens, ISO 100, 10 se-cond at f/14, tripod, 0.6 ND soft grad

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LF What is it about the city that inspires you?

SA I guess what inspires me most is how the natural light between ‘blue hour’ and sunset reflects through the windows of tall buildings and blends with the city lights.

The blend of artificial and natural light works beautifully against man-made buildings and I love the way, for example, a long exposure shows not only the movement of sunlit clouds but also the lights of a busy highway.

The combination creates an image of a bustling city that’s full of life.

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Skyline and sandstorm I received information that a dust storm was approaching, so I made my way to the building and waited an hour for the storm to approach from the north.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III with Canon 16-35mm lens, ISO 125, 1/40sec at f/14, tripod, 0.9 ND soft grad

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lack of ‘traditional’ landscapes there inspired me to seek out places that people rarely see, to show the world how a country in the Third World is evolving, with its new architecture and skyscrapers. Countries such as Dubai and Saudi Arabia are similarly inspiring.

Fatima Al Zahra mosque at sunset Using my TS-E shift lens, I took four pictures and blended them together to make a vertical view of the Fatima Al Zahra mosque.

Fortunately for me, it had rained heavily the day before, giving me a perfect reflection in the foreground puddle.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III with Canon TS-E 24mm Mark II lens, ISO 50, six seconds at f/16, tripod, 0.9 ND soft grad

xposure 55 LF What do you try to say about the scene in front of you?

SA It’s very simple. My main aim is always to show the world how beautiful my country is. It’s never easy to capture a perfect composition with the perfect light – it’s all about an exploration, both for me and for the person looking at the picture. It’s true that one view can speak a thousand words – whether that view is a landscape or a cityscape.

For me, capturing the true beauty of natural light against city lights, and working to compose an image that people want to look at, is the main aim.

LF Many of your cityscapes are shot from tall buildings – have you encountered any issues with access?

SA

LF Does it take a lot of recce work to know which views work best in certain conditions?

SA Sometimes, when scouting for a tall building with a view, it can be hard to know what the city looks like from the rooftop. Not only this, but sometimes the wall around the rooftop is too high to see over, or there isn’t a secure wall to stand behind. Where recces have paid off, however, is with photographing the legendary sandstorm known as the haboob. The haboob is a feature of the weather in this part of the world and I first photographed it in 2011. >>

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I am definitely a ‘rooftopper’! I love to see the city from the highest point as it helps me to capture what I see as the beauty of modern life, and to show just how high the skyscrapers are. However, there are always a lot of issues around access. Some skyscrapers require an official letter from a sponsor – as I’m freelance, I write a letter to request access and wait to see whether I get the approval of the security department. Once the permission is in place, I keep an eye on the weather

conditions and, if I am lucky, I might get a good sunset.

With some buildings, the process of obtaining permission is straightforward and I know of a few where, if the sunset looks promising, I can just call to say I’m coming.

Marina Crescent, Salmiya, Kuwait The weather conditions were not promising, but there was a sudden change, which brought in these clouds and the haze on the horizon.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III with Canon 70-200mm lens, ISO 200, 20 seconds at f/18, tripod, 0.3 ND soft grad

Al Tijaria Tower This tower is also known as the snake building, because of its twisted shape. I decided to make a long-exposure abstract of it, taking in the moon and clouds behind.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III with 16-35mm lens, ISO 160, 30 seconds at f/14, tripod

Since then, I have spent many hours studying it and working out the best places to photograph it, where I can show its size against the skyscrapers.

Whenever I hear news of the sandstorm approaching Kuwait, I try to be in place and ready to capture it.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III with 16-35mm lens, ISO 50, 30 seconds at f/13, tripod, Big Stopper and polariser

What, for you, makes an effective composition?

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The Kuwait Tower These three slender towers are an important symbol of Kuwait. I took this picture on the same day as the dust storm, but some hours before it hit. It’s unusual to take pictures around midday, but the conditions were just right for making an abstract.

LF

SA I always look for a ‘complete’ picture.

As a country that is still evolving, Kuwait has not only modern architecture, but also many empty spaces and old buildings in between the skyscrapers.

Thus, I tend to look for a composition that merges both modern and old.

LF What is it about the light at the end of the day that works so well for you?

SA The Middle East is extremely dry, of course. There are rarely any clouds and our summers are very dusty, so conditions are poor for most kinds of photography.

However, on the rare occasions when the skies are clear, there can be amazing ‘blue hour’ light. This is the last hour before sunset, and is the best time for me to photograph.

Time isn’t the only factor in deciding which rooftop to head for – direction and the sunset also play their parts.

Autumn and winter tend to provide the best conditions and cloud formations, which are especially important when you want to make long exposures. Usually, when I’m granted access to a rooftop, I wait in my spot for around an hour, with my camera ready and set up on the tripod. That means I’m relaxed and ready to capture the perfect balance of natural and artificial light.

How many images can you hope to capture in one session?

SA It depends on the conditions. Sometimes, there might be a sudden change in the weather, which requires me to make a quick change in my position or exposure.

In low light, I am happy if I capture three perfectly exposed pictures in differing light conditions.

LF If you see certain weather conditions developing, do you have locations you always head for?

SA The rooftops where I can get access on the same day are always the first locations to come to mind – particularly when it is the season for the haboob.

But the urge to look for a new location and

a new perspective is always there.

So, during holidays and weekends, I go on the hunt for new rooftops, introducing myself to the security staff and asking their permission to check out the view from the top of the building.

LF What issues do you have to consider?

SA I always have to consider time and weather conditions when shooting in low light. If the sky is clear, then I will aim for an image that combines the city lights with car headlights.

And if the weather is cloudy, I might choose to make a more abstract, longexposure image, perhaps after the sun has dropped below the horizon. This captures the balance between natural colour and city light. In cases such as these, I tend to use filters to help emphasise the drama of the skies. >>

Dark clouds over Kuwait This sunset started off quite promising, but turned out not to be as colourful as I’d hoped.

However, when the city lights began to be switched on, the scene came to life.

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LF

Canon EOS 5D Mark III with 16-35mm lens, ISO 100, 20 seconds at f/14, tripod, 0.3 ND soft grad

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LF What equipment do you use?

SA My main body is a Canon EOS 5D Mark III. I have four Canon lenses and try to vary them to get a different perspective each time. Needless to say, I do have a favourite – the 16-35mm zoom. If I’m shooting a panorama, I use the 24mm tilt-shift lens, as this avoids distortion.

I carry a Benro Aluminium tripod (A1182TB0) with a ball head, and I use LEE Filters neutral-density grads – both hard and soft – as well as the Big and Little Stoppers and a circular polariser.

LF Which filters are most useful for your cityscapes?

SA For cityscapes I always tend to use the LEE Filters soft set, which is ideal for me. The 0.9 ND soft grad works well for cityscapes and I often combine it with a 0.6 ND hard grad. For long exposures and city abstracts, I use the Big Stopper to capture the motion of clouds against the buildings.

LF Do you do anything in postproduction with your images?

SA “Straight out of the camera” is my motto!

I shoot in raw and process my images with Lightroom to correct any distortions and remove dust. If I need to enhance the contrast, I go with Nik Software (Color Effex pro 4) and if converting to black and white I use Silver Efex Pro 2. For me, it’s all about enhancing the natural, simple beauty of what was already there, and what I saw as I captured the picture. n Visit: salsayegh.com

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The One & Only Royal Mirage, Dubai Before taking a trip to Dubai, I spotted this great point of view, with the railway bridge above, on a website. It was quite a tricky picture to take, because the security guards spotted that I, and two other local photographers, were taking pictures.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III with 16-35mm lens, ISO 50, 20 seconds at f/16, tripod, 0.3 ND hard grad

Inspiring Professionals Who better to learn from than the professional photographers who use LEE Filters products every day?

Learn from the professionals With contributions from Joe Cornish, Charlie Waite, David Ward, Mark Denton, John Gravett, David Noton, Jeremy Walker, Paul Gallagher and Tom Mackie, Inspiring Professionals and Inspiring Professionals 2 are packed full of world-class photography and invaluable advice on how to get the best out of your LEE Filters products.

Inspiring Professionals 1 ebook

Inspiring Professionals 2 ebook Both books are also available as ebooks from the iBooks Store (suitable for Mac and iPad). These multi-touch versions have been specifically designed for the best possible experience on screen. The high-quality images can be viewed full screen or alongside the commentary and diagrams that explain which filters were used for each shot.

LOOK OUT FOR THE NEXT ISSUE OF XPOSURE IN 2015 Editor: Ailsa McWhinnie LEE Filters: Graham Merritt and Peter Sturt Designers: www.trampolinedesign.net To contact Xposure, email feedback@leefilters.com, putting Xposure in the subject line

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