Daytime Long Exposure with Wind Farms

Photographing wind farms was on my ‘To Do’ photography list, so when I planned my trip to Portugal I was happy to find out that wind farms are spotted all over the country on mountaintops.  Although I kept seeing them from the bus and train, I hadn’t rented a car and therefore thought that my wind farms would have to wait for another occasion.  On the last stretch of my two weeks in Portugal, I headed down south to the Algarve region for some R & R, but laying the beach I say the clouds roll in and I just couldn’t let this opportunity pass.  I packed my stuff off the beach and headed to the nearest car rental place and headed to the mountains.  In my mind I envisioned taking a daytime long exposure of these majestic creatures as fine art and use three different exposures:

1. a quick shutter to catch the rotors as a still shot.
2. a long exposure to catch the motion of the clouds, and
3. a longer than still shutter speed to catch the rotor in motion since in the long exposure the rotors came out completely invisible.

The result you can see below:

Wind Farm #1 I superimposed two images: a daytime long exposure and a quick shutter for the rotor, catching the movement of the rotor (as I thought in exposure #3) just didn’t seem to come out as I envisioned since the clouds came out as still shot too.

Wind Farm #1

Technical info of Wind Farm #1 Image 1:

Daytime long exposure, Shutter speed of 94.8 seconds 1.3 minutes

Aperture F-11, at 18 mm (DX sensor)

I placed two ND filters, a 10 stop and a 3 stop for a total of 13 f-stops

Later in the ‘Digital Darkroom’ I converted the image to black and white.

  

Wind Farm #2 is just one shot with a semi long exposure, the first turbine’s rotor was spinning very slow for some reason so I managed to catch the movement or the rotor as well as the clouds with one shot.

Wind Farm #2

Technical info of Wind Farm #2:

Daytime long exposure, Shutter speed of 242 seconds 4 minutes

Aperture F-16, at 60 mm (DX sensor)

I placed two ND filters, a 10 stop and a 3 stop for a total of 13 f-stops

Later in the ‘Digital Darkroom’ I converted the image to black and white.

For more on daytime long exposure and to learn how to create these images, please go to www.SharonTenenbaum.com where you can purchase the EBOOK called’ How to Create Long Exposure Fine Art Photography’.

Vasco de Gama Bridge

The longest bridge in Europe, this majestic structure leaves you in awe. I was struggling to create an image that would capture its beauty and marvel in one frame. I tried different angles but there is something about water and the human eye that needs a horizontal horizon line.  I knew it had to be in a long exposure and found myself going back to the location three times to get the conditions I needed.  Eventually the wow shot was the one I believe created a strong yet serene emotion.

Technical info:

Daytime long exposure, Shutter speed of 655 seconds xx minutes

Aperture F-11, at 38 mm (DX sensor)

I placed two ND filters, a 10 stop and a 6 stop for a total of 16 f-stops

Later in the ‘Digital Darkroom’ I converted the image to black and white.

For more on daytime long exposure and to learn how to create these images, please go to www.SharonTenenbaum.com where you can purchase the EBOOK called’ How to Create Long Exposure Fine Art Photography’.