Incredible Long Exposure Kayak Photography

I came across some photographs on a camping blog and thought I should share them here. If any of you have ever seen long exposure photography before then you probably know how it works and what incredible results you can get from it. Here's a few pics from the article:





http://gearjunkie.com/stephen-orlando-kayak-motion-photos

 

With long exposure photography the sensitivity of the sensor is much lower so it requires a longer exposure time to the scene in order to absorb enough light to form a clear image. Usually with long exposure photos there is some stationary objects and then there are some (usually brighter) moving objects. It takes the entire length of the exposure to capture the dark parts of the shot like the mountains in the background but since they are not moving at all, they still come out fairly sharp. The LED lights are by far the brightest thing in the image and since they are putting out so much light, the sensor is able to capture that even though it is moving quickly across the scene.

I'm surprised there is no hint of the kayaker in the shot, but I guess they were dark enough that the camera didn't pick them up. You can even see how it works by looking at the water, the ripples in the water move pretty quickly so that causes a lot of blurring which is why most of the lake is a solid blue color. But as the kayaker went by with the light it reflected off the water which gave the camera enough light to capture more detail which you can see. The detail in the water at the left side of frame and the detail in the right side of the frame is actually from 2 different times, probably several seconds apart.

These images were created by mounting some LEDs to the kayak paddle which is how you end up with the pattern you see there which is actually the path the paddle takes as the kayaker glides across the water. You can read more about the photographer and the equipment he used from the link I posted.

 

Do not attempt this at home kids!!

There were some crazy stunts in that video, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the dude drop off the falls in the kayak. The dancing bear and koala (I think?) were also a nice touch but to be honest I could not really make out much kayaking in the night scenes, even with the LED paddles. I wonder how long he was sitting there wondering/dreaming for...