Gull sitting on pilingGull sitting on piling Recently I was asked how I got the gull to sit still long enough for me to take the 4 minute exposure used in this image.

Long exposure photography requires patience.  If you do not have it, you must learn it.  If that fails, take up something else.

With patience, you start to observe your surroundings.  Over time, and much practice, you may learn something interesting about your natural surroundings.  After a lot of images, and lots of time spent along the shore, at marshes, and in really bad weather, I noticed one day that birds seem to settle on a rock or outcrop, on in this case a piling at certain times.  When there is  change in the weather (either a storm coming in or ending for example) the birds tended to settle down.  So I started to try my luck, and use my patience.

The virtue of patience is not a new revelation; it just took me a while to see it and apply it to my photography.

Long exposure photography captures people's imagination as it reveals the hidden aspects of our surroundings; it captures the effect of time.  It also reveals something of the photographer to him/herself.  Patience and time seem to go together in revealing the hidden.

Patience, especially during these strange times, is very important.