f22     /     120 secs     /     iso100

I am currently in the Mediterannean town of Hammamet in Northern Tunisia where I am taking advantage of some the photographic opportunities this fascinating country has to offer. Happily, I have access to a PC with Photoshop CS5 installed so I am able to post my new shots while still on location! A couple of nights ago, I decided to try out my new 10 stop ND filter on the beach beside the Kasbah of Hammamet which looks out over the Mediterranean Sea.

The beach is covered in small colourful fishing boats so I decided to use one of them as my centre of interest. Using a 10 stop filter is very tricky as the camera can not meter through the lens. It is simply too opaque, letting in only a tiny fraction of the light that would enter the camera without the filter attatched. This means I had to meter the scene without the filter and then use a conversion chart to get an estimate of an appropriate shutter speed. Despite having a conversion chart, it took me a few attempts using different settings before I finally got a shot that I am happy with.

The photograph above required a shutter speed of 120 seconds at f22. This provided some nice motion blur as the clouds moved across the sky during the two minute exposure. Obviously a very sturdy tripod was required to keep the camera perfectly still during such a long exposure.

More from Tunisa to follow.