Longer than usual

Long Exposure Minimalist Photography | Field Notes

Jul 20, 2026

20 Jul

The simple things are harder, more complex in their simplicity, to see, create a vision that’s lacking distraction, removing an obvious detail that stops the eye, the illusion of minimalism is hard to achieve, it feels like magic.

I have been excited by and attracted to minimalism and minimalist photography for years, a practise I do not do enough, no reason why, I just don’t get the chances I would like or the places. Having said this, I get a hankering often to go and seek quiet, to be solitary and match that with a scene and photograph. This is a spiritual practise, a high sense of seeing and completeness but not always at the time of shooting. This feeling is a combined moment of taking the photograph and being alone to edit the final photographs. Those two combined give a slow heart rate, a peace, and thoughtful combination of reflection and completeness. This goes back many years for me, to places I spent alone as a child, being in a forest or being on a beach. Moments I spent sitting and waiting without a smartphone or gaming device. I remember hours and hours sat in a car waiting for my parents while they did the shop, or as my dad did, placing bets in a bookies. I waited hours while he pondered over the best Gee Gee of the day! Even though this may be considered bad in today’s society, I quite enjoyed that time on my own sat in a Datsun 120Y, drawing, watching the world go by and especially people watching, I love people watching, and as a kid you had an invisibility cloak, adults in the 70’s still ran with the, “seen and not heard” for kids. This was the start of the lower heart rate, that time spent still, watching and seeing the world spin as people came and went, as tides came and went, as the sun moved through the sky. All this had a profound effect on me and I believe this is why I love street photography, and why we are here today, minimalism.

This series of photographs is from some time spent on the Wirral, not far away from me really, but is very reliant on tide times. A great app I use is called AyeTides, so good this app and always bang on, also combined using PhotoPills and simply BBC Weather. I have saved preset locations for all these apps, a huge help. But a lot of the time I go with gut instinct and for the quiet, whatever will be will be. For all my long exposures I use the NiSi JetMag Pro Landscape ND Kit (Use offer code Davies-Discount). This includes a CPL, 3, 6 and 10 stop. I have also added a ¼ strength JetMag Pro Black Mist filter. The great thing about the 82mm JetMag is I can stack them with no vignette, true colour, no colour casts. I’ve been using NiSi for a very long time. My first kit was a holder version with slide in glass, I still have all my grad and filters for this system, the V5 and V6, but since getting the JetMag I have never looked back and I never use a grad anymore. Why? Because the grads bake in the exposure and I much prefer to do this in the edit. With the dynamic range my camera has now, I expose for the highlights and I like to experiment with exposure values. Most of the time I capture in camera exactly what I want with little editing. This is where long exposure minimalist photography differs, it involves a dedicated amount of time on the edit. The more attention to detail you apply, the better the results, I have found, in my opinion. There are many tutorials online to get these results but it is always good to learn yourself and play until you get your own desired results.

Over the years I have learned so much about myself via photography. It has given me confidence, friends and a purpose. A reason to create, a reason to meet up with good friends and most of all a joy in my heart. I wish I could pass this on more, but you have to find your joy and learn to cherish it and not to judge yourself, put pressure on yourself and just do it because you love it. Reet, I feel that’s quite enough of my waffilage for this Monday’s Field Notes. I’m heading away again in a couple of weeks, so I’m thinking of moving these posts around a bit. Having said that, I may take the laptop with me and continue from wherever I lay my camera. Take care everyone and do the thing that gives you joy.

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