Seaside & City Lights, Camera, Fairground Action & Fireworks!

Based in Oxfordshire, Peter is an award-winning photographer as well as an accredited volunteer photographer for the National Trust, which allows him to wander around historical properties and gardens indulging his passion for eclectic photography.  He has wide-ranging photographic interests including floral, city, seascapes and landscapes, travel, food, historical, quirky, and of course low light and night photography.

He is also a multi-published commercial photographer, with images sold worldwide, and a long-standing contributor to the Arcangel agency (his portfolio being used as book covers for best-selling international fiction authors).

On top of all that, Peter is a member of Kidlington Camera Club Photo Group and Witney Photo Group, as well as a CACC judge.

By way of preamble, Peter told us about his photographic equipment.

His main kit is a Canon R5 full frame mirrorless camera with three “L” lenses, various ND filters, a shutter release, and a Manfrotto tripod.  And he has the Canon App on his smartphone.

He also has a lighter “travel” kit comprising a Fuji mirrorless camera (with a “four/thirds” sensor), a couple of lenses, and a Manfrotto travel tripod.

In addition, he has several other very useful Apps on his smartphone.  These include Weather Pro (which has very accurate and detailed weather information), Sunrise Sunset (which finds sunrise, sunset, blue and golden hour times for any date and any location on earth), and Sky Live (which provides a wealth of astronomical information, including star visibility).

Peter suggested that long exposure photography involves using a long-duration shutter speed to sharply capture the stationary elements of images while blurring, smearing, or obscuring the moving elements.  (See Wikipedia.)  To do this you need (in addition to a camera) a tripod, an aperture priority timer (covering 1-30 seconds), and an ND filter.

Peter also suggested that the three stages of sunset were the golden hour before sunset, the blue hour, and night/dark.

As we wandered through the low light, long exposure, and night photography, he took us through five sets of his images.

Seaside

To make successful pictures you need something to be moving while the rest is static.  Peter had pictures of piers, lighthouses, harbours, and river estuaries.  His top tips for success were:

• Use Apps for planning (eg, for predicting cloud cover and the time of the blue hour);
• Be sure what you are trying to achieve;
• Use ND filters for water smoothing.

City Lights

There were pictures from Rome, London, Devon, Hong Kong, York, Paris, Nashville, Woburn Forest, Berlin, and Budapest.  Some included people.  Peter explained that he generally avoided having static and sharp people in his images.  A 1.6 second exposure is enough to blur people.  A longer exposure can magically make people disappear!

Peter’s top tips for success were:

• Photographer when days are shorter (you can start earlier);
• Photograph when the light is getting dark but building lights are on;
• Use an ND filter (to counter the intensity of LED lights);
• Smoothing water enhances reflections of lights;
• Minimise exposure if pollution is an issue;
• Try to get high (roof top level or higher);
• Aim to capture the vibrance of the colour and life of the city.

Light Trails

There were pictures from Rome, London, Hong Kong, Inverness, Devon, Bicester, Oxford, Aylesbury, and Stratford-upon-Avon.  Peter’s top tips for success were:

• Shoot at night;
• Buses make excellent trails;
• Position yourself at an interesting traffic route (eg, a corner);
• Watch or time the traffic to work out the optimum shutter speed;
• Use an ND filter (to counter bright headlights);
• Aim to convey movement and flow.

Fairgrounds

There were pictures from Oxford, Banbury, Bicester, Witney, and Carters Travelling Steam Fair.  Shooting the rides etc can be difficult as fairgrounds are very compact and very busy.  And Peter suggests going at the busy times as all the rides will then be operating.  His top tips for success were:

• Shoot when it’s dark;
• Watch the rides to work out the optimum shutter speed (you need to capture “a full transition”);
• Use an ND filter (to counter the intensity of LED lights);
• Be patient!

Fireworks

There were pictures from displays at Bicester, Shaldon in Devon, and Plymouth (the British Firework Championships).  Peter’s top tips for shooting fireworks were:

• Don’t bother if it’s wet and/or windy;
• Use a wide angle lens;
• Guage the height and width of the display to frame up;
• Focus on something in the same focal plane as the fireworks or (if that’s not possible) “to infinity and then back a bit”;
• Use an ND filter (to counter the intensity of the light);
• Use a shutter release and “start when you hear a thump”!

Peter is a well-practiced speaker with a diverse portfolio of impressively dramatic images to illustrate his points and there were many great pictures to enjoy.  This was a most instructive and entertaining evening which was greatly enjoyed by all.

More of Peter’s work can be seen on his website – https://www.petergreenwayphotography.com/

He is also on X and Instagram.