p.1 #1 · Northern Spain: a 4x5" Portfolio and a story
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In September 2025, my wife and I flew to Bilbao in the Basque Country; after spending a couple of days there, we picked up our Workshop’s group and travelled west along the Northern Coast through the Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias and up to Galicia, spending a wonderful week working on this amazing coast.
I love photographing around the water; for a decade now, since our first trip there in 2016, the Northern Coast of Spain has offered me a never-ending source of inspiration. Since my first visit there, I found photographing with my tripod set right into the ocean to be an incredible tool to get unique vantage points and make the most of these seascapes.
As well, as many of you know, I love to use exposure control as an expressive and compositional tool. I love the simplifying power of long exposures and their ability to visually transform matter: as a result, my shutter speeds are often in the minutes.
Putting together the use of long exposures and photographing with my tripod right in the ocean required developing a dedicated, solid tripod technique to prevent micro-movement from ruining my photographs. Over decades of photography on the Northern Coast of Spain, I got to a point where I didn’t have to think about my technique anymore. This year, however, was different.
For the first time, I went to photograph these coasts with 4×5” film and I was very much looking forward to the experience and the distinct challenges I anticipated it would pose.
Some photographs out of the Portfolio for you to enjoy:
All photographs shot on Ilford FP4+ at 100 ISO with an Arca-Swiss M-Two, developed in Pyrocat-HD and digitised with a Fujifilm GFX100S II and 120mm Macro.
p.1 #13 · Northern Spain: a 4x5" Portfolio and a story
I’m new to photography, but after reading your explanation, I feel like I could really appreciate how perfect the smooth effect of the long exposure is here. I especially love how the clouds and shoreline feel so beautifully parallel to each other. It makes the whole photo feel incredibly calm and balanced. The black-and-white tones make it even more timeless and atmospheric. I absolutely love your photos.
p.1 #14 · Northern Spain: a 4x5" Portfolio and a story
omyo52 wrote:
I’m new to photography, but after reading your explanation, I feel like I could really appreciate how perfect the smooth effect of the long exposure is here. I especially love how the clouds and shoreline feel so beautifully parallel to each other. It makes the whole photo feel incredibly calm and balanced. The black-and-white tones make it even more timeless and atmospheric. I absolutely love your photos.
Welcome to the amazing world of photography, enjoy the journey! Thank you very much indeed for your comment and kind words, truly much appreciated. I am glad that you enjoyed my work here and that it served as a convincing demonstration of the expressive power of both long exposures and black & white. Thanks again!
