Long Exposure Daytime Photos With a 10 Stop ND Filter

    Recently I purchased a 10 stop ND filter, a B+W F-Pro from B&H. I've tried some long exposures of water at dusk in the past without a ND filter that were fun, but difficult in the rapidly diminishing light. I knew I needed a ND filter to play around with this in the day time, to show blur of clouds, trees, water, or even make a busy place look void of people.

    I have some ideas of what I want to photography around here other than a typical waterfall, but most of them are involving the clouds recently. The clouds are proving to be quite dramatic in the afternoon with the recent daily thunderstorms that we have been getting.

    I plan to keep playing with the filter and share some of the work as I go and continue to make improvements. I am finding depending on the speed and the focal length of the lens I want to get a shutter speed at least above 10 seconds. Wider angle lenses i.e.. < 24mm, you will want a longer shutter speed than you would need for a telephoto.

   My only complaint so far with the filter is that it shows some purple color tinting due to the glass, this could be dependent on what angle from the sun I am photographing that causes the filter to do this. So far some adjustments in white balance have helped to correct this. 

    The first photo below I used the ND filter along with my B+W 77mm Circular Polarizer MRC stacked on first to be able to see which way the polarizer needed to be turned.

Long Exposure from the top of Whiskey Hill by Elba, MN (ISO 200, f/13, 15/1 shutter)

Plumber Building- Mayo Clinic (ISO 500, f/11, 5/1 shutter)

Back to the Mainland

I know I posted a few images earlier of my return back from Vancouver Island, but there were a few more I wanted to share. I was up early in the morning while in Nanaimo and decided to go down to the harbor and walk around. It was kind of cool to get to watch the seaplanes fly in and land. It looks like a fun way to travel and very popular around here.

Seaplane landing in Nanaimo harbor, (No I did not go on a Seaplane)

Tswassen Harbor at night

BC Ferries Tswassen Docking station

Back near Maple Ridge, Tom took me out to Cliff Falls in Kanaka Creek Regional Park where we walked around a bit and took in the sights. We also ventured over to a salmon fishery where Tom has done some work teaching along the stream and knows the man who runs the fishery. We will be interviewing him Friday because that is where a majority of the salmon used to populate Stoney Creek come from.

Kanaka Creek Falls

Perfectly round hole in a volcanic rock made by circular scouring from the water.

Kanaka Creek

We also stopped off to hike up a path into the woods on a trail that was once railroad tracks to go check out the Cedar and Hemlock trees.

Tom explains to me what the notch is in the side of the tree, a place for the spring board to go in where a lumberjack will stand on and and cut the tree from there.

A Cedar tree now becomes the nurse tree.

Canopy of Cedar and Hemlocks

Maple Leaves

Cedar Forest

Tom took me out to a clear cut area that hard to tell from this but it is actually replanted with trees, but blackberry bushes and other understory foliage is out competing them for now.

Cedar Forest

The Road Home

    I am continuing my goal to take many more photographs this year and I feel I am going back to my interest in photographing the surrounding agricultural activity. Everyday I drive 45 minutes to work along a winding two lane asphalt road. Some days it takes me longer to get there due to combines in the fall or tractors with discs or planters in the spring.  During that commute I am guaranteed to always see some interesting wildlife such as a Bald Eagle in a field, or some gorgeous light early in the morning or late evening. 

   One project I have been interested in doing has been to document a farmer and their work. I would love to find a farmer willing to let me follow them around and stop by every so often to doucment their way of life that supports so many people in the world. 

    The landscape of old barns and silos are dwindling away and being replaced my tilled land or new steel sided buildings. Over time these iconic symbols will vanish due to deterioration and replacement. For now I will make sure to stop and get out to shoot some interesting images of what I see. 

Winona County farmer tills his land with disc in the March afternoon.

Cattle gather on a green hill top with calves to graze.

Burr Oak tree emerges with leaves

Spring Thoughts

    There is something to be said about the sights, smells and feeling of the sun warming your soul during spring. It is the fresh air and and unfettered feeling of being able to comfortably walk outside with out a coat on anymore. The environment becomes alive with the sounds of song birds singing and chirping. The contrasting beautiful green pushing up from the ground amongst the brown decaying grass sends a vibrant rejuvenating sight to my eyes.

   I look for this year to bring a lot of different things in life with many new adventures. This year I have the great honor of photographing two weddings with amazing couples. With that there are plans to shoot some engagement photos as well. The season change means it will be a great time to get out and start doing outdoor portraits again.  It is going to be a lot of fun working with the couples and getting to know them while capturing photos of their love for each other.

 
   I will leave you with some spring foliage photos from around the yard.

Canon 30D with 50mm f/1.8

Lilac bush - Canon 30D with 50mm f/1.8

Elm Tree - Canon 30D with 50mm f/1.8

 I was out practicing shooting with my Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens to play with the beautiful Bokeh and it's macro focusing abilities. When I came home Friday afternoon I had to act capture some photos before it became too dark.