New Camera Toys

Stino is in town right now. I will blog about the visit next weekend. For now I wanted to do a quick post on some new camera toys I have been playing around with. I recently bought a 64x ND filter (B&W) and a Holux GPS logger. We took a trip out to Silver Falls with Stino. I have taken plenty of photos there before, but this was a good chance to practice with my new filter and try out the GPS. The GPS worked okay, but I lost reception a few times. I think in heavy tree cover I need to be a bit more careful about where the GPS is sitting. The filter, on the other hand, worked out great. For those of you who don't know, ND filters basically darken what is coming into the lens, allowing you to take longer exposures (which is nice for waterfalls and rivers during the middle of the day). The 64x ND is a pretty aggressive amount amount, but I am happy with it. I kinda wish I would have stacked my Polarizer on top of it (next time). Most of these shots were shot around f/9, so I think the polarizer would "work" still, but I am a bit worried about composition and metering, as it was already difficult to see what I was taking (since the view through the viewfinder also darkens), auto-focus had a hard time a couple of times, and I had to clean up the exposure in post processing a bit more than usual.

Time for some photos.

First off, South Falls. Perfect example of where the Polarizer would have helped a lot (cutting down on the mist reflection):


Here is one that turned out a bit better (although I should have taken a shorter exposure). This is from the side of Lower South Falls. Note that there is basically no vignetting despite the photo being taken @ 12mm with the filter. Hopefully that will hold up when I stack on the polarizer.


This one turned out well. Unlike the last one, the long exposure (6s) was not too long (IMHO). This is the bridge below Double Falls and above Lower North Falls.