Everglades B&W

[Roman Kurywczak]

I admit....I was a little tired today from being out last night doing the stars........decided to head out later this afternoon with full intentions of doing birds.......got to the glades and it was very cloudy....walked the Anhinga trail nothing. What to do?? The sky had texture in it......so I decided that since I couldn't change the grey day......I would shoot in grey....or B&W and concentrate my landscaping in that. Well I was rewarded with a pretty interesting sky........and nothing a few stacked grad ND's couldn't handle to make more dramatic. I even played around with ISO speed......to see if the grain added by the higher ISO would be appealing.......not that it didn't help with the blowing FG grass either.
Canon mark 3 with the 17-40mm lens at f22 for 1/6 of a sec at ISO 1600. Lee polarising filter, 2 singh ray grad ND's stacked (3 stop and 2 soft step), hot shoe bubble level....all mounted on tripod. PP conversion done in CS2. As always comments welcomed and appreciated.

[Dave Mills]

Good idea Roman on the conversion. The strong silouettes and angry sky really help to make this image. The foreground is interesting and the subtle line of rocks lead you out to the far shoreline. The reflections also help the image even though you had some wind.

[Michael Pancier]

Great comp.

Do you stack your filters on a holder? if so how do you avoid the vignetting?

I would have used HDR, but your technique works just as well

[Roman Kurywczak]

Great comp.

Do you stack your filters on a holder? if so how do you avoid the vignetting?

I would have used HDR, but your technique works just as well

Hey Michael,
I thought about doing an HDR.........then I remembered I haven't tried one yet........so I'd better do it with the way I am comfortable with. The polariser is a Lee circular filter.....and I find that I don't get vignetting until around 17mm full frame......so with the Mark 3......my 17 is a 22mm....no problem. I like the system because I can use it on any lens I own.....with just a different adapter ring. Very convienient. If I was purchasing today....I would probably get the singh ray thin mount polariser......with a step down ring to my smaller lenses. (77mm down to 72).....as for the split ND's.....I hand hold them flat to the lens......that way I can sandwich 2 (like I did here)....or more.....without fear of vignetting. I do have the holder.....but since I lost the little spring that keeps it clamped.....I have been hand holding and wouldn't even consider using the holder any more.

[Julie Kenward]

Love the composition but feel it could use a small crop on the bottom of the frame - maybe half the distance to the front rock. For some reason I get the feeling the front of the frame is angled down from the horizon and I find that a little bit distracting.

The rest of the image rocks! Literally!

[Gus Cobos]

Well composed Roman, I like it as presented...the clarity and transparency of the water is superb, giving the image a 3-D effect...The sky is great...good show...:cool: