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It has been a while since I did a personal photo assignment. The weather has been very cloudy and stormy. This is a great time for photos especially in the summer months. The best time to make landscape photos is either early in the morning around sunrise, and early in the evening around sunset. Summer months in US makes this very difficult unless you get up really early before the sun! Well, this was not my day for getting up early, so the light was already strong.

Occoquan River Shores

The setting is a pier that stretches out into the Occoquan Bay in northern Virginia. Since the time was not optimal time for the best photos, I used a Neutral Density (ND) filter to help me out. This filter is like putting sunglasses onto the front of your lens. It blocks all the light coming into the lens which darkens the exposure. Some people consider this one of the only filters you need in the age of digital photography. The effect that this filter creates cannot be done in Photoshop very well.

I am sure there are some digital wizards that can use blurs and effects to make moving water smooth while keeping static elements sharp. This is what I was going for in trying to get out to the river on a cloudy, rainy morning. I was hoping that it would be darker out, but I still had to go to extreme on the camera to get an exposure over one second long. The settings for this first photo are 10 seconds at f/32, ISO 50.

Long Exposure Photography

The water is starting to smooth out at 10 seconds, but I think I would need it to be at least 20 seconds before it becomes really silky smooth. Again, coming out earlier in the morning would make the overall frame darker, and I could have made the exposure time longer. The light is also very flat since the sun is high in the overcast sky making the overall light in the scene very even.

This would have been perfect for a portrait, but a little boring for the landscape alone. I varied the position of the camera for the second with similar results. I made the pier more of the base for the photo without seeing as much of the water. Unfortunately, the clouds were also not as compelling as they could be, so this also falls a bit flat for me. In a return trip, I hope to come in better light, and maybe I will get lucky with more dramatic clouds. I’ll post here if I get something inspiring!

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