Buccaneer Days in Esquimalt.
Canon EOS 450D (XSi) · Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5
12 mm · 0.4 s · f/5 · ISO 100 · Variable ND filter: -5.75 stops
Time of day: 9:36 pm
You would not believe how many personal protein spills I had to step around to get these photos.
Caught Saw one live. It wasn’t pretty. Distance-wise, it was actually pretty impressive, but it still wasn’t pretty.
I hope you appreciate what I go through for you.
Canon EOS 450D (XSi) · Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5
12 mm · 1/4 s · f/5.6 · ISO 100 · Variable ND filter: -8 stops
Time of day: 8:11 pm
While I tend to give my photos the most gentle of spit-shines before displaying them on my gallery — mostly to faithfully reproduce what my mind’s eye saw when I took the shot which can’t always be faithfully reproduced by electronics — this week’s photos are straight out of the camera or, as the photogeeks like to say, SOOC.
If you know anything about cameras, you know that it’d be just about impossible to keep your shutter open for a quarter of a second in the direct setting sun without ending up with a photo looking like a polar bear swimming in a sea of white paint under powerful fluorescent lights at high noon in the middle of the sun.
Which is why, if you view the Exif data for these photos, you’ll see an additional piece of information regarding a variable neutral density filter.
Without trying to get too geeky, a neutral density (ND) filter basically cuts light coming in to the camera. They’re sold, historically, by specific amounts of light blockage, measured in ‘stops,’ some sort of camera term.
While I’ve always been aware of ND filters, I could never bring myself to buy one ’cause, well, I don’t know at any given time how much light I want to filter out. I want flexibility! I’m a CONTROL FREAK!
Enter the variable ND filter, an idea I actually conceived of a few years ago, but never put into practice (two polarizing filters, if you’re curious; try it sometime!). With this, I simply dial up however much light I want cut and, presto! Long-exposure photos in daylight!
</geek>
Canon EOS 450D (XSi) · Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5
12 mm · 1/4 s · f/5.6 · ISO 100 · Variable ND filter: -8 stops
Time of day: 8:14 pm
=)