the neutral density filter

there is a distinct upside to owning a dslr. it has provided me with hours of amusement. is there a downside? well if there was one i would say it makes it really difficult to control the six-year old within who has a case of the gimmies and/or the i wants. photography is fun and there are countless things you can do with your camera and most times there is a gadget that makes that 'thing' that much easier to do.

in the scant few months since i have had this nikon i have been back and forth to henry's or hanks as the poorboi and i hath dubbed it, countless times.

first i had a camera body and needed a lens. then i just couldn't use any of my old camera bags and well i also had to have a new strap but in my defense the dslr is heavier than my slr. please note the weight issue as it becomes an issue later.

after i started experimenting with depth-of-field photography i just had to have a filter to help blur the backgrounds. i bought an ill-fitting neutral density filter and ended up exchanging it for a circular polarizing filter. next i purchased the accessories to clean my camera sensor, even though i was petrified to do it. i also purchased disposable plastic sleeves for shooting in wet weather and an a/c adapter it was a fairly pricey purchase, especially since i also left hanks with a 70-300 mm zoom lens. i really have no idea how that happened... i think it just followed me home... although there is a line of the bill-of-sale that negates that theory.

wouldn't you know it with the new lens i could no longer fit all of my equipment into my camera bag. so back to hanks i went. there was a brief moment of indecisiveness as i debated between the bag that would be just right and the bag with a little room to grow. eventually realizing that i couldn't be trusted i left with the bag that was just right.

the poorboi started to experiment with long-exposure photography and as soon as he started talking about it i found myself perusing hanks online just to see price the shutter release. i think i lasted about a week before i walked in and purchased my first shutter release. my first because i once again bought something that did not exactly fit the camera set-up i have. so the next day i was back at hanks to get that sorted out. the shutter release allowed me to start painting with light and that was all kinds of fun.

the poorboi however had graduated to long-exposure with a neutral density filter and i was totally stoked on the pictures he shot. i went back to hanks online and wouldn't you know it, the nd filter that would best suit my needs was not available in-store and on top of the filter i was forced to purchase another 4 gb compact flash card in order to get free shipping.

after the filter arrived the poorboi and i headed west to shoot moving water. well it turns out that my tripod was not quite sturdy enough to support my dslr. there was a moment of panic when the camera slipped, i had one hand on the camera body and the other holding the filter. at that moment i was sorely lacking in hands. anyway the day ended with a trip back to hanks and i now have a tripod that i can rely on.

these are some of the images from last week's long-exposure nd filter waterfalls shoot. enjoy!