Photo Hike 7-1-11: Worth the Cuts and Ticks

David · Expire: 2013-01-25

I had a fairly miserable photo hike on Friday. I lost my path and had to throw away my socks and shoes when I got home because of the burs and stickers in them. In fact, I had to walk the last 1.3 miles of path in my bare feet because all the seeds and such in my shoes had cut my feet and ankles up. But, the trip was entirely worth it for a handful of shots and a lens test.

The other week I picked up some camera gear and it had a ton of old, glass, Nikkor filters. Macro filters, tinted filters, and a crazy polarizer that also steps-up from 52mm to 62mm. But the big find was an ND4 filter, glass, buried in the case. So I wanted to do some test shots with it, the amber 2, and the blue 2 filters because I've never gotten into them. I'll put those at the end because they're boring.

Here are the shots that really made this trip:

A pano stitched from four shots. The parks assoc., or someone, just finished tilling fire breaks into the hillside, so I wanted to photograph them.

Stitched together from six photos, I also had an 80A blue filter on the lens for these shots. Why? It was there. I admit I greatly dislike this finished effect. It's like an old eighties movie nighttime scene. You know the ones I mean where, even though it's night, there are still shadows because all the DP did to make it look like night was slap a blue filter on the lens. Yeah. Not a great look.

This has very little PP. What gets me is the odd flare this 18mm Samyang produces. Those green soccer-ball like things appear on all this lens' shots when there's a full glare line. This was four photos.

And then, for no reason, I turned around and saw something I've been hoping to see in Lime Ridge for months:

So I grabbed the 400mm Vivitar and took a quick 200 pictures. About 15 are ones I would be happy sharing, but I only have three uploaded to show.

I love mule deer. Except that one that attacked me that one time in Zion National Park. In the deer's defense, I did try to ride it.

Anyway, so I did a quick filter test that night, too. Here is the test shot, 35mm, infinity focus, 1/320th at f8:

Now here is the same shot with the ND filter at 1/125th:

I had always heard that ND filters don't alter color, but this one seems to darken the hues and enhance contrast. Not complaining at all. I like the effect. I always figured it was odd that a filter that basically looks like sunglasses lenses wouldn't change images.

Here is the same shot with the A2 filter at 1/100th:

Interestingly, the Amber filter (according to my light meter) required more light than the ND filter, despite being a much more lightly tinted glass. Perhaps if I had given the ND filter shot an exposure of 1/50th or so it would have come out exactly like the test shot.
I like that the amber filter, of course, warms the image. Specifically, it makes the grass appear even drier and the sky a bit hazier. It just feels more like a photo taken in the summer. It also makes this shot appear as though it were taken earlier in the day.

Lastly, here is the same shot with the B2 filter at 1/100th:

This looks like a shot taken a month earlier -- the grasses are a bit greener (even the dried grasses) and the shadows seem a bit muted. I imagine this filter would be really great for photographing cars. It would probably soften some of the paint jobs' shine and glare.

visualopsins · Expire: 2025-04-11

Wonderful series David! Brings back many fond memories of that area for me, and some not so fond memories of those burrs in my socks, but never as bad as what happened to you. (get some gators, hot, but they work!) I'll bet it is HOT there now, like over 100F hot & extreme dry!

Funny about the deer in Zion. I was nearly attacked once in Tilden Park(!) -- I'd spent some quiet time down by a creek and was slowly walking the trail when in front of me appeared a 8-point buck, a magnificent animal(!) on the same trail headed toward me. I froze in awe, then in fear as he saw me and reared to full attention with eyes bulging, and snorting, I thought I was toast, he was only 3 meters away from me. Lucky for me I didn't move and he decided not to attack... Very Happy

David · Expire: 2013-01-25

Yessir, high nineties all week. Makes my 6.5-mile bike ride home (up hill) unfun.

Deer are fairly mean, despite their looks. I'd rather face down a coyote out here than a deer.

symphonic · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 550 Location: SE Europe, Croatia

Nice series! I'm sure it's a treat to watch through all of the images after a strenuous hike like this. Smile

as for the filters, I'm of the opinion most of these are better to avoid and just PP the effect you want... (except for NDs and CPLs of course)