Yesterday, I went on an expedition with the express purpose of sharpening my skills with my neutral density filter — which is to say, I went looking for moving water. Given that I live a few hundred steps away from the Pacific coast, it didn’t really take a lot of looking; I threw some kit into the car and took a drive out to the splendid Montaña de Oro State Park, then hiked in to a beautiful overlook and prepared to practice.
Now, here’s a pop quiz: if you go on a photo outing expressly for the purpose of practicing the use of your neutral density filter, what is the one piece of equipment that only the most complete idiot would leave behind?
So, after hiking back to the car, driving back to the house, retrieving the filter, and retracing the whole route again, I found myself on the same overlook — where I managed to get the photo below.
In case you’re not familiar with it, an ND filter is just a piece of glass that cuts down the amount of light entering your lens — so you can fool your camera into holding open the shutter longer. With moving water, the lengthy shutter opening produces a blurring effect that can be quite pleasing, while keeping unmoving objects in nice, sharp focus.
I was decently pleased by the picture, though I think the effect might actually be better shooting some of the local tide pools from a vantage closer to water level. I’m going to try that out when I get the chance.
Anyway, as it happened maybe the best photo I got yesterday was one that I wasn’t expecting. And it didn’t even involve water. While I was lining up a shot over Morro Bay from another eminence in Montaña de Oro, I happened to look behind me, across the road, to a lovely dense grove of eucalyptus trees. (Or some kind, anyway. Not a tree expert.)
The eventual result was the picture at the top of this article. That magnificent, spreading orange bole, set off with a carpet of white-limbed pygmy trees below, really grabbed me.
No neutral density filter required.
Ronald Crittenden 