If you have opened a photography magazine lately, chances are you have seen an infrared (IR) image in one form or another, IR photography has seen a recent resurgence of popularity, largely because digital IR is so much easier than the notoriously tricky handling, shooting, and processing of traditional IR film. I do have to admit I like the look for certain scenes. But here is the catch. You have to convert one of your expensive digital SLRs to shoot …
Field report on Singh Ray’s incredible 15-stop Mor-Slo ND
After several chats with Bob Singh about my need for such a filter, I was really pleased to receive one that I could test. There’s just one word to describe this filter — Wow! Less than a year after Singh-Ray’s introduction of the 10-stop Mor-Slo ND filter, here comes another technical breakthrough for all of us who work in Long-exposure Land. Many more logical photographers might ask why Singh-Ray’s 5-stop and 10-stop Mor-Slo filters are not enough? Why can’t we just …
Scott Fisher’s very brief trip to Iceland was nevertheless rewarding
As a professional video producer/editor based in Boston, Scott Fisher has also taken on landscape photography as a serious hobby to help him learn more about framing and exposure. “I realized a few years ago how using filters would step up my game as a landscape photographer. I have always used neutral density filters in my video work so I was a bit embarrassed that it took me so long to start using them in my still photography. “I currently …
Explaining how to determine correct exposures for long exposure images
An acknowledged master of long-exposure photography, Cole Thompson shares his techniques for finding his “correct” exposure, and extrapolating that to dramatically longer exposure times. Getting the correct exposure when using one or more neutral density filters can be challenging. I use up to 18 stops of ND with exposures ranging from 30 seconds to 8 minutes. At first finding the correct exposure was very frustrating and my images were often underexposed and I’d have to resort to guessing at the …
Going to Olympic National Park and braving the threat of vampires, werewolves and heavy rainfall
From the time I started taking landscape images, there’s been something mysteriously drawing me to Olympic National Park, but it wasn’t the vampires and werewolves described in the Twilight books. The rugged Washington coastline with its craggy sea stacks and rough seas looked like just the place to make dramatic images. The only issue was the weather. When author Stephenie Meyer wrote the Twilight books, she picked the part of the lower 48 states with the highest annual rainfall. She …
Discussing what I’ve learned from previous trips
As I prepare for my fourth trip to Iceland — the third time I will be serving as a guide for other photographers — I’ve given a lot of thought to what I’ve learned to this point. I can also draw upon my previous experience leading workshops to almost every corner of this country. I’ve spent some time considering how I might improve on the way I shot these locations before, and how I’ll guide the other photographers to do …
Iceland’s Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon
As I was packing for my trip to Iceland last winter, I decided at the very last second to include my Singh-Ray Vari-ND. I thought that maybe it would come in handy on some waterfalls. One of the major highlights of any trip to Iceland is visiting the magnificent Glacial Lagoon called Jokulsarlon on the southeastern shores of this island nation. This is an area where Europe’s largest Glacier, Vatnajokul, has an arm that extends toward the North Atlantic and …
How super-simple it is to create extremely-long exposures with the new 10-Stop Mor-Slo ND filter
There have been so many times when I’ve found myself at an impressive river scene or rocky coast line with the mid-day sun beaming straight down. Very bright light creates a challenge for me since I like to shoot rivers, streams, water falls, and seashore surf at very slow shutter speeds to get that soft-silky look to the moving water. In such situations, I like to expose my image for 10 seconds or longer. But even if I set my …
Taking Singh-Ray filters along on a crazy road trip
Although most of my stock shooting trips are planned well in advance, this time I discovered that I had an unexpected open week on my schedule that would begin in less than 36 hours. Just enough time to plan my journey. Joined by my friend and fellow photographer, C.W. McGowen, we set out to capture various coastal and inland locations spanning a wide area of Northern California and Oregon. These were locations that were on my ‘bucket list,’ and weather …
Finding the Singh-Ray Filters even more useful
One reason I’ve survived for over 35 years in the competitive world of freelance photography is my ability to read the writing on the wall. It’s just an awareness to cues about impending change that are given by the marketplace, cues that many will ignore. For example, I used to do a lot of photography for corporate annual reports. Before the internet, a publicly-owned company presented its face to the investing community with a glossy annual magazine-like publication that stated …