Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, 70mm, F 16, ISO 100, HDR, 4 Exposure, B+W 3.0 10-Stop ND Filter

A lot of times, especially when shooting with an wide-angle lens on, the tendency is to try and fit everything into your frame. You’ll read a lot by some of the Greats that it’s not about what you put into the frame but what take out. I like that a lot. It’s something that I am certainly guilty of forgetting about but do find myself focusing on that idea more and more as I shoot. You don’t want to burn your viewer’s eye and mind out darting around the image unless there is a clear reason to do it.

With architecture, there is a similar phenomenon. When we come across a beautiful structure, such as the main entrance to the South Station terminal in Boston, we have a tendency to cram it all in. I think it’s pretty natural. Photography is about capturing a moment, a person, or a place. South Station is a place. Let’s capture the whole thing. And that is certainly valid. But, when I was standing here the other weekend on one of my solo shoots, I decided to fraction off a portion of this beautiful building. I wanted to bring it into focus by adding some quasi-negative space with the sky. Because it was mid-day and the clouds were moving very quickly, I opted to shoot my brackets with a 10-stop ND filter. This gave me warmer tones to begin with, plus it helped me capture the natural motion of the clouds as the architecture remained perfectly still.

So next time you find yourself in front of some awesome structure, look at it first. Identify a portion of it that resonates with you and try making a shot solely around that. It’ll definitely change how you start approaching your shots going forward.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, 24mm, F 16, ISO 100, HDR, 4 Exposure, B+W 3.0 10-Stop ND Filter

I know that I’ve said it a lot but it’s worth repeating at least one more time. I’m lucky to have my friends. So much inspiration. So many great times. One of the small things that I can do to show my thanks for the friends that I have is to get a shot that directly inspired me. A shot that I can, in turn, take as an homage. I am particularly fond of this shot because it was a near replica of the first shot that introduced me to my good friend, Bob Lussier.

It’s a shot overlooking the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, as well as the famous Rowes Wharf arch, in Boston. I remember seeing the shot that Bob took and started browsing through the rest of his image catalog. When I saw that he was a local, I immediately reached out. After a few rounds of email, we figured out a day and time for the first of our series of epic Mills shoots and the rest is for the storybooks.

So, if I can implore just one point for today, it’s to take stock of your good friends. Be introspective and ask yourself what it is about them that inspires you. And then, go out and execute on it. It’s more rewarding than you think.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, 24mm, F 14, ISO 100, HDR, 1 Exposure, B+W 3.0 10-Stop ND Filter, 20 Seconds

Twice a day during low tides, people can walk (or drive) across a massive natural land bridge that connects the town of Bar Harbor to Bar Island in Maine. Our first attempt to visit the island was thwarted because President Obama was currently having family fun there. So, we were turned away by some plain-clothed, yes nonetheless lethal, Secret Service agents. Hey, they were cordial enough and that’s about as much as I would expect.  So, we had made plans to visit again after the President returned back to DC. And, thankfully, we were successful on our second attempt.

The time of day that we had visited the island was not optimal for good light. The sun was pretty much directly overhead, producing flat light and harsh shadows.  This is where the 10-stop ND filter plays its magical role in my gear kit. By slapping on a virtually opaque piece of glass on top of your lens, you are multiplying the amount of time it takes to get a proper exposure by a huge amount. The byproducts are usually warmer color and tones (notable in the lush verdure) as well as an overall capture of moving objects. Depending on what sort of objects are moving, you will get different effects.

In the image above, the tree branches and vegetation were swaying in the wind. With a shutter speed of 20 seconds, that is a lot of motion to capture. When I tried to tone-map using the multiple brackets that I had shot of this scene, I wasn’t really happy with the anti-ghosting results so I opted to derive the HDR from a single RAW file. The results of the vegetation motion were acceptable, as I felt that they lent themselves to the organic feel of the scene.

Going back to the effect of motion on certain objects when using an opaque 10-stop ND filter. Some of the most pleasing effects occur with clouds (the faster moving they are, the better) and water.  Clouds take on an ethereal, wispy characteristic and water gets a glassy/misty look. When incorporated effectively into your scene, both look stunning and bring the shot to another level.

The B+W 10-Stop 3.0 ND Filter costs about $100 and can be purchased at B&H. You’re welcome to use the link at the bottom of the blog to take you to their storefront. It really is a worthwhile investment.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, 24mm, F 20, ISO 100, HDR, 4 Exposures, B+W 3.0 10-Stop ND Filter

Do you ever get that feeling when you fondly look at a photo that you recently took and it feels like you took it years ago? You remember bits and pieces of what it felt like to stand there but the memory is almost wholly faded. I guess that is one of my favorite draws with photography. It is your chronicle, your book of records, your life journal. I do remember standing on this precipice, waiting for my long exposure brackets to complete and partly praying that my tripod doesn’t slip and send my camera crashing into the Atlantic. And sure, there are some missing and fuzzy pieces. Like, I know that there was a distinct smell of ocean spray but I cannot remember it at all. I know that there was the ever-calming sounds of the waves undulating but the only sound I have in my head is that stock wave sound you hear when you walk into a Brookstones.

I guess that is what I really love about photography. I love talking to other photographers and learning what bits and pieces fashion the memory that they have of the shots that they have taken. Storytellers in action.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, 24mm, F 22 ISO 100, HDR, 3 Exposures, 10x 3.0 ND Filter

Of all the memorable and gorgeous places that I saw while hiking around Italy, I’d have to say that the most awe-inspiring was visiting the Forum in Rome.  There was something extremely hallowing about walking up to this scene from the Portico Dii Consentes and taking in all of the history.  It really is magical when you finally visit a place that you’ve grown up learning about via textbook images and see it with your own eyes.

I spent about 20 minutes just staring over this area, trying to imagine what it must have been like when the legend of Rome was thriving.  I thought about how the locals would react to seeing me standing there with my camera and tripod, dressed in modern day shorts and a t-shirt, gawking around.

Off in the distance, I saw some sweet clouds start rolling in and decided to take a three-exposure bracket series with my 10-stop ND filter.  The rationale for using the filter was two-fold: first, I wanted to create a sense of motion with the clouds and dragging the shutter with the ND filter would help create that visual effect, and second, the Forum was crawling with tourists and having 2-3 minute exposures did a perfect job of ghosting them completely out of view.

Every time I look at this image, I am reminded about just how much there is that I have to see for myself.

Canon EOD 5D Mark II, Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L, 24mm, F 22, ISO 100, HDR, 1 Exposure

The last time that I walked by this staircase of water at the Ashland Reservoir was over the summer and all of this was totally dried out. A few weekends ago, we had a break in the weather were it was almost fashionable to wear less than six layers and enjoy a stroll.  So, while Lisa and the dogs continued on the trail, I went to settle a score.  I knew that I wanted to use my B+W 3.0 10-Stop ND filter to really ghost out the water and the widest lens that I own that the filter will fit on is my Canon 24-70.  The rest is history as depicted right above.