Hyperfocal distance

Here's another early morning shot from Graveyard flats in Banff. I used a GND filter to reduce the overall dynamic range, and a circular polarizer filter to cut through the light bouncing off the surface of the water and allow you to see the beautiful stones at the bottom of the pond clearly. The sun had climbed high enough in the sky to require a shorter shutter speed here (0.5 seconds at f/16) - but the surface of the pond was absolutely still, so a longer shutter speed was unnecessary.

The question then, is this... why I am using f/16? Why not shoot at f/8 or f/11, since I know that's where my lens works best? The reason I chose f/16 is because that gives me a hyperfocal distance of about 0.5 m with my focal length at 12mm ... so objects just .25 m away will be in sharp focus!

At f/8 - that near focus point will be about half a meter away... not close enough to get those rocks in the foreground sharp. I have my tripod low to the ground, here... just about .25 m from the closest rocks. I could have gotten even closer with f/22 - but I want my aperture as close to f/11 as possible, since that's where I get my cleanest shot.

All right - no more technical stuff. Sorry about that. ;)

I took several shots that morning, and I'm not sure which one I like best. I've processed four and deleted the rest - and I'll add them all to a new Canada gallery once I've finished the rest from the trip. I'm having such a great time working through these photos!

Yellowstone

This shot was taken in Yellowstone National Park near the end of our trip. Storms moved through the region all afternoon and evening, and we saw four or five rainbows in different locations as we drove along. As the sun neared the horizon, we pulled over and parked the car near a beautiful meadow. The kids listened to music in the car, while Jay and I took a few shots. We were rather glad that the sky didn't do this every evening - with the kids along, we wouldn't have been able to shoot regularly.

I shot with a GND filter (click here for a brief explanation of GND filters) - but no polarizer. The GND let me capture the detail in both the shadows on the ground and the highlights in the sky. I nearly always use a GND filter to shoot sunrise and sunset. The dynamic range is simply to broad to be captured otherwise. In some cases, I use a circular polarizer when I'm photographing water. The polarizer cuts through glare and reflection, and allows me to see beneath the water. In this case, I wanted to see the colorful reflection in the water. And, you can't shoot a rainbow with a circular polarizer. The rainbow will disappear. :)