Polarising filter

Having read lots about polarising filters, I bought one.  Down by the Torrens river, I found due to the lighting situation where I was, I ended up using Manual mode, which I don't very often.  Aperture f/2.8 - though I could have gone for a smaller aperture as I was some distance away, but still got a good shot.  Shutter speed was 1/1000th of a second to partially freeze the flow, with ISO 6400 - so high because of dense shade and the polariser reduces the exposure by 2 stops also.  With the polariser on, I experimented with turning it until I could the bottom of the river, the glare having disappeared.  I couldn't freeze the flow quite as much as I wanted but pretty ok.

©Christine Linton

Photographing from the heart

I read this phrase recently in a post by Rob Sheppard and it seems to mean this:  photograph things that mean something to you.  (By the way, read his post here, very interesting.)  My take today on this is that I am so relieved to have pouring rain after our recent bout of heatwaves, and I have been taking shots of water on the concrete where it is making ripples in the rain.

Ripple on concrete

©Christine Linton

Technical details: Aperture Priority, F2.8, shutter speed 1/500 sec, ISO 800, AF 1 area, white balance - auto

Reflections in water

I recently took part in a day-long workshop with Rosey Boehm and recommend her workshop; I learnt so much about how to use my new camera.  Not just the technical stuff, which is definitely important; she took us through the settings on our cameras and how to use them to the best advantage as well as explaining things I didn't understand from the manual and clarifying things that were still a big foggy.  But just as important was the attitude to photography - finding what is going to be a good photo and what isn't; taking into account the light and how to work with it; and composition, mainly before you take the photo but also how to crop to best advantage.  Terrific stuff!
Here is the photo I took with all that in mind - actually I did crop also with her advice in mind too.  There was a bit too much plain blue sky and a bit too much vegetation at the foreground; also on one side was a large area of algal bloom in the lake, which unbalanced it.  All those I cropped.

Wetland lake at Lochiel Park

©Christine Linton

Technical details: Aperture Priority, F.2.8, shutter speed 1/1000 sec, ISO 200, Auto focus 23 area, white balance - auto.

Rundle Mall Fountain

Today, being in Adelaide, I took the chance to photograph the Fountain in Rundle Mall before it is moved as part of the "regeneration".

Rundle Mall Fountain
Shutter Priority, shutter speed 1600, ISO 400, white balance - daylight

©Christine Linton

I wanted to try my faster shutter speeds on falling water, to get the separate drops - and it worked, I was so pleased with the results.  It was bright sunlight, soon after midday, meaning the water at the base is overexposed; and you can see the fencing behind where the work is going on.  I managed to avoid passers by which is unusual, I got lucky there.

Rundle Mall Fountain
Shutter Priority, shutter speed 1600, ISO 400, white balance - daylight
©Christine Linton

This photo above, I set the AF to 23 points, and the photo below the AF to 1 point - I can't really see any difference myself.

Rundle Mall Fountain
Shutter Priority, shutter speed 1600, ISO 400, white balance - daylight
©Christine Linton

Shutter speeds outside

Yesterday I went out to experiment more with shutter speeds, shooting down by the river, and I found that I needed to change the ISO to get better results.  I wanted to shoot the water flowing over some rocks.  I found that I had a reasonable result with the shutter speed at 1/1500th - but there was a big difference between the results before and after changing the ISO.

first try, shutter speed 1/500th, ISO 100

This was of course too dark.  So I changed the ISO to 800.

2nd try, shutter speed 1/500th, ISO 800

Better, but still a bit dim.  So the ISO went to 1600.

3rd try, shutter speed 1/500th, ISO 1600

That gave me an image true to the early evening light at the time.

I did go on to increase the shutter speed to 1,000 and 2,000, but that is another story.