Long exposure of Rat Rock

[Hooligan Dan]

I've been working in the Bay Area a lot lately and have been taking advantage of the scenery there. Today after my assignments I decided to have my lunch at China Camp State Park. I great place. This is rat rock, pretty much the most popular thing to see there. Is pretty cool. A lot smaller in person than I thought it would be.

anyway...

Nikon D800
Nikkor 17-35mm @ 35mm
6-stop and 10-stop ND filters stacked
ISO 50
Exp: 5+ minutes(I lost track when the stopwatch on my ipad mysteriously stopped).
f/5.6

I'm uploading this with my ipad and had to have imageshack resize the photo for me, so I'm not entirely sure what the quality of the upload is.

 

[dxqcanada]

Hmm, interesting. Good shot.

I would have cropped more off the bottom to emphasis the spaciness of the sky ... or a panorama with the island dead centre ... but that is just my personal taste.

 

[Rick50]

I like this but I might play around with different crops to see if I could make the island larger without ruining the image.

 

[jaguaraz]

I think that pic is absolutely awesome. I just looked at it for 5 minutes in awe. I don't pretend to be an expert in composition (or photography) but i look at thousands of pics on here and read critiques carefully every day and I think it is photo of the month material. The smooth uninterrupted water and beautiful creamy sky just totally rock. The island centered and small actually works well for me; makes me think of some desert isle or troll kingdom. The island in that sea of gentle, smooth "dead" space really pops out. Thanks for my favorite pic in awhile.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

I like it, can i ask why you elected ISO 50?

I've played with ISO 50 with positive results, but understanding I'll not be able to recover as much from highlights if i'm overexposed

 

[Hooligan Dan]

Thank you for the comments, everyone.

I like it, can i ask why you elected ISO 50?

I've played with ISO 50 with positive results, but understanding I'll not be able to recover as much from highlights if i'm overexposed

When I stack the 6 and 10-stop ND filters I know that an exposure of 1/200th sec become 5 minutes and 27 seconds, which is the exposure time I want. Since I was using the 17-35mm I knew f/5.6 would give me plenty of DOF. So to get 1/200th sec while using f/5.6 for the non-ND filter exposure, I needed ISO 50.

 

[cynicaster]

Great example of a photo that breaks the rule of thirds and succeeds. Very nice.

 

[Ballistics]

I've just nominated you for photo of the month!

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...hoto-month-nomination-thread.html#post2911249

 

[Mully]

Very nice ....I like it as it is.

 

[oldhippy]

Great shot as is.

 

[eswebster]

agree great as is. The island is framed great by the highlights in the water, keeps my eye moving around the frame and always finding something interesting. Well done.