Rocky Point

2016-09-20 By Paul Rome With 0 Comment

In Technique / Travel

TECHNICAL DETAILS
Sony A7ii with Sony Zeiss 16-35mm f4 T* lens.
30 second exposure with a B+W 10-stop ND filter at f/22 and 26mm focal length. ISO 200.
MeFoto Backpacker tripod. B&W conversion with Nik Silver Efex.

ROCKY POINT, LAC LA CROIX
September saw me back in my beloved Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, passing through the Canadian side to re-enter the US on Lac La Croix for a few nights of camping with family and friends. I was looking for a good opportunity to do some B&W shots during this trip, specifically, and welcomed the opportunity for a number of days with no cell service, no internet and some fresh fish with my brothers.

I had been eyeing a point between the mainland and an island across from which we were camping. There was a long string of rocky shore, and what looked to be a small point jutting out into the lake. The hike over there was spectacular, along a south-facing steep slope with mature red pines and almost no understory. I stopped to shoot a number of images along the way, unhurried and enjoying the freedom to take as long as I needed for composition and gear-tweaking.

As I reached the point, it was easy to visualize the strong graphic patterns of the rocks along the lake edge, with the white stripe of foam at the water’s edge, remnant of last evening’s windier conditions. I set up the tripod out on the little point, and framed a number of different images, finally landing on the strong diagonal movement evident in this particular one. There was just enough movement in the water to disturb the surface, and I thought it was a perfect opportunity to use a big ND filter and a long exposure to flatten out the water and give it a translucent gloss where it was ebbing and surging between the rocks.

Shooting with an ND filter, especially a 10-stop, is an exercise in patience. Everything takes checking and re-checking. It’s tough to focus. You have to be sure not to alter focus when putting the filter on. Metering is difficult. Shooting test exposures takes time, since you’re already out in the tens of seconds for exposure length. But the end result is exactly what I had visualized. Part of my satisfaction with the result comes from seeing the image as I had intended. It’s always reinforcing to see a the finished image you had in your head while shooting.

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