Joe and I wandered up to Chimney Bluffs today on my suggestion, which turned out to be a mixed bag thanks to terrible weather. Still, I got to put my new Lowepro Vertex 200 backpack to the test, and it passed with flying colors! It was also nice to just hike around a bit, although I’m more than a little frustrated that I forgot my crampons.
The sun spent most of its time hiding behind clouds, but I waited for the right moments and tried to get a few photos worth sharing, even if not worth getting too excited about.
I spent some time using my 9 stop Hoya x400 for the first time, unfortunately the shot I wanted to come out just didn’t, so I have to walk away from that one empty-handed. I like what the 9 stop ND filter does to the water, however I don’t like that it attached itself to my step up ring that was on the lens. It spent the rest of the evening in my bag and I only just got it separated when I got home. It seems to like sticking only to that step-up ring so I may have to replace the step up ring.
It wasn’t all bad though, the filter works great and I think will be a nice tool. My complaints are it’s now covered in smudges I have to clean off from trying to separate it from the step-up ring, and the spring that holds it in place isn’t extremely tight and the thing likes to rattle and make noises if you tap it. Still, although somewhat disconcerting they won’t affect it’s performance on the front of the lens (well the smudges may but I’m taking care of those).
This one is a merge of three taken using the shifts in the 24 TS-E. Each one was also shot using a 3 stop graduated neutral density filter to help capture more detail in the sky.
