Archive for February, 2008

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Manasquan Reservoir: Leaves at Water’s Edge

Thursday, February 7th, 2008

I had the day off work on Monday, so I decided to take a trip to the Manasquan Reservoir. The water has come up all the way to the trees, cutting off access to my favorite subjects. When I walked down to the edge of the water, I found these nice, dark-red leaves with the water rushing in amongst them with each wave. The water saturated the colors of the leaves and reflected light, making for a high contrast composition. I used my Canon 17-40mm f/4 L with my tripod dropped to just inches off the ground. I stopped down the aperture to get maximum depth of field, leaving me with a shutter speed of over 1 second.

I picked my two favorites from the day, which happen to be of the same area just from slightly different angles. I prefer one slightly over the other, but I am curious to hear what you all think. Which image do you like better? Which composition feels more balanced to you? Leave a comment with your answer!

Manasquan Reservoir: Wet Leaves 1

Manasquan Reservoir: Wet Leaves 2

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Manasquan Reservoir: Foggy Trail (canon 400D rain gear)

Monday, February 4th, 2008

Last Friday, I was able to leave work earlier than usual. It was raining, but this glorious fog was appearing because of the rain. I decided to go to the reservoir to take some fog shots. My camera, the Canon 400D, is not weather-sealed, so I had to find a way to keep it dry. I prepared a garbage bag for the job like so:

1) Placed the garbage bag over the camera, judging where the lens would be on the bag.

2) Cut out a lens-sized hole in the bag, and positioned the bag just over the lens.

3) Having the bag slightly overlap the filter I had on the lens (circular polarizer), I put the lens hood on, catching the garbage bag and pulling it into the hood slots for a better ‘seal.’

This way definitely is not perfect, but it sure is cheap. As long as the garbage bag stays tight in the lens hood slots, no water touches the lens or camera. Unfortunately, this prohibits me from changing lenses, therefore I must decide more specifically what I want to shoot before I go.

If any of you readers have a different or better way to keep your camera dry, let me know and I will try it out and post the results.

Manasquan Reservoir Foggy Trail

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