Today's mission; dust off the neutral density (ND) filters and try to get some silky smooth water-flowing-over-the-rocks long exposures.

The problem? I hadn't done this for so long that I had forgotten one teeeeny little problem. Optical viewfinders will show you what is actually seen through the lens. So if the light is cut down massively, it will show you the scene with the light cut down massively because that's all it CAN do. It's just a reflection through a mirror.

Digital viewfinders will try to be your friend, however. "WOAH, Boss, you won't believe what I'm seeing here! It looks... wow, it's just wrong! Let me see if I can clean it up for you! Hey, I know I'm showing this weird bluish tinge that really isn't there when you shoot an image, but it's the best I can make it look!" I love my digital viewfinder. I love the head up histogram, I love the spirit level, I love everything about it which is one reason that I'd never want to return to an optical viewfinder. (The sheer bulk associated with mirrored cameras being the other.)

But I'm not so crazy about this.

Making things worse is the fact that I had a variable density ND filter, which was great on my old 40D. But here's the problem. I could at best guess at how many stops the light was being cut down by, because I certainly didn't have a visual cue. The question of whether the scene was being overcooked or undercooked was never resolved until you chimped the preview. With a static ND you can at least determine the standard exposure, put the filter on and mentally recalculate your shutter time.

Anyhoo, that's for next time.

For this time I decided to point it at the rock pool. I lined up the fencing with the horizon and tried to guestimate the exposure time to get a misty surface with the sun rising in the background. It didn't quite work. But what DID happen was that a girl walked in front of me as I was shooting on her way to the pool. Because the exposure was still longish for a person (1/8th) but not so long for water motion, she ended up becoming a silhouetted ghost, especially as she was moving her left leg and right arm. I sooooort of like the effect, though the right arm does look a little too disembodied for my taste.

Still, you take 'em where you can get 'em.