My recent splurge purchase was a six stop neutral density filter. I had wanted to get a stronger ND for quite some time now. Actually I wanted to get a Singh Ray Vari ND, but one of those is quite a bit more expensive. Of course it would be infinitely easier to use and more versatile as well. But I’m not going to focus on what I don’t have. What I do have is a tool that’s going to open up a lot of possibilities. One of my goals was to get my average water shots shifted from f/22 to a more reasonable aperture – something in the ballpark of f/11 or so depending on the situation of course. The other opportunity is that I can now achieve much longer exposures. That will make it possible to shoot scenes that I couldn’t previously achieve. This is going to be fun.

I got the filter shortly before the trip and didn’t even experiment with it. Actually I haven’t even done any shooting in a while. I suppose I should have played with the filter a little bit at home, but I figured it would work out just fine once I got up here. Well I wasn’t exactly sure how difficult it would be to see and meter through such dark glass, but really what’s the worst that could happen?

We spent time at Olallie State Park. I was shocked to see a credit card accepting state parks pass machine at the trailhead. I decided to purchase an annual pass for $30. I don’t even know how many state parks we’ll be visiting during this trip, but how could I pass up such a bargain? Last I heard the California state parks pass was $120, and that was several years ago.

As you know, I’m a waterfall aficionado, and we saw some nice ones today. I didn’t really didn’t get any good pictures of any that we saw, although I did enjoy them quite a bit. What I did do was shoot the river. And how nice that was using the six stop filter. I’m going to really love that piece of dark glass. And the South Fork Snoqualmie? I happen to think that it’s really nice in that area. It has a lot of character and in many location is a perfect subject for long exposures.

I had a lot of options for the rest of the day, but sometimes it’s better to just enjoy the moment. We strolled along a trail with occasional water access. I didn’t take many pictures, but I have to say that I could not imagine enjoying the afternoon more.