First Time with ND Filter AND Wildlife Shooting

I bought the Breakthrough Technology X4 ND 6-stop filter and I really like it! It is wonderful to be able to shoot moving water during the day. In bright light I still set my ISO down as low as I could - ISO 50. I think I had the best shots at 6 seconds, but could even get 10 second photos with a rapidly moving waterfall as it made the water look pretty cool. I was impressed with the responsive and follow up with the order from the site too. The company seemed professional in every thing they did and I admire that.

I did fair amount of research on choosing what I thought was the best product and made my choice after going through many reviews, reading their product literature and thinking over what I really wanted. 

Using the filter out in the field was a bit troublesome in that I wanted to swap it on different lenses and had to deal with a bit of fumbling and stuff like usual when I swap lenses. One thing I need is some kind of filter holder or pouch for my polarizer, ND and UV filters. I do have a preference for the circular filters and that's what I've decided on. One great thing about the three lenses I own is that they all are 67mm in filter size so one size fits all!

Here is one sample shot at 10 seconds, 26mm at f/22 of Boulder Waterfall. 


I have a lot more playing to do with this new ND filter. I need experience using it with snow and ice for the Iceland trip in February. 

I didn't mention that I also bought a Polarizing filter from Breakthrough. It is also the X4 product line. These are not cheap, but I really do think that you get what you pay for. The ProMaster Polarizer filter I bought has a few scrapes in it and I believe I need to be A LOT more careful with handling the filters and putting on lens caps and such. I also have a gouge in the glass of my ProMaster UV filter and that needs to be replaced as well OR not. I'm starting to wonder if UV filters are worth the cost.

Moving on from the falls I made my way to RMNP. I did enjoy seeing the fall colors coming in, but even on the misty September 29th day the bright oranges and reds had not shown up yet, but the yellows and lime greens were impressive. After a slightly rainy hike up to Bierstadt Lake (kind of a dull lake if you ask me) I drove over to Moraine Park off the Cub Lake/Stables Road - this is a hot spot for Elk viewing. 

Ask sunset came upon us there was a single Elk harem with a buck and nine or so cows. There were two bachelors nearby. As the darkness was approaching the elk became a bit more busy and they came closer to us on the road. The 12-point buck had to fend off a few advances by one of the other stags, but he was big and impressive so the younger guy didn't put up much of a fight,. He did manage to woo a few cows over to his space, but the buck got them back before we lost the light as the blue hour moved in. 

I did enjoy shooting the elk. This was my first time shooting wildlife and I think I got some really great photos. It helped that the buck was a total hot-model-guy and showed off all his greatness. At one point he crossed a stream coming straight in my direction. The water splashed up as he pranced across the stream. It was like a slo-mo BayWatch moment. I had to laugh.

I came away with some great photos and had fun post processing them in LrC.

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