Late fall photo class

I had the opportunity this fall to take a photo class with Patrick Zephyr, a (sort of) local photographer I've been a fan of for years. (His web site is at http://www.patrickzeph​yrphoto.com/, if you want to take a look.)

I had two goals going in: First, get back into using my camera. It had sat, mostly unused, for far too long while other hobbies distracted me. Second, try some things I hadn't done before. I didn't honestly expect to get any great photos: I knew I was going to be working well outside my familiarity, and I was more interested in learning than getting fantastic photos.

As it turned out, it was a great experience: I spent the entire weekend shooting fully manual, which I hadn't done, and felt fairly comfortable with it by the end. I also saw some fantastic locations, and took a few decent shots. Here are my favorites from each of the sites we went to! The first was just a long exposure, made more difficult by my failure to bring a tripod. The second and third are multiple exposures, mostly using a glove or my hat as a stand-in for a tripod so the camera didn't move (much) between shots.

Doane's Falls, in Royalston, Massachusetts

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/Bs2E​ab

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/AEdt​Xx

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/BzjT​nS

I like the second and third images very much. You have a much steadier hand than I have.

Thanks! I cheated on the second and third: For the second, I folded up a glove and set the camera on it, so I could keep it stable while I shot.

For the third, I hung the camera off the side of a cliff (seriously... not huge, maybe 10 feet high, but a cliff nonetheless), padded with my hat behind it. I was fortunate to have a cliff at the right distance and something to anchor myself with in just the right place to get the shot.

The first... well, the Sigma 18-125 has incredible stabilization. I never would have gotten that shot without it.

The second and third are also composites, with multiple exposures blended together to get better light all the way around. The swirling leaves are a common thing in Patrick Zephyr's photos, and I really wanted to try it out. While I love the result, it's a lot more work than the way I usually shoot. If anyone's wondering, the composites were made using LR/Enfuse, which lets you do the work with only Lightroom, no Photoshop necessary.

#3 is really good. Hard to do without a tripod. Thanks for sharing!

I really dig the last one! Do you remember how long your exposure was to render the swirling leaves?

That was an interesting one. It's a composite, and I've unfortunately failed somehow to note which photos it's a composite of. I took three images with that setup at 10 seconds, 6 seconds, and 3.2 seconds. I think I used all three building the composite, but it may have only been the 3.2 and the 6.

I took a ton of other exposures, but those were just about the only three that I managed without the camera shifting. There's absolutely no way I would have managed that shot free-hand: it was hard enough with the camera braced against a rock!

Love the last picture with the 2 whirlpool !

Thanks for the insight! Given your limitations, it turned out pretty good...such a cool effect with the leaves swirling!

It was definitely a learning experience.

I'm planning to go back in the spring, and again in the fall, with a tripod and maybe some better lenses, and see what I can do with fewer technical limitations. Oh... and a couple of ND filters. At 10 seconds, almost everything was completely blown out.