By the waters

[QuietOne]

I looked at brightening these up, then decided to let them be what they were - photos taken on a partly cloudy day.

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[Mad Aussie]

Looks like a nice area among cleared land.

[mbrager]

I'm enjoying all your posts from today. Lots of greenery and you have a great eye for patterns and out of the ordinary elements. I'm curious about the pictures in this thread because I often find myself taking pictures near water. I like the way you have captured the reflections of the sky and clouds in the water. I seem to recall you asking about buying a circular polarizing filter a few weeks ago and some discussion ensued. These don't seem to have a polarizer and the glare on the water is noticeable. I'm wondering if you resolved that, perhaps bought a polarizer but don't use it, or did experiment with it and don't like the results. (There is another possibility, that these shots indeed are through the polarizer filter, but I'm not seeing it.) I have circular polarizers for my lenses, but it is a bit of trouble to use them, taking off one filter and replacing it. I do find on the whole they help, but in low light, a tripod becomes a necessity because they also filter the amount of light and I can't shoot at the same shutter speed.
I would certainly appreciate your thoughts and anyone else's on this subject.
Mike

[QuietOne]

Mike, it has more to do with the fact that I hadn't gotten a filter yet. I dragged that thread to my shortcut bar so that it wouldn't get forgotten.

I finally ordered a CPL, another UV and 2 ND filters today. All from the same folks and the same brand, so that I don't have to deal with 2 or 3 places, or figure out whether the filters will work together. I figure once I have basics in place I can take my time looking into other brands and systems, if I want others. I'm expecting they will make a real difference once summer is here in full force.

Thanks for your comments on the photos.

MA, yes, these are nice spots to hang out in the middle of an urban area. The pond is entirely man made. It has a couple of fountains to keep the water moving. The water is pretty shallow. The river and its paths are modified and maintained in quite a number of areas. They're building a white water feature along one stretch this summer. The kayakers are looking forward to its completion.