andrew_v's photostream  

This is one of the first seascapes that I have gotten to do with my D800. So far, I have made 2 fine art prints from this file and the details are astounding.

This photo was taken at a beach by my house during a rather boring sunset. There's something about the motion of the water and the tones that just moves me.

This is the first full edit that I have gotten the chance to do with a photo from my D800. This particular Pier is the Ballast Point Pier which is at Ballast Point Park in Tampa. Pretty cool place that I didn't even know existed till about a week or so ago.

Really helped create a dramatic image to have the strong clouds in the background. The rest of the drama is a combination of blending modes and curves with some very detailed masking in photoshop. Each of the 'V' pattern slats on the side of the pier was masked into a curves adjustment to bring out the highlights. One of the things which struck me almost immediately about files from the D800 is the ease with which I can do things like masking because of my ability to zoom into the image and hold detail. Masking was an absolute breeze!

To give you some more background info about how the photo itself was taken; I used 16 stops worth of B+W neutral density filters to drop the exposure time down to 2 minutes at F8, ISO 200. The camera actually has a native ISO of 100 but old habits die hard and I defaulted to the ISO I am used to as a result of my D300s and D700. Obviously, the camera was on a tripod. I had it in Mirror up mode (first shutter click raises and locks the mirror while the second shutter click actually fires the photograph. This minimizes any shake the camera may experience as a result of the shutter moving), and used a remote trigger to raise the mirror and fire the photo.

Any questions about the photo, how I edited it, the D800 or my long exposure process? Feel free to message me, or comment and I'll do my best to answer.

Thanks for looking!

This is a 1 minute long exposure photograph which was taken in the middle of the afternoon during an awesome windstorm!

I recently returned from an awesome private workshop in Colorado with pro landscape photographer Dan Ballard. It felt like we were all over the state, but we spent a decent amount of time in Great Sand Dunes National Park which was absolutely gorgeous.

This photo was taken just before sunset in what has to be the windiest conditions I have ever been out in. It was so windy, that we decided it'd be best to leave camera bags and tripods in the car. I did most all my hiking with my camera tucked inside my jacket to protect it from the crazy amounts of sand. And, it's not nearly as warm as the photo looks. :-) In fact, in a lot of spots, you only had to kick a little bit of loose sand out of the way to find ice. It was COLD. Especially for a Florida boy like me. Absolutely loved it, though.

Crazy experience. I'll post more about it soon! :-)