Wow, a great series of images. I've never seen a murmuration, went to a local RSPB reserve (Old Moor) last weekend and the staff reliably informed me that there would be a murmuration that evening, but nothing whatsoever occurred!

I'm just a wee bit jealous that you can see this in your locality Andy.

Regards
David

Hi All

The M28mm F3.5 is a superb lens, I can vouch for it as a landscape lens, not sure how good it is on full frame but I would expect it to perform well. It would be my favourite landscape lens were it not for the fact that it's not wide enough for general landscape use on a crop sensor camera. If you have a K-1 then it's a different matter. Highly recommended!!

Regards
David

I'm running Photoshop CS3 on Windows 10 with absolutely no issues.

Regards
David

Some interesting responses, the Haida seems very popular and I think deservedly so. If anything it adds a little warmth, which is easy to adjust in post processing if this is required (usually I leave it 'as is').

Your filter seems pretty good Derek, there is a slight blue cast which I think could easily be dialled out in processing.

Regards
David

That one looks great for colour Gareth, didn't realise the first one wasn't a 10 stopper. My Hitech is an older one and does really turn things blue!

Cheers
David

Hi Everyone

We've had a fair few images posted on the Gallery and in the Forum which have been taken using 10 stop filters, in fact this post is inspired by Cardiff Gareth's latest 10 stop image 'Aberthaw The Lays in Blue Hour'. I'm a big fan of these filters, not just for water, but to create other effects like blur in moving objects, multiple ghostly images or streaks in the clouds. During my time in digital photography I've tried all sorts of different filters (including welding glass), but the only one I ever want to use now (apart from an infra-red filter) is the Haida 10-stopper, as it gives natural, saturated colour with no colour cast.

What 10 stopper do you use and why?

This image is with the Haida and a Samsung 12-24 lens.




Cheers
David

Hi Gareth

I must admit to being a it on the fence about this one, but not for any reasons to do with your photography skills. I own a Hitech 10-stopper, but I don't ever use it because it puts such a strong blue cast on the image, which for me makes it almost unusable, unless I convert the image to black & white. I think it may have been your intention to use the blue cast in your favour on this shot, but I would prefer a natural colour. After using the Hitech 10-stopper a few times I bought a Haida 10-stop filter, which I have to say is amazingly good. With this filter I can get the same long exposures with no colour cast, so it works for me.

Anyway, I'm rambling a bit, I love your images and everything is right in this one, except for me the blue colour!

Regards
David

Thanks to everyone for the comments as always.

Cheers Philip, I agree with you on No.3 being a bit incongruous, but it was there so I took a photo of it! For No. 2 I left in all of the image as I could see a diagonal line in the reeds from bottom left to top right, I think it would look good with a crop, but we all see things differently! That's why I like to get comments and feedback on images because it makes me think.

Regards
David

Some shots from a short walk at RSPB Old Moor Nature Reserve, one of my favourite photo haunts. Most are K-3 with DA*300 or DA*300 + 1.4TC, a few K-5iis with Sigma 17-70 f2.8-4.

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All comments welcomed, as always.

Cheers
David

It's an interesting approach and very different from the images we normally see. I particularly like number 5 for its minimalism, to me that one is the most successful result. I think it's very hard to make eye-catching images out of subjects like this, as the background can be get very cluttered / distracting, this is why I like the fifth one as it is clean and simple. I do think your 'softness' approach is the right way to go as it gives you the best chance to keep the backgrounds clean.

Regards
David