Filtered Flowers

I have been so absurdly busy, that I've fallen behind in posts.  These photos are from June 5th - I've been meaning to post them ever since.  We participated in a walk to raise money for childhood cancer, sponsored by the Camillus Optimists Club, and organized by good friends of ours.  The walk was right nearby, on a section of the Erie Canal that I used to walk very often when I was a kid, but seldom traverse now.  I prefer less popular walk spots most of the time these days.

It was a lovely warm day, full of sunshine.  The trails were bustling with all sorts of walkers and joggers and cyclists and canine companions.  And both sides of the trail were laden with flowers.

With all the bright sun, I decided to experiment with my polarized filter.  This camera continues to do a wonderful job for me - I'm still extremely happy with it.  And the polarized filter?  An awesome toy!

A couple of comparison shots, to show the difference the filter makes.  These are all unedited, aside from a little cropping.  The filter is on in all these shots.  However, because polarization is actually parallel lines running across the glass, how you turn the filter makes all the difference in the world.

 Compare without polarization:

And with the filter rotated 90 degrees so the polarization is maximized.  A much sharper picture, right?  Suddenly the white of those flowers practically leaps off the screen.

One of the great advantages of polarized filters (or sunglasses) is that they cut out most of the reflections on the water, allowing you to see right into the water.  Here is a great illustration of that effect.  Without polarization:

Polarized:

Handy for spotting fish and turtles.

You can then take advantage of that feature, to set up the background for shots.  You can see that in the first pair of photos, but I think it's illustrated better in this pair.  Without the filter, the reflection on the water is light, not allowing you to see the delicate light lines on the spider web very well:

But with polarized filter, voila!  We have a web in all its details:

So, I love my polarized filter, and believe it was worth every penny.  And believe me, it was quite a lot of pennies.  I have lots more to learn about it, but am certainly enjoying the process.

And below are just some other shots I took throughout the day that I liked.

 

Believe it or not, I didn't even turn up the saturation on this.  Check out the fluorescent green!