My World: Winter Visit to Olympic National Park

[Jim Dockery]

I spent 5 days in Olympic National Park last week. Winter is a great time to visit if you want to avoid the crowds and see some good waves. I finally had a chance to do some extensive experimentation with a 10X ND and get some interesting results (and a lot not so interesting).

2nd Beach Panorama

Rialto Beach 10X ND

Rialto Beach Dusk 10X ND

Rialto Beach Dusk 10X ND

Rialto Beach Driftwood​

 

[Andy brown]

Jim, great series.
For some strange reasonIi can view these on my iphone buy not on my PC.
Anyway, great to see that you spend time at the beach as well as in the mountains.
The first one appeals to me the most, just wondering how much you had to do not to have the sun blown out?

 

[Jim Dockery]

Andy, I shot a bit under exposed on my A7rII. It does a great job keeping info in the shadows, so I brought up the exposure in ACR, but held back the sun/sky with a grad and local adjustments to dampen the highlights.

 

[Andy brown]

Jim, you did a great job then.
They're showing on the PC now.
All of a sudden at higher res the shots look so much more impressive. Good stuff.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Andy, I shot a bit under exposed on my A7rII. It does a great job keeping info in the shadows, so I brought up the exposure in ACR, but held back the sun/sky with a grad and local adjustments to dampen the highlights.

So this was all in post. You didn't actually use a graduated filter for the shot! ?

So, Jim, how are you finding this camera? How does it compare with the A7R and why this and not the Canon 5DS if you had lenses and adapters for both cameras, Canon and Sony?

Asher

 

[Jim Dockery]

Asher, I'm loving the results I'm getting from the camera. I never used the original, so can't compare. I wanted one, but was put off by the vibration issues since I quite like using telephotos.

I've been a Sony convert since I got my NEX-7, size and weight being the main difference at that point between the Sony and my Canon SLR since much of my photography involves long hike/climb/ski trips in the mountains and desert.

I did have a few issues on this trip where the auto switch between viewfinder and LCD was too touchy and I had to switch it manually to use the LCD when framing shots where the tripod was set in an awkward spot. I've also found that the sensor seems to be more of a dust magnet than my Canon - perhaps because it doesn't run a vibration each time it's turned on. I should have cleaned it each evening on this trip because I had a few spots I had to clean up on a lot of shots taken over a couple days.

Here is a link to an HD size shot I got of a young gymnast who was showing off for his girl friend when I arrived at 2nd beach. He was a very nice kid who agreed to repeat some tricks for my camera (click the picture to see a larger version).