We took it easy this morning because the weather wasn't forecast to be favorable for photography. Sure enough, it was bright and sunny which isn't very good for most wildlife photography. Like I usually do, I had turned on the water heater before I started exercising, and when I started to shower after I finished exercising, the water wasn't very warm. :( It must have gotten colder last night than it has recently, or maybe I exercised faster than usual. I trimmed my hair while it was still wet, and it looks better. I may have to trim it again in a week or so to fix it some more. Had my usual breakfast and J started to make minestrone soup. Did some computer work, then processed images for a stock submission. (You may read more about stock submissions on August 7, 2009.)

Had lunch around 12:20. J started to make some no-knead bread, and I continued to process images for a stock submission.

I had been thinking about purchasing a Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter. It's a really interesting screw-on variable neutral-density filter that provides from 2 to 8 stops of neutral density (ND). An ideal application is for photographing cascades or waterfalls because the filter can be used to dial in the amount of ND required to achieve the desired shutter speed. Before purchasing one, I wanted to make sure that vignetting wouldn't be a problem when used with my full-frame Canon DSLRs, so I made a ring of paper to simulate the filter which is thick. Their standard mount (threads on the front) has 14.4mm of exposed metal ahead of the screw mount. That's about 0.56 inches for those of us more familiar with Imperial measures! Add a polarizer, and the filter stack gets really thick. (I almost always use a polarizer when photographing cascades and waterfalls to reduce reflections from wet rocks and/or foliage or to increase reflections from the water itself.) I would be using a B+W F-Pro polarizer which has 7mm (about 0.28 inches) of exposed metal ahead of the screw mount, so the Vari-ND and polarizer would stick out a whopping 21.4mm (0.84 inches)! I made the paper ring an additional 4mm wide so it would fit in the lens accessory threads. When I put the paper ring on my 24-105 lens, I could see it through the viewfinder if the lens was set wider than about 55mm! And that was both with the native 77mm mount and also an 82mm step-up ring. (The Vari-ND is only available with 77mm and 82mm mounts.) Then I put the paper ring on my 24 Tilt-Shift lens, and I could just barely see the ring with an 82mm step-up ring. Because I could see the ring, I didn't have to take any test shots to evaluate vignetting because it would definitely be there. I was rather disappointed that I wouldn't get to spend the $340 (77mm) or $390 (82mm) for the filter. :) The Vari-ND also comes in a thin mount which only has 10.5mm of exposed metal ahead of the screw mount, and that might be OK for the 24 Tilt-Shift, but it would still severely limit options with the 24-105 lens. Singh-Ray also makes a Vari-N-Duo filter which is a Vari-ND and a warming polarizer combination. The thin mount has 14.18mm of exposed metal ahead of the screw mount, but it only comes with a 77mm mount so it's not compatable with the 16-35 Mk II or 24 TS Mk II which use 82mm filters. (These two lenses are on my want list as upgrades to the Mk I versions that I already have.)

Now I'm thinking about getting a set of 4x4" (100x100mm) Lee or HiTech 2-, 3-, and 4-stop neutral density filters which would fit into a Cokin Z-Pro filter holder. It won't be as easy to set the amount of ND because I'll have to swap filters or sets of filters, but at least I'll be able to avoid vignetting. The three ND filters will cost less too, about $300 for the Lee, and about $202 for the HiTech. The Cokin Z-Pro holder with an adaptor ring runs about $90 which I may not get right away and just hold the filters in front of the lens.

D & RA came out to the RV around 5:25 to join us for dinner of J's home-made minestrone soup and fresh-from-the-oven no-knead bread. The oven pilot stayed on the whole time the bread was baking, and J was quite happy about that. Some broken thin clouds moved in while we were eating. I started doing the dishes around 6:30 when D & RA left.

J and I went out to photograph the birds at D's feeders at 7:10. A male hairy woodpecker came to a nice perch for a while. The light cloud cover provided less light, but more even light, than yesterday, and I was able to capture a more pleasing image today than yesterday.

We stopped photographing around 7:50 when the RV's shadow intruded too much into the feeder area. I downloaded the images from today and did a quick edit.