ND Filters

There seems to be a fixation with 'slow water' shots and to do the necessary long exposures to achieve this effect during the daylight hours, filters are needed once the sun commences to peek over the horizon. A guide to ND filters which I'm sorely in need of understanding  shared by Chris Rogers was a helpful read. Anybody who knows me knows I like to travel light. So far I don't have any fancy expensive filters. I still can't be bothered fiddling around with filter holders and lugging all the equipment over rocks and sand. The closest I've come to making use of them is to simply hold one up in front of the lens in what most serious photographers would consider to be a very haphazard method.  It does however serve to demonstrate the powerful transformation a simply piece of darkened glass can have on a digital image. The shot below was taken holding one of the filters across half of the lens, just as the sun had risen high enough to create blowout.

Considering no processing has been done I think the effect on not only colour, but detail, is quite amazing.