You might ask,"What makes a great photograph?" I'll explain. Great photographs are exposed correctly (the right f-stop and shutter speed), the subject is clearly evident and the viewer does not have to guess what it is and the image is tack sharp. The photographer should strive to accomplish this at the exposure, pre-photo processing and not as a result of "photoshop" tricks. The images you see here, for the most part, have not been adjusted either by exposure, brightness, sharpening, color or other manipulation. The image comes out of the camera, Nikon D200, in a RAW file and is converted into a JPG file using ACDSee imaging software. My goal on this trip was to create images with little or no post-processing. I accomplished that.

The question is how did that happen? I took my time with each photograph making sure of the exposure factors, depth of field, and the most important thing the Nikon was on a tripod 98% of the time. I was using slow shutter speed of 1/30th of a second to 1/2 of a second with the ISO set at 100 most of the time. A good zoom lens like the 18-200mm and a high quality polarizing filter allowed me to frame the photograph filling the frame with the subject and keeping the rich blue in the sky and reducing the reflection off the water. I also used a cable release so my finger would not cause the camera to move. These simple things will really make your photos stand out from the crowd. I looked around at other photographs and realized that I was the only one using a tripod.