Morning in the Woods

So I have had some time to play around with my Nikon D-300. So far I have to say I am pretty impressed with the camera. I am not an expert in hardware so I do not have access to lab tests to put the camera through, so I am going by the results I have been getting from regular everyday shooting. I love going up to Mud Lake in the west end of Ottawa because the area has lots of potential subjects to photograph. It's one of Ottawa's prime small and water bird areas. It also has numerous turtles and other amphibians. The trails around the lake bring you through a couple of ecosystems from forest to meadows.

One of my favourite times to go out shooting is first thing in the morning, especially when the sun is just coming up over the horizon. The light is coming in a more horizontal direction unlike the direct over head light of the mid-day sun. This leads to some interesting effects on tree trunks and plants. Light in the morning takes on a golden hue due to the greater amount of atmosphere it has to pass through. The exact same thing happens at sunset. The sky turns golden then to red as the sun gets lower in the sky. In the morning it just happens in reverse. The light is also not as intense as when the sun is higher in the sky. This makes it easier to shoot in the forest and get those shots where the sun is high, lighting one area in amongst the trees or light falling onto undergrowth foliage without the need for polarizing filters. Speaking of polarizing filters, if your going to try taking forest shots in the midday it is a good idea to use a polarizing filter on your lens. Shooting without the polarizing filter will cause the sunlight areas to over expose when you expose your sensor to get detail of the forest. If you expose for the sunlight areas the rest of the shot will be too dark. The polarizer will allow the longer exposure time and not have the sunny areas overexposed.