My friend Rick invited me on a hike in the Gorge last weekend. He and I are gearing up for a big fall photo/backpacking trip in the North Cascades and he wanted to break in a new pack. Rick's one of my favorite people and the Gorge is one of my favorite playgrounds, so I jumped at the chance. The forecast was for overcast, but I decided to lug a big tripod and gear up "just in case." I'm so glad I did. There were tiny cloud-breaks playing shadows across the river and hills. Not spectacular enough for dramatic stills, but just the kind of thing for time-lapse photography.
It is so fun to play with time in the landscape this way. I love the way the clouds and their shadows play across this scene. It's like a natural background symphony that dwarfs the manmade movements of boats, trains, and cars. Perspective.
I'm playing with some really fun new gear and put several new pieces of kit to the test here. Namely my new Sachtler FSB 6 fluid tripod head, Zeiss 35mm F2 lens, and Nikon D810 body. I took a gamble and checked Nikon's new "exposure smoothing" setting in the D810s built in intervalometer and was very pleased to find no flickering exposure changes to deal with in post production. Nice work Nikon.