I have, in my bag of camera equipment a filter called an ND8. This is a Neutral Density filter. its sole purpose is to reduce the amount of light entering the lens. I have spent so much time trying to get more or better light that using this filter almost seems counter intuitive. That is until you want a slower shutter speed on a sunny day in order to capture a photo with motion blur. In the first photo I was in the parking lot at my office trying to capture a vehicle on the highway while panning. even at f22 i was still getting a fairly sharp background. adding the ND filter to the lens allowed me to achieve this with relative ease.
The moving water picture which follows was quite a challenge. I didn't have a tripod with me and it was really bright. I had the ND filter and a Polarizer in my 28-135 lens. I didn't have to worry about vignetting as I was using a 1.6 crop factor camera. The setting were f22, 2 second exposure, 100asa. I managed to brace the camera against a tree while using the self timer to reduce shake.
Neither one of these shots would have been possible without the use of the ND8 filter. I am defiantly a fan of the ND filter. If you want to get creative with your outdoor photography you really need one of these.
