“Do you use a tripod?”, he asks.

“My camera is permanently stuck on my tripod” is my usual answer…then again, may be I shouldn’t be so categorical all the time. I just can’t help it, too lazy to deal with nuances…

It turns out that it’s not always the best option. In this case, the rain and cool weather has brought an ever so slight mist on the valley. The quality of light had a little je ne sais quoi that I wouldn’t be able to explain. Yet, the trees in front of me weren’t exactly of the exotic variety. Instead of going for the straight shot, I opted for a little game I like to play from time to time: vertical panning.

All you have to do is set your camera for a slow shutter speed (1.6 s in this case). To achieve this, I lowered my Iso to 100, set the aperture to an ungodly f/36 and put a polariser on the lens. The low shutter speed gave me enough time to pan the camera up and down during the exposure to blur details. The amount of time you need will depend on the effect you are trying to achieve, your subject and the focal length you use. As I often say, it’s up to you to experiment and have fun. The idea here is not to be bound by any rule, but rather just go out there and try whatever your heart might fancy (well don’t go too crazy there, but ya know what I mean).

Off for some celebrations now, burying my 30th year tonight .