Sweet Stream

I found a really sweet stream on Maui, about an hour from my hotel. But when I visited it this morning, it started to rain just as I got set up, so I’ll return at least once more to try again. The challenge is that this stream is in a generally wet part of the island and today the stream was swollen. I had to wade into it to get the shot, but if it’s much higher on my next visit I’m not sure I’ll be able to access the same spot.

The saving grace is that the water is delightfully cool, perfect for water sandals. It’s very meditative, too.

I promised to give more technical info to you in 2013, so here goes. I used my Gitzo 3541 tripod with a Really Right Stuff BH-55 ballhead with quick release. I mounted my Hasselblad H4D-50, with a 28mm lens. I mounted my HTS1.5 tilt-shift attachment to the lens, effectively making the lens a 42mm medium format lens. That translates to about a 33mm lens in typical 35mm format. I used the tilt-shift to get good depth-of-field from foreground to background.

I shot at f11 and ISO 50. Now, it was pretty dark in that stream, since it sits in a valley and it was raining. To slow the water down I left on my polarizer and added a Singh-Ray 5-stop Neutral Density filter. That brought the shutter speed all the way up to 16 seconds. Here is what my setup looked like (just ignore the legs) before I had to wade deeper.

The fact is that I planned to do vertical and horizontal panos of the stream, but the rain put a quick end to that plan. As soon as I get the shot nailed in good weather (how’s that for positive thinking?!), I’ll post it here, so stay tuned. I also plan to comparison shoot with my Nikon D800 and I’ll do that as a separate post. In the meantime, I hope the rain gods take a well deserved rest.