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in perhaps the warmest day of the week if not the rest of the year, it gave me the perfect opportunity to do one last spot of naturing. where ever i went, there had to be some running water so i could play around with the neutral density filter i bought earlier this month. i decided to revisit sudbury, back to the hop brook marsh reservation, part of the larger memorial forest preserve. this was my third visit to HBM; i came here during the spring with bruce and my first visit was last year (although the memorial forest i've been to a few oher times before). even though it was the warmest day of the week, the temperature hovered barely above 50 degrees by the time i left the house around noon. the ride was bearable but towards the end it started to get a bit uncomfortable and i could feel my body temperature dropping. thankfully i arrived at my destination before the cold started getting painful.

the best thing about naturing in late autumn is there aren't any bugs and the poison ivy have long since succumbed to the frost. no need to spray insect repellent or watch where i'm stepping. most of the deciduous trees were bare of leaves with the exception of oaks, their brown leathery solar collectors rustling in the wind overhead. that brought back a memory from when i was riding down here, that of a large oak leaf hitting me in the face. leaves usually seem so harmless, but not when i'm traveling 45mph+ and a piece of the petal scratches my face as it flies by.

hop brook marsh seems like a great place to look for salamanders in the early spring, as several vernal pools dot the area, although most have dried up by now (which is a characteristic of vernal pools). the same vernal pool looks completely different in the spring, as these photos will demonstrate: 060617, 070515.

there really wasn't much to see and after i made it to the western point of duck pond, i decided to head back.

returning on dutton road i made a stop at what looks to be a reservoir of some sort with a small man-made waterfall. it was the perfect location to test out my neutral density filter.

long-delayed photos of moving water is one of the easiest photo tricks to do. though often repeated, it's still a cool effect nonetheless.


f32 1 sec -0.7 EV
17mm ISO 100
(w/o neutral density)

f20 1 sec -0.7 EV
17mm ISO 100
(w/ neutral density)

f29 2 sec -0.7 EV
17mm ISO 100
(w/ neutral density)

i did a test series where i first exposed for 1 sec without the neutral density filter, then another 1 sec exposure with the ND filter, followed by a 2 sec exposure. verdict? it's hard to tell with this one test. with or without, the outcome still looks pretty similar. the photo runs a little bit darker with the ND filter, and naturally the aperture increases (f32 to f20). the sky was overcasted when i did the test, which acted like a natural ND filter, so the exposure without the filter benefited from the cloudy weather. i think what really helped wasn't the filter but rather just using a tripod. i normally shot hand-held, and it's impossible to get a clear shot with such a long shutter speed.

i stacked the ND filter on top of the polarizing filter that i usually have on my 17-50mm lens. apparently that's not a good idea because at its widest (17mm) vignetting occurs on the righthand corners. i may have to invest in a thinner filter.

on my way back to cambridge, i decided to take the route 2 shortcut instead of returning via the longer route 2A path i'd normally take. the only drawback is the speeds on route 2 pushes my motorcycle to its limit, and even short stretches of route 2 makes me fearful that if something should go run with the bike, i'd be dead. as long as i never forget the inherent dangers of motorcycling, hoping that'll keep me alive that much longer.

i stopped by the cafe and had some wonton soup before returning home. zhu lei came home later than usual today, well past 8pm. we didn't speak, just waved hello as he walked in, and i didn't see him the rest of the evening.