5D Mk IV – EF 24 – 70mm f/2.8L II – 1/2 sec, f/22, ISO 50

I started out this shoot with nothing particular in mind except to try and capture how windy it was outside. Even though I already have a flag Photo of the Day, I thought this was a good subject; it was right out the front door, and it was 54 degrees outside! As I began, I realized that even though it was dark and gloomy out, I still needed to step down the amount of light hitting the sensor in order to capture the movement of the flag in the wind.

I only had one single-stop neutral density filter that I could put on the lens. I also added a circular polarizer. This wasn’t enough and I set the aperture to f/22, and the ISO to 50 in order to get a shutter speed of 1/2 second. That was acceptable for the photo, but it made me realize I need to invest in some additional ND filters.

Once I had the image in Lightroom, I started playing around with the tone curve and I thought that this was an interesting way to add an additional creative element to the picture. What you see is the end result.

Also, since the temperature got up to 54 today, the snow melted and there is a lot of standing water. We are under a Winter Storm Warning with 3 to 6 inches of snow, 40 mph winds, along with freezing rain forecast for tomorrow. Then the temp will crash to near zero so all this standing water will probably freeze. Great….