Canon 5D Mk IV – EF 16-35mm f/2.8L – 25 seconds, f/22, ISO 100, Eval Meter

Happy 4th of July! Today went from what was going to be a bland PotD to something pretty exciting. Roxie and I changed out the overhead fan in our bedroom today, and that was going to be the PotD – a picture of an overhead fan. I know, right? I was going to take a time delay pic to capture the motion of the blades. In order to do this, I had to stop the aperture down. Just in case the lens couldn’t do the job, I got out the variable neutral density filter.

I took a few pics of the fan and decided to put on the ND filter. That thing is a beast. I suddenly had an idea to try something I hadn’t done yet. I set the lens aperture to f/22 and set the ND filter to max 8 stops. This is a whopping setting of f/5,632! I then got a small flashlight and recomposed the shot so the camera was pointed in the darkened bathroom. I manually focused the camera on the door opening, got my remote control and a flashlight, and hid inside the bathroom. I experimented with various shutter speeds but liked how 25 seconds turned out. I then hit the shutter and with my arm only in the door, I ‘painted’ the doorway.

This is the first time I’ve done this and had fun with it. There are lots of possibilities and you may see this again in the future!