Valuable photography lesson (or reminder) I learned yesterday:

[Shakespeare]

If you're going to shoot on sunny days (and don't want glare/sun spots), don't forget to bring along your polarizing filter. x(

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Or a lens hood.

[flamin lib]

2. What you said, Blue. nt

[Shakespeare]

3. That, too.

Own a polarizing filter, don't have a lens hood. Need one, clearly. :hi:

[regnaD kciN]

4. Actually, a polarizing filter won't do a thing for those...

...since the flare is being generated within the lens (and I have lots of shots to prove it).

A lens hood (if it's a good one) will work, but is of limited use with wide-angles. What I find works best is, if you spot flare in the viewfinder, simply sticking your hand out on the side of the camera where the sun is and, making sure you keep your hand out-of-frame, moving it back and forth until it blocks the sun, and the flare goes away. Some photographers I know always wear a baseball cap or othe hat, and hold the hat out to perform the same function.

There are also techniques for removing flare in post-processing -- you might want to try looking some of them up, but they might be hard to pull off in a situation like yours, where the flare runs straight across a hill contour.

[Shakespeare]

5. Hey, I thought about you yesterday--we discovered a small waterfall along the way.

I immediately thought of your "water falling over things" pictures (that I enjoy so much). :hi:

Since we haven't entered our really rainy period down here yet, we were very surprised to find any waterfalls (and this one wasn't very big, but it was pretty).

That's a good tip about blocking the sun--I'll remember that next time. Fortunately, this was kind of a scouting trip to scope out what I want to go back and photograh in more detail (and with greater care) later. The day wasn't a complete loss, though:

[Richard D]

6. Where is this?

Looks sort of like Ojai area or East of San Diego?

[Shakespeare]

7. A few are just north of the Ojai valley, the rest are along the Cuyama River on highway 166.

And the deer are on Alisos Canyon Road near Los Olivos. We spent a good deal of time in the Los Padres National Forest near the Sespe Wilderness. Beautiful area, and gets very little traffic (highway 33).

Here are the pink cliffs of Ojai (also from yesterday):

[Richard D]

8. Such a beautiful part of the world.

Been a while since I've been there. Used to do a lot of camping up in the Los Liones area.

[Juneboarder]

10. Love Ojai...

used to attend Villanova. The town of Ojai is so awesome... it's like traveling back in time almost.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

9. that is exactly what I do too....also I found that an umbrella works nicely