Circular Polarizer Demo

If you remember at two years ago, I posted up a circular polarizer demo article. Today I will show you some more examples of why you should use a circular polarizer, but I most likely will be copying some text I wrote in the last article as there is no point typing the same content up twice. HAHA If you want to see the last post, you can do so here.

The sample photos with the polarizer shown today was taken using the B+W 82mm XS-Pro Kaesemann Circular Polarizer with Multi-Resistant Nano Coating. First off, let me tell you why a circular polarizer is good. First of all, if you love landscape photos, you have to get one, a circular polarizer helps contrast the colors and deepen the blue sky. Using a circular polarizer can also help get rid of glare from water, glass, leaves (what I'm showing you today), etc... A polarizer will also protect your lens from the elements like fingerprints, scratches, and water. It is a good idea to use a filter. I have also read online that a filter saved his L model lens from a fall! Definitely worth the investment because $100 < $5,000. LOL

If you are serious about photography like me, I recommend you not get the cheap ones because they cause unwanted glares in your photos and the polarizing effect isn't good. The ones I have are a B+W 58mm Kaesemann Circular Polarizer and a B+W 82mm XS-Pro Kaesemann Circular Polarizer with Multi-Resistant Nano Coating. They are German made filters, and includes special nano-technology coating that causes water that collect on there to drip right off. There is also little vignetting at wider angles. However, this filter is pretty expensive, but most good ones are. The 58mm one cost me around $100 and the 82mm one cost me around $250 (still worth it for the great German optics).

If you don't know much about polarizers, you will find two types of polarizers. One type is the linear polarizer and one type is the circular polarizer. The linear polarizers will have a slightly better polarizing effect than circular polarizers, but will render your auto focus function useless as the polarizer will prevent the auto focus sensor from seeing light. Linear polarizers are usually cheaper than circular polarizers. Circular polarizers won't effect the auto focus sensor and is what most people use. Circular polarizers are more expensive.

The only down sides to using a circular polarizer (like with all filters) is that since filters is suppose to filter out the light, it will also slow down your shutter speed and the time of day it will work the test (due to the sun) is slightly limiting. If the shutter speed gets too slow, make sure you have your camera on a tripod.

Alright, let's move onto the sample photos I took. All these photos were taken on my road trip traveling from the SF Bay Area to Vancouver, BC, Canada. If you want to see my trip photos, you can do so here. Please note some of the "non-polarized" shots still had the polarizer on, but it was rotated to not have a polarizing effect on the image as taking off the filter is a bit of a hassle.

A non-polarized shot at Eureka, CA. 

Here is a polarized shot. As you can see some of the glare from the water has been removed. 

Here is a non-polarized shot from Wheeler, Oregon from the deck of the Wheeler On The Bay Lodge. 

Here is a polarized shot. As you can see the glare from the window is minimized. 

Here is a non-polarized shot from Government House in Victoria, BC, Canada. 

Here is a polarized shot. As you can see the reflection from the glass is minimized.

Also, the circular polarizer can help make your photos more saturated. This photo is shot at Reflection Lake inside Mount Rainier National Park in Washington. Without a polarizer, this photo would not be as colorful. 

This is all the sample photos I got. Remember the filters I have is a  B+W 58mm Kaesemann Circular Polarizer  and a B+W 82mm XS-Pro Kaesemann Circular Polarizer with Multi-Resistant Nano Coating. If you are going to buy it, please buy it through my link. :) I get referral money that way and you'll be supporting the costs of running this blog. Even if you don't, please click in to check it out. I understand this filter might be a bit expensive for a lot of people, there are cheaper filters out there, but I don't recommend those. Also, when purchasing, don't forget to check if you got the right size filter!

Thanks for looking at this demo. I hope you have enjoyed it. If you haven't seen my past sample photos taken with circular polarizers, you can do so here. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Alameda County Fair 2013 (Part 1)

Every year, Alameda County here in California hosts a fair from mid-June to mid-July on the fair grounds in Pleasanton, CA. While I am not a big fan of fair/amusement part rides, I thought it would be a great place for some photography, plus a few of my friends kind of dragged me along (a few of them requested I don't post photos of them online, therefore I took care not to include them in any of my shots). So, here I will be sharing with you the photos I took at the fair. The photos will include the rides and games in the fair, the Freestyle Motorcross, All Alaskan Pig Racing, Model Railroad, and some other stuff. I took a little over 200 photos, and will be splitting them into several parts. I hope you enjoy viewing the photos.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best Alameda County Fair photos, use this link. To view all of my Alameda County Fair photos, use this link.

Next Part >>

This post will be on the photos of the rides, games, and some random "street photography" type shots I did at the fair. Also, scroll down if you want to read about my age discrimination encounter with Kitchen Craft.

A shot I took walking in. The photo is of some random people at the fair. It was a nice and sunny day and I managed to achieve this with no polarizing filter. I didn't bring one with me as I didn't want to carry a big bulky tripod with me to the fair. 

More photos of random people at the fair. Photo of one of the snack booths setup in the fair. 

The Ferris wheel setup in the fair. 

A photo of a kid ride in the fair. 

A booth setup detailing the times of concerts at the fair. 

Inside the building they had these demo booth setup demoing stuff. Funny thing. You see that lady on the right side on the 2nd image? She's apparently the "gate-keeper" for this booth. Seeing how my friends and I are "young adults" that probably won't buy anything from them, decided to shoo us off and told us to leave! We weren't even in their booth "fenced off" area either and wasn't even planning on sitting down there. We were on the outside. How rude. Well guess what, 2 pictures, story shared with the world. Do not recommend the "Kitchen Craft" brand of product. The company obviously practices in age discrimination. I bet the "gate-keeper" had no clue I have over 11K+ followers (at the time of writing) on Google+ did she. Well, you just did the company you work for a huge dishonor. 

The carnival people really wanted you to play. Many even offered me a few free tries. Even after saying no, they still ask. Anyways, with this shot of the basketball game, guess what the catch is? One of the signs (far right) says "Sharp Shooter Rims, Not regulation size or shape". I didn't play any carnival games because I know all of the are rigged in some way, plus all of them were way overpriced. For a basketball game like this, usually, the hoops are oval shaped, the grid to mess with your perspective, and over-inflated extra bouncy balls. 

The whole fair was setup on a giant parking lot I guess. 

A photo of the swing ride thingy. 

Another photo of the swing ride thingy. I got the idea for this perspective from commercials I saw on TV. I forgot what commercial it is though. 

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Next time, I will be posting more ride photos, and general "street photography" inside the fair. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Next Part >>

Circular Polarizer Demo

If you remember at the beginning of the year, I posted up a circular polarizer demo article. Today I will show you some more examples of why you should use a circular polarizer, but I most likely will be copying some text I wrote in the last article as there is no point typing the same content up twice. HAHA If you want to see the last post, you can do so here.

The sample photos with the polarizer shown today was taken using the B+W 82mm XS-Pro Kaesemann Circular Polarizer with Multi-Resistant Nano Coating. First off, let me tell you why a circular polarizer is good. First of all, if you love landscape photos, you have to get one, a circular polarizer helps contrast the colors and deepen the blue sky. Using a circular polarizer can also help get rid of glare from water, glass, leaves (what I'm showing you today), etc... A polarizer will also protect your lens from the elements like fingerprints, scratches, and water. It is a good idea to use a filter. I have also read online that a filter saved his L model lens from a fall! Definitely worth the investment because $100 < $5,000. LOL

If you are serious about photography like me, I recommend you not get the cheap ones because they cause unwanted glares in your photos and the polarizing effect isn't good. The ones I have are a B+W 58mm Kaesemann Circular Polarizer and a B+W 82mm XS-Pro Kaesemann Circular Polarizer with Multi-Resistant Nano Coating. They are German made filters, and includes special nano-technology coating that causes water that collect on there to drip right off. There is also little vignetting at wider angles. However, this filter is pretty expensive, but most good ones are. The 58mm one cost me around $100 and the 82mm one cost me around $250 (still worth it for the great German optics).

If you don't know much about polarizers, you will find two types of polarizers. One type is the linear polarizer and one type is the circular polarizer. The linear polarizers will have a slightly better polarizing effect than circular polarizers, but will render your auto focus function useless as the polarizer will prevent the auto focus sensor from seeing light. Linear polarizers are usually cheaper than circular polarizers. Circular polarizers won't effect the auto focus sensor and is what most people use. Circular polarizers are more expensive.

The only down sides to using a circular polarizer (like with all filters) is that since filters is suppose to filter out the light, it will also slow down your shutter speed and the time of day it will work the test (due to the sun) is slightly limiting. If the shutter speed gets too slow, make sure you have your camera on a tripod.

Alright, let's move onto the sample photos I took. All these photos were taken in the town of Pleasanton, CA and are of autumn foliage.

This photo was taken without any filter. 

 This photo was taken with my circular polarizer. See how the glare from the leaves almost disappeared and the colors are more saturated? :)

Here is another shot with the circular polarizer.  

Here is a landscape shot taken with a circular polarizer in a park in Pleasanton, CA with the fall foliage on the trees. See how the sky is a deep blue color and all the colorful leaves are more saturated?

This is all the sample photos I got. Remember the filters I have is a  B+W 58mm Kaesemann Circular Polarizer  and a B+W 82mm XS-Pro Kaesemann Circular Polarizer with Multi-Resistant Nano Coating. If you are going to buy it, please buy it through my link. :) I get referral money that way and you'll be supporting the costs of running this blog. Even if you don't, please click in to check it out. I understand this filter might be a bit expensive for a lot of people, there are cheaper filters out there, but I don't recommend those. Also, when purchasing, don't forget to check if you got the right size filter!

Thanks for looking at this demo. I hope you have enjoyed it. If you haven't seen my past sample photos taken with circular polarizers, you can do so here. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Circular Polarizer Demo

I have written up a newer version of this article that includes some new sample shots of another circular polarizer from B+W. I suggest you read this article, then go check out my new version of the article here.

Today, I will demo a few sample photos using my B+W 58mm Kaesemann Circular Polarizer. First off, let me tell you why a circular polarizer is good. First of all, if you love landscape photos, you have to get one, a circular polarizer helps contrast the colors and deepen the blue sky. Using a circular polarizer can also help get rid of glare from water and glass. A polarizer will also protect your lens from the elements like fingerprints, scratches, and water. It is a good idea to use a filter. I have also read online that a filter saved his L model lens from a fall! Definitely worth the investment because $100 < $5,000. LOL

If you are serious about photography like me, I recommend you not get the cheap ones because they cause unwanted glares in your photos and the polarizing effect isn't good. The one I have is a B+W 58mm Kaesemann Circular Polarizer which is a prime filter. It is a German made filter, and includes special nano-technology coating that causes water that collect on there to drip right off. There is also little vignetting at wider angles. However, this filter is pretty expensive, but most good ones are. This one cost me around $100.

If you don't know much about polarizers, you will find two types of polarizers. One type is the linear polarizer and one type is the circular polarizer. The linear polarizers will have a slightly better polarizing effect than circular polarizers, but will render your auto focus function useless as the polarizer will prevent the auto focus sensor from seeing light. Linear polarizers are usually cheaper than circular polarizers. Circular polarizers won't effect the auto focus sensor and is what most people use. Circular polarizers are more expensive.

The only down side to using a circular polarizer (like with all filters) is that since filters is suppose to filter out the light, it will also slow down your shutter speed. If the shutter speed gets too slow, make sure you have your camera on a tripod. 

Alright, let's move onto the sample photos I took. All these photos were taken at Lake Tahoe, California. If you want to see more Lake Tahoe photos, click here.

This photo was taken without any filter.
Update 2/22/2016: I visited this place again recently, and unlike my 17 year old self, I actually took note of where this actually was. This photo is shot at at Kings Beach, CA.

This photo was taken with my circular polarizer. See how the glare from the water just disappeared? :)
Update 2/22/2016: I visited this place again recently, and unlike my 17 year old self, I actually took note of where this actually was. This photo is shot at at Kings Beach, CA.

Lake Tahoe was cold, there was a think layer of ice on top of the lake near the shore. Lot's of glare from the ice right?

Polarizer on and part of the glare is gone and the bottom of the lake can be clearly seen.

 Another photo of how the lake bottom is now clear due to the polarizer.

I already posted this photo several days back, but the effect in this photo can only be achieved with a polarizer. See how the glare from the water is gone and you can see the rocks at the bottom? See how the colors are saturated? Beautiful photo isn't it?

I also posted this photo several days back. I wasn't able to remove all the glare, but this photo is a lot better than a camera with no filter. 

This is all the sample photos I got. Remember the filter I have is a  B+W 58mm Kaesemann Circular Polarizer. If you are going to buy it, please buy it through my link. :) I get referral money that way and you'll be supporting the costs of running this blog. Even if you don't, please click in to check it out. I understand this filter might be a bit expensive for a lot of people, there are cheaper filters out there, but I don't recommend those. Also, when purchasing, don't forget to check if you got the right size filter!

Thanks for looking at this demo. I hope you have enjoyed it. I have also written up a newer version of this article that includes some new sample shots of another circular polarizer from B+W. I suggest you also read that article here.  Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.