Skyway Delight
The Cherohala Skyway used to be a heavily trafficked tourist destination through Robbinsville and Tellico Plains. On a lovely August morning a friend and I decided to travel down, see what there was to see. The road is only some 43 miles long, but we took our time stopping and exploring several of the locations as I tried a spot where I could get a decent sunrise photo. In many places the fog was to dense to see, but in this one lovely location near Joyce Kilmer I found a hole in the growth and spent some time working the scene, just enjoying the morning mountain air.
A somewhat bright morning, taken at a higher ISO value than most people would consider for such a scene. Yet, I had reasons for pushing it. Surely I could of gone to my base ISO and gotten the shot at a lower shutter speed, yet I didn’t. ISO is a often time misunderstood function in your camera, how and when to use it. I for years refused to budge my ISO at all, and it cost me plenty of shots. So, I’ll give you a quick brief on how I use it in landscape photography.
One of the top times I use my ISO is to shorten my shutter speed, and I want to increase that shutter speed for a few reasons, chief among them, I want to stop things form moving. In the case of this photo, the foreground was gently rocking in the wind. So, in order to get my desired shutter speed, I needed a high ISO. Now, I could of opened my aperture a little more and not gone quite as high with my ISO, however I was shooting very close to the foreground. Another reason to shoot a higher ISO is to brighten elements within an image, and then compensate with an alternate dark photo to later combine those exposures. In the case of someone just starting out though, play with your ISO, you may yet be surprised by how versatile it can be on a bright sunny day.
Until Next Time!
