Shutter speed fun

It finally happened!  I took my first veiled waterfall photo that I'm happy with.  In the past I've never had much luck with moving water photography - images would be blown or simply not appealing. Armed with my handy DSLR, I added a neutral density filter (Cokin's 2ND) and tripod, set the shutter speed to two seconds on average, and came up with this:

I like it!  The overcast day brought out vibrant colours.  And for the first time I turned into a 'camera snob'.  Internally I cringed at the point & shooters (sorry to those of you reading this), and looked in awe at how tourist after tourist snapped away without thinking, knowing they wouldn't be snapping this.  Instead, they'd be snapping water droplets, thinking they captured their once-in-a-lifetime Canadian Rockies vacation brilliantly on their iPhone.  Then again, not everyone's into photography, and one can indeed take perfectly fine photos without some of these features.  It's just that my D5000 has captured my heart.

Through more trial and error and just shooting away, I also learned some lessons for myself:

• Bring more than one lens cleaning cloth, especially on a drizzly day.  I quickly dropped mine into the mud, rendering it useless.  My shirt just didn't work as well.
• Shower caps can be your friend while setting up.  Thanks to some previous vacation and pilfering the bathroom accessories, my camera stayed nice and dry.
• I need a camera level.  In the past I'd ask others why on earth they can't just look and determine if the horizon is straight, but when you're dealing with tripods and non-level grounds, a quick glance at it, as opposed to through the viewfinder, could tell you if you're set up right. 
• I may want to upgrade to a new tripod.  The one I have - a hand-me-down - does the trick, but I didn't manage to be able to swivel the camera around, even though I think this tripod should be able to do that (does the big handle give it away?).  And more importantly, I need to be able to lock my camera down.  With the big lens it became a little front-heavy, quickly tilting my camera down at one point.  Thankfully I caught it or it would have been a very expensive lesson learned.  And who wouldn't like to be able to invert the bar on the tripod to get really close for those macro flower shots?
  
  
  

So, off I go to eBay to search for my latest gear.  In my 12 months of rewards, I think a tripod may fill spot number one.