Muir Woods National Monument

Muir Woods National Monument, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, 4/5s, f/4, ISO: 100

I love Muir Woods in the rain.  There are many more interesting places to go in California when the weather is nice, but when it's wet few places can compete with Muir Woods.

Gray skies mean soft, dark light inside the redwood forest.  This is a challenging place to take pictures, but when it's overcast a DSLR and a tripod can work wonders.  The tripod is the key because to get the most out of this light the camera is going to have to be set for some long exposure times.

Listen to me, talking like I know what I'm doing.  Pfft.

Muir Woods had been something of a nemesis for me until recently when I decided it was time to master more than the basic settings of my camera.  For this trip, my camera was locked at an ISO of 100 and the f-stop was maxed out at 4.0 on all of my shots.  I managed the exposure solely with the shutter speed.  The fastest shutter I used all day was 1/10 of a second, and a few pictures were taken with up to four seconds of exposure.  I ended up with some wonderfully colorful shots.