Using Neutral Density Filters for long shutter exposures at tidal pools requires some planning, timing, and a bit of equipment.

This past Thanksgiving I enjoyed a week along break from the mountains of Idaho while visiting family and friends just north of La Jolla, California. Having grown up surfing the cold water of Santa Cruz and the breaks south of San Francisco, I was in 7th heaven getting a few surf sessions in with a childhood friend. Watching the tidal charts for low and high tides both served to help time surf sessions, as well as when to visit the tidal pools.

The first trip to La Jolla's tidal pools was to share the marine wonders with my you niece. For this, we ventured out at low tide and found all sorts of creatures to check out. My wife was surprised that I didn't want to take my camera along for this outing, but, I explained that the number our tourists exploring the features, critters, and coves, along with the water moving around the rocks further away out--made me want to wait until the tide was high.

I returned at at +5' tide and found just what I wanted--a small swell sending in surges of water up the channels, splashing over bands of rock, and swirling around the pools. Because the pools were mostly filled with water, no one was around. I was also fortunate that a thin layer of clouds was above me with intermittent bursts of sunshine.

Having the tidal pools to myself, I put my Sony a9ii on my Manfrotto tripod and began using Sony's 24-70 f/2.8 lens with Hoya's Solac 82mm 6 stop neutral density filter. With my ISO reduced to 50, I set my aperture anywhere between f/7.1 to it's max setting at f/22 and enjoyed the long multi second exposures I was seeking. It was a blast waiting for the waves to surge into the tight crevasses and then see the images on the LCD screen.

After a few images were captured at 24mm, I swapped lenses for Sony's 16-35mm f/2.8 and captured this vertical image going for an extreme field of view from just beyond my feet all the way up to the distant horizon: