Interesting clouds can make all the difference to a great landscape photo. But have you ever thought about making the clouds your main subject?
Clouds come in a wide variety of types, and are always shifting and moving. You don't need to travel to get nice cloud shots. You can take cloud photos from the same location at the same time every day, and still end up with a good varied selection of shots.
clouds by Zest-pk on flickr (licensed CC-BY)
Cross polarization is a technique that can be used to take photos of clear plastic objects, revealing a range of psychedelic colors in the objects. It works by using a light source with light polarized in one direction, and then using a polarizer on your lens to filter the polarized light in the opposite direction.
By doing this very little direct light from the polarized light source gets through to the camera's sensor. However, stresses in the plastic object modify the light, meaning it is no longer polarized in the same direction as the polarized light source. This creates the fantastic colors.
Cross polarized photo of part of a plastic tank lid
