My best solution for the chaos of the rainforests on the Hawaiian island of Maui was to go wide and low angle. This afforded the feel of being engulfed and surrounded, as I was in reality. The overhead canopy was even more engaging than the dense growth on the floor but it was very difficult to find lines that didn’t intersect or deep shadow that did not hide important detail.

This dilemma eventually led me to choose my Canon 17mm Tllt/Shift lens and many different exposure combinations. As I always do in this situation, I made two exposures of each shot — one for the shadows and the other for highlights — just in case a composite was necessary. In the end I was successful with a 4-stop soft-step ND Grad. I took care to block both the reflection and reflected light from behind using my filter pouch just behind the filter and above the lens. This is a lesson I’ve learned when using this extremely wide angle lens with my ND Grads.