Ever wonder who needs a Hi-Lux UV Filter? Here’s your answer…

In Equipment & Technique by Sean Widker

From National Geographicphotographer Nevada Wier — now somewhere beyond Bangkok on a two-month trip to Myanmar and India — comes a brief note with these two images from her on-going project “Outer India.” Almost always on the move, Nevada’s choice of Singh-Ray filters is quite different from that of most other photographers.

“Traveling to remote places all over the world on airlines, through airports and over primitive backroads and bumpy mountain trails places very practical limits on how much equipment I carry. I need filters that are sharp and not too many of them. In fact, I only use three — but they are essential to my photography. I have a Singh-Ray Hi-Lux UV filter on each of my five lenses. Then there are two other essential filters I always have: an LB Warming Polarizer(lighter, brighter) and a Vari-ND variable neutral density filter. Those are the only filters I need, but they are all indispensable! I believe in having the best and the toughest, and that means Singh-Ray to me.

“Both of these images were taken this past April with my favorite filter — the Hi-Lux — during a trip to Nagaland in far northeastern India.

“Above is a portrait of a Naga tribal man at Namtha, the border between Assam and Nagaland, with another elder Naga in the background. It was processed with an under-saturated look — beginning with the RAW processing in Lightroom and then moved into Photoshop to fine-tune the tonality — as always, I do not crop or alter any content in my images. I have a personal imperative not to crop or change any content. It’s not a “right or wrong” thing just a personal challenge and habit. I want to be creative and precise in the moment of clicking the shutter.

“This second image was taken during a ‘War Dance’ of the Adi Minyong tribe at Jamlo Moku village in Arunchal Pradesh. I was using a Canon 1Ds that had been modified to only sense infrared light, and I was using the grid in my focusing screen to frame for a square image.”

When you visit Nevada’swebsite or blog, you’ll find many beautiful images and many more helpful comments such as this. “Equipment is important. However, it is incidental to seeing. Seeing, feeling, and framing is what really matters to me. I choose a moment, frame it quickly — with intent. Thinking, feeling, intuition, and imagination.”