John Barclay took his LB Warming Polarizer to Tuscany to glory in the warm Italian sunshine

Freelance nature photographer John Barclay conducts a number of workshops each year, but this year was special. "I have just returned from leading a workshop in the Tuscany region of central Italy. Throughout most of the trip, we were treated to the same amazing blue skies with white puffy clouds that have inspired artists for centuries. Part of the challenge when leading an international workshop is deciding how much gear to pack. As I pared down my bag to the most essential lenses and filters, I realized that, of all the filters I own, there is one that I could not live without. That's my Singh-Ray LB Warming Polarizer. Its very low filter factor lets me use faster shutter speeds, which enables me to hand hold my camera for a number of shots. And, although I know I can warm up my images in post processing, I still like having the slight warming effect built into this filter.

"I made the image above immediately on arrival. In fact, it was made about a half mile from the farmhouse where we stayed. We were on our way to our first predetermined stop, but I had to jump out and make this image first. This is one of the situations where I was able to hand hold the shot because of the lower filter factor of my polarizer. To avoid color banding when using a wide-angle lens, I am careful to not over polarize my image. For this image, I backed off to about half of the polarizing effect the filter offered. When I teach, I like to say that a polarizing filter is not an on/off switch. It's adjustable to provide varying degrees of polarization.

"One of the images I had in mind to take in Tuscany was the classic round hay bale in a freshly harvested field. On this day, we were coming back from Siena and decided to take a scenic road we had not yet taken. We were thrilled and pleasantly surprised when we happened upon this wonderful scene. With my polarizer on my lens and the sun off to my left, I was able to fully polarize this scene leaving very little post processing to do in Photoshop.

"When we scheduled this trip, we were concerned about being a bit too early for the iconic red poppies, however, with luck on our side we were treated to glorious fields full of them! This time the sun was over my shoulder but the LB Warming Polarizer still helped reduce the glare a bit and warm up the scene.

"The final image was shot along the same scenic road as the hay bale. It was taken with just 30 minutes of daylight left. The light this evening was truly magical. When I saw the sheep in the field, I noticed that they were mirroring the shape of the cloud. I literally ran about 300 yards down the road to get the composition right! Once again, all I needed with the amazing yummy light, was the LB Warming Polarizer which in this case helped POP the clouds to create a bit more drama."

John is a freelance photograper based in Bucks County, PA. You can learn more about his workshops on his blog and you can see many of his images on his website, plus you can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.