Photo Advice and Fishing

[cjfj80]

I went out fly fishing last Saturday and took a couple shots of my brother-in-law fishing. The advice I'm looking for is: Is there a way to stop the sky from blowing out and becoming white?
Info on pic might be helpful: Canon 40D With Canon 10-22mm. Shot at around 6:30pm, ISO 250, f11 (I'm at work and can't remember the shutter speed) The sun was set but still bright enough to blow it out. I took several shots from f3.5 up to f11 all achieving similar results.
I do not have photoshop or similar photo editing software so I can't post edit.

For what it's worth the photo was taken on the South Fork of the Ogden River and some others taken over the weekend included just for fun. The last two photos are from the Weber on Friday.

 

[Houndoc]

I get better sky-colors in my photos if I am careful to have sky in the center of the frame so it is read by the light meter.

Otherwise I have the exact same problem of over exposure of the sky.

I really like the photo on left and the black and white.

 

[NoTrax]

Polarizer. ( 90 degree angle use from the sun only )

If you want a toned foreground, and background tho you will need to bracket and layer mask the sky back in.

Since no software, Id recommended getting a polarizer, and a .6 ND filter.. at a minimum then retry those shots ND will make your shutter speed longer but will retain more raw color.

 

[NoTrax]

4th image is nice

 

[cjfj80]

I looked on B&H photo at Polarizers - for that wide angle I'm looking at $$40-250 Are the expensive ones really that much better?

 

[NoTrax]

For printing reasons, Id say yes. I have read quite a few articles about bad filters.. Id say 50+ per filter is acceptable. You can get into them a few hundred each...

Depends on how much quality you want, and what glass your starting with.