Working A Scene

One of my favorite waterfalls can be found in Western North Carolina near Rosman. It's not in a National Park, National Forest or even a State Park. In fact, it's not on public lands at all.  It is in the back yard of a private residence! The owners are nice enough to allow, and even encourage, visitors to their own private waterfall on Shoal Creek.

After parking behind the house and walking about 200 yards the trail climbs a very short distance and then descends a set of stairs to the base of the falls. This is the first view of the falls taken next to the small pool below the 60-foot falls.

1/2 sec at f/16

I've been here twice and neither time was there a lot of water flowing over the falls. I think this level of water is just about perfect. It allows individuals streams to separate when falling over the rocky bluff. There is a lot of interesting details and patterns in these falls. While you can easily see the entire waterfall from this vantage point, there is much more to see and photograph.

Landscape photographers need to move around and "work the scene".  Avoid the temptation to place your tripod in the first place you find.  Move closer or farther back.  Use your zoom lens, which can give a different view from moving closer.  Get lower.  If possible, get higher and shoot down. We didn't stay long enough because standing in water with thunder storms near by is not a good way to live long and prosper.

1/2 sec at f/16

Hoping across the rocks to the center of the stream gives you a slightly different perspective with the rocks in the foreground. The first and second shots include the lush green foliage and thick moss on the sides of the waterfall. It was an overcast day and the soft indirect light really made these greens pop.

1.8 sec at f/16

The pool below the falls is not very interesting and does not add much to the composition. Wading through the pool I got closer to the falls and made the shot above, cropping out most of the pool and the gray skies. You'll notice I also cropped off the top of the falls. I did this to emphasize the shapes and patterns in the lower falls, which I found to be very interesting.

2.0 sec at f/16

I think the triangular shape of the bottom of the falls with the water flowing down the stair step to makes an interesting composition. I was able to include just enough of the water flowing in from the left and the greens in the upper right.  

Tall waterfalls like this typically work best as vertical portrait orientation shots. However, the horizontal ledges in the falls made an interesting landscape orientation composition when I zoomed in closer.

0.9 sec at f/16

I zoomed in closer to emphasize the hard geometric lines and shapes of the rocks and the soft flowing water. I always like green plants or moss showing through behind a waterfall.  

4.3 sec at f/16

All these photos were shot at ISO 200 and f/16. The shutter speed varied due to the changing light conditions. By the time I made this last photo the skies had turned dark from the returning thunderstorms. It was time to head for the safety of the car again.

Making Photos With Flowing Water

To make photos with the soft flowing water you should start with a shutter speed of 1/2 second and vary it to get different effects. You might need to adjust your exposure compensation or use manual mode to not let the white water become over exposed in the long exposures. Of course, your camera must be steady through the long exposure so a tripod is pretty much essential to keep the rocks solid and sharp. If you place your tripod in a stream be aware that the water will introduce some movement and potentially blur your long exposure photos. I  place my hand on the tripod and press down during the shot to control as much of the movement as possible.

The other thing I find to be essential for these shots is a polarizer filter. This will reduce the glare off the wet rocks and foliage.  Be sure to turn the filter to adjust how much glare you want to remove.

Finally, if you have read this far you probably want to know where these falls are so you can visit them yourself.  These are Eastatoe Falls near Roseman North Carolina.

Directions to Eastatoe Falls:

1. From Rosman NC, drive south on U.S. 178 for approximately 3.4 miles to a private drive on the right.
2. There is a sign for Mountain Meadow here, and the driveway leads back to a house, and what used to be a craftshop on the left.
3. The home owners have made a small parking area behind the house labeled with "Park Here" signs. The trail leads across the lawn into the woods and to the falls.

Please be courteous and respectful when visiting these falls. There are many beautiful falls on private property, but very few of them are accessible to the public because the land owners do not allow access.  

Beyond Iconic Photos - Iconic Time Lapse

I recently read an online article in the Washington Post that proves my assertion that we all take iconic photos.  My definition of an iconic photo is one that is taken thousands of times by thousands of people.  These photos often look very similar, only varying by season, time of day or weather conditions.   Sometimes the photos are copies of outstanding photos by famous photographers, such as Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View or the obvious vantage point people naturally gravitate to when photographing a scene, such as this view of Butchart Gardens in Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Butchart Gardens

Sometimes there are limited options which leads to everyone's photo looking the same.  An example is Triple Falls in Dupont State Forest.

Triple Falls

There is really only one place to stand where you can see most of the falls.  This has led to everyone's photos looking pretty much the same.  I tried to be different by converting to black and white.

If you google for images on the internet you can find many examples of iconic photos.   Try it yourself by entering "Butchart gardens images" and look at the top images.  They will look very similar to mine.

Now, researchers at Google and University of Washington have taken this to the next level.  They have searched through 86 million images on publically accessible photo websites looking for "iconic photos".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/18/how-researchers-turned-the-chaos-of-millions-of-flickr-images-into-beautiful-time-lapses/

The Butchart Gardens photo shows up around the four-minute mark in the video.

This video would not be possible without people's tendency to take iconic photos.   As you can tell from my photos, I guilty of taking them as well.  It's OK to take the iconic photo, just don't stop there.  Look around for other shots from different angles that also tell a story, like these, also from Butchart Gardens.

A Photographer's World

Also taken at Butchart 

As is this one.  I have no idea what kind of flower it was but it was interesting.

Have fun and go Beyond The Iconic Photo.

Photo Manipulation

Tom Branch Falls

Today I took a hike down along the trails in the Deep Creek area of the Smokies with a good friend and Best Man from our wedding .   It's a place I've only been one other time and the first time I've been there in the fall.   The colors in the southern Smokies around Bryson City, NC were more muted and a little behind where they are on the north and western slopes this year.

As you can see from the photo of Tom Branch Falls, there was still a lot of green in the trees.  We didn't see a lot of golds or reds.  A few more cold nights and sunny days are sure to bring out those colors.

Even when we don't get the colors, light, or other conditions we are hoping for, there are always other ways to manipulate the photo.

I'm not talking about editing the photo and changing the green leaves to gold.  I'm talking about using compositions  that manipulate what the photo says.

Juney Whank Falls

The Park Service has built a nice bridge right next to Juney Whank Falls that allows the hiker or photographer to get close to the falls.  The yellow and red leaves stuck to the rock face caught my attention. Instead of taking a picture of the entire falls, I chose to zoom in on a small section with those leaves and some white water.  I think this photo has an autumn feel with the little color that there is.


Another opportunity to manipulate the mood through composition is the picture of this small rock in a stream.

Streams of Gold

I got this color by getting down low on the edge of the creek and getting in the right position to get the reflections I wanted.  In this case the reflections in the stream were of trees on the opposite bank that were lit by the early morning sunlight, giving it a golden tint.

No need to manipulate a photo in software.  You can change the story the photo tells by paying trying compositions that are different from the obvious, getting the right angle, paying attention to the light and getting a bit creative.  

Tanawa Trail Footbridge - The September 2014 Calendar Photo

The Tanawa Trail is a 13 1/2 mile hiking trail in the North Carolina mountains that parallels the Blue Ridge Parkway near Grandfather Mountain.  This footbridge is easily accessible from one of the many trail access points along the parkway.  It's been some time since I made this photo, but I think this is on the section of the Tanawa trail that goes to Rough Ridge.

Tanawa is the Cherokee name for fabulous hawk or eagle.  On this day the scene was a fabulous painters pallet of warm fall colors.  To the east the sky was becoming overcast which obscured the grand vistas, but created really nice conditions for taking photographs in the woods.  

There are any number of ways to photograph this bridge.   If you do a google search for Rough Ridge Bridge and look at the images you will see the compositions others have come up with.  I like this angle because it shows off the beautiful arch of the bridge and the stone column in the center.   In the fall the creek is reduced to a small trickle, which shows up as a black section under the bridge.  For the photographers who are interested in the more technical points this was taken with a full frame DSLR, 17mm, f/22.  This image is an HDR image created from three different exposures to capture the brightest and darkest parts of the scene.

This photo brings to mind quiet walks to peaceful places.   The busyness of life can wear us down and we need to get away to these quiet places to recharge.   Luke recorded that Jesus would slip away to a quiet place to pray.   What better place to pray than in the midst of God's creation with no distractions to compete for our attention.

I'll be selling the 2015 edition of my calendar this fall.  For information see the previous blog post - http://thesiggins.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-polls-are-open-its-time-to-vote-for.html  Stay tuned for more information on how to order a calendar.