It's always enjoyable to make photos of reflections. For one thing, many people who don't photograph never really see these types of details, and when people do take note of them it tends to be fleeting. It's only when such details are 'frozen' in time that they can be really appreciated. Most folks end up being amazed that a patch of water could really look as intensely colored as this.
There were several aspects of this particular image that made it enjoyable to capture:
First of all, to get these types of images one often has to bend and contort themselves in order to find the angle that best portrays the reflections. However, in this particular case, it was easy. The conditions were just perfect to get reflections in the water and I could just stand on the wooden deck overlooking Ohiopyle Falls with my 400mm f5.6 lens (long, but quite light) and pick out small patches of water that showed intense reflections from the trees. No bending over or twisting into painful positions at the water's edge.....nice!
Reflections I
Copyright Howard Grill
Second, usually one finds images like this made in the fall, when the autumn colors are reflected in the water. This was taken in the Spring. In fact, I took it just a few days ago. The bright green color is from the surrounding trees with their fresh 'flourescent' green leaves and the blue is simply color reflected from the bright blue sky. These are not 'Photoshop' colors.....they are real, though only present in small patches of the water. In fact, though I added a bit of contrast to bring out the detail in the water currents (to give it the same appearance as it had at the site), the color saturation was actually decreased because the real reflected colors were so intense that they looked 'unreal'.
Thirdly, I got to go photograph with my friend Linda, and, for me, it is always more fun to take pictures with someone who has the same passion for photographing than it is to go alone.
12 comments:
Simply stunning, I can almost hear the sound the of water rushing by. A real calming image and one that would be good to meditate with in my mind's eye.
Thanks Colin. I find them calming as well. And when I find a little patch with reflections in moving water like this I find it interesting to just take many shots at various shutter speeds and pick out the ones that 'work' afterwards. There seem to be certain patterns that give more of a calm feel than others.
That's a beautiful shot. In my photography, I often miss the smaller, tighter shots like this. Especially at Ohiopyle when I'm so focused on the bigger shots of the falls. I made a few trips in the fall and got some shots in the snow this winter, now I see I need to get over there this summer and I need to look beyond the obvious.
Hi Eric...thanks for commenting. Hey, is that you on the Take A Hike Photography site. If it is you have some superb shots of Cucumber Falls there! I have a few days off and was shooting at Ohiopyle again yesterday.
"...many people who don't photograph never really see these types of details.." So true, and a nice way of pointing out what so much of photograp-hy is about. As for the image, you left me (as almost always) groping for words. Stunning!
Yes, that's my site. I love the park, but don't make it out there too often. It's a 2 hour drive for me and I rarely get up early enough to get there before the sun gets too high and blows out the falls. It was easier in the fall when the sun rose later. :)
Andy, thanks very much.
Eric, I know exactly what you mean. It is about 1.5 hrs for me. I was out there yesterday and it was great because it was forecast for cloudy and overcast and I had the day off. Slept 'in' until 6:30 and headed out and I could shoot all day long. Not good for reflections, but good for everything else. It was a great day.
Love the shot Howard - particularly the luminescence about it. One of my favorite tools lately for flowing water is the Singh-Ray vari-ND filter.
Hi Mark...I have one of the Singh-Ray filters as well. The water was moving pretty fast in this shot so a regular polarizer was all I needed. One thing I do notice in fast moving or rough water is that sometimes shutter speeds long enough to give nice smooth lines in the water lead to making the rough and 'white-bubbling' portions of the water blow out to pure white to no detail. It's almost like you need to dodge it out during the exposure. Have you had to deal with that as well?
Awesome image and nice article, thanks for the post.
Thanks Vashistha
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