Perspective Makes All the Difference

I got it! I went back to the waterfall I’d photographed on a Sunday when overcast cloud cover beat me to it. This afternoon there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and what a difference the sunshine made. I’ll have a few others too. It’s such a lovely spot.

I love the full photo of the waterfall with the woods behind and all, below, but I was visualizing other views of this little waterfall when I photographed it on Sunday in dim light. All the autumn colors in the leaves sparkled in the bright sunlight, and in that warm light I also worked out the best settings for a long exposure to soften the flow of the water and give it that misty appearance.

I chose an angle that brought the sunlight down into the water, gave the curving ledge a dramatic sweep and the water itself that angel hair softness that I envisioned, and the humble little waterfall in the woods an exotic appearance.

There was no room for my tripod in this spot, a slope of loose bits of slate with water seeping down from the hillside above. The only thing to do was to sit on it, kneel on it, and lie down on it, to get the right angle, taking the photo handheld for a 1 second exposure. It was quite the production, and worth the wet and muddy clothing. I came dressed for it, it dried fairly quickly, and everything comes out in the wash.

After getting a taste of photographing this on Sunday, but not satisfied with the outcome, I was annoyingly obsessed with getting these photos. The timing is brief, autumn is not as brilliant this year as last year, or other years. Already many leaves have fallen, and rain is coming later this week. That may make the flow of the waterfall more generous, but it may also knock down all the leaves that are left. So this morning, although I had plenty of work to do today, I found myself with no choice but to go and photograph this waterfall and then I could let it go and go on with my life. And of course have some nice photos too. The woods were exceptionally beautiful too, I’ll be sharing photos for a while.

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