Hello all,
This post I’m going with something more traditional when it comes to my blog posts. Not crazy light paint action this time, but rest assured, that project lives on. Here, I’ve got some shots of Hog’s Back Falls, which I’ve photographed before, but with some specific gear and at a specific time.
Here we are, Hog’s Back Falls, with thousands of gallons of water rushing through from the snow melt a few weeks ago, and during a lovely sunset.
This shot required some preparation. First off, normally the sunset will be much too bright to get both the water visible and well exposed alongside the sky. But thanks to a graduated filter, I managed the shot. Basically, I put sunglasses on my lens, except the sunglasses are darker at the top, and get clearer at the bottom. That allows me to selectively darken one part of the image, or in this case, make the exposure of the sky more similar to that of the water.
Here, I used the same technique. While something similar can be accomplished by using photoshop, by doing it with a filter, the shot stays much cleaner, and lets you do a range of things in photoshop without degrading the image. Here I went with a less saturated sky in favour of a more haunted look.
But I didn’t go to the falls just for the sunset. I also wanted to get some good rushing water shots which I hoped would be smoother and more lively due to the high volume of water. Here, the sunset is behind me, making for a more evenly lit shot.
While I generally tend to think silhouette shots get a little too simple, I like the complexity of these because the silhouettes juts in and out of the shot instead of having the typical sunset with darkness everywhere else. Preserving the blue and green details of the water also balances the intense warm hues of the sunset.
While I really like wide shots that take in almost everything I can see, I find it’s really good to try and pick out some details, like this mound of snow surrounded by rushing water. Makes for another good contrast.
And there you are, my timing the rush shots and Hog’s Back falls. Hope you enjoyed the switch back to some Ottawa landscapes. Thanks for looking in!
