I love a waterfall image processed as monochrome. To me, it is clean, elegant and amazing. The first view I presented on Saturday was the color image, now it is time for the full gorge view in monochrome.
The namesake waterfall is not the only attraction to see when you visit Chittenango Falls State Park. I’ll admit it is the big ticket item, and definitely worth the trek down into the gorge. But, I have found the area of the Chittenango Creek above the falls to be a treasure trove of opportunities for a photographer. It might only be fifteen or twenty minutes for me to explore the views of the waterfall in the gorge but I spent over an hour exploring the creek. BTW, it is properly pronounced “crick”… 😉
For me the “trick” when photographing the creek is finding the right shutter speed. I want a longer exposure that will produce the silky water but I do not want to lose the sense of motion. I could have used the ten stop neutral density filter to totally blur the water (and there are instances when that is exactly what you want), but I chose the three stop filter to keep the swirl of the bubbles from becoming completely solid white.
I can still hear the sounds of the creek as I view this image… aaahhh, that sound takes me back a few years… 🙂
I could not have asked for a better day to make the trip out to Chittenango Falls State Park. Temperatures in the mid 70’s, a few puffy white clouds scattered throughout the sky and a light breeze floating through the park. I wasn’t alone in my desire to visit the beautiful waterfall. I almost was unable to find a parking space. Persistence won out eventually…
Surprisingly, the trails were not as crowded as the parking lot indicated. I believe there were a few group gatherings in the park and showing up around lunch time allowed me to explore relatively uninhibited. I was disappointed to see a family, or two, at the base of the waterfall climbing on the rocks. I guess all the signs prohibiting entrance to the falls went unseen… ???
I let the unwanted subjects for my image bother me for only a few minutes. There was nothing I could do about them and I was fairly confident I could make them disappear in Lightroom when I processed my images. Let me know if you think you know where they were in the image… 🙂
The falls face South and there is not an optimal time to grab an image as the gorge walls will be in shadow most of the day. I thought my best option would be at noon, which most photographers would say is when the light would be the harshest. But, the shadows on the walls help tame the overall appearance of the image. For each of the compositions, I captured a bracket of images in the event I would need to combine a few different exposures. This view didn’t need extra processing. The -.7EV image tamed the highlights well and I was able to pull out the shadows to show the detail in the gorge walls.
I think the obsession is fading. Photography, that is…
I truly haven’t felt the “need” to seek out images. I thought the trip to Florida would help rekindle the fire, but it didn’t. I found myself enjoying other activities. And that is OK… right?
I went to Bellamy Harbor this morning on a whim… meh…
Picture Day 