Waterfall and Colors
A waterfall near the Blue Ridge Parkway surrounded by seasonal Autumn colors. These falls are along a popular trail and this is one of the few frames that I got of them without people climbing over the rocks.
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Thursday, November 4, 2010
More Fall Colors
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Waterfall Cove
Lake Jocassee Waterfall Cove"
This was the biggest waterfall that we saw on Lake Jocassee. It was nestled in this little cove behind a small cliff. There were also a lot of large, yellow winged butterflies fluttering around it the cove. However, I wasn't able to get any shots of the waterfall where you could actually recognize the butterflies in the them. The butterflies stayed close to the waterfall and didn't come close enough to us to be much more than a blurred, yellow speck. It was still quite pretty in there though.
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Monday, August 9, 2010
Jocassee Waterfall
A Jocassee Waterfall
Here is a photograph of one of the waterfall that we visited on Lake Jocassee last week. I believe this is the first one that we saw.
Photographing waterfalls from a boat is ... interesting. Normally, you want to be set up on a tripod to minimize movement so that you can use a longer shutter speed to capture that nice "cotton candy" water blur. Long shutter speeds and a boat don't go well together though. The boat keep moving which would make the entire picture blurry instead of just the water cascade. Both of the lenses I used that day were image stablized, and I used them in their "active" setting. The active setting attempts to compensate for all movement at once and specifically meant to be used while on moving platforms ... like a boat.
It worked well enough I suppose. I got some nice blurred cascades with some of the waterfalls that we saw later in the day.
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Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Issaqueena Falls
Issaqueena Falls
A couple of hundred yards away from the Stumphouse Tunnel is Issaqueenq Falls. The falls are named after a Native American women who was said to have used the falls to escape pursuers. Depending on the story she either jumped off the falls to her death or she hid on a ledge below the top of the falls. It is a pretty waterfall. I wonder what it looks like surrounded with Autumn colors? Guess I'll have to remember to go back this Fall to find out.
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Reedy River Falls at Night
Reedy River Falls at Night
This was one of the last photographs I took while at Falls Park. There is a spot light that illuminates the falls at night and I liked out it backlit the water going over the falls. This is not an HDR image, it is a simple long exposure of 30 seconds. Long exposures turns water rapids into silky white blurs.
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Tuesday, August 4, 2009
The Maid of the Mist
Approaching the Falls
We rode the Maid of the Mist while in Niagara Falls. There are several boats that leave on a staggered schedule. They pass by the American and Bridal Veil Falls. The highlight of the ride is a close approach to the the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. This is why you are supplied with a raincoat. Once you are at the base of the falls you will get soaked. Not wet, but soaked from head to toe. The roar of the water crashing into the pool is quite loud as well. The force of the air being displaced by the water is strong enough to push you around if you aren't steadied. While you can "experience" Niagara's fury this way, you can't really see much of the falls themselves. They are hidden by the mist into an almost whiteout condition. Still you do feel the falls all around you.
More after the jump.
After reading that, you might be wondering how I kept my camera dry. I used an Optech Rainsleeve to protect my camera while on the Maid of the Mists boat. Actually, I used it whenever I was near the falls or was concerned about rain. The Rainsleeves are not very expensive and you get two in a pack. They are not intended for long-term, heavy duty use. However, they are very portable and easy to use. Perfect for stuffing into a corner of a camera bag for those times where you find yourself in a wet environment. While they are meant to be used on a tripod, I did not have any trouble adjusting them to hand held use. They definitely protected my camera from the worse that Niagara could throw at my camera save an actual trip over the falls. Even in that extreme case, I would be more worried about the fall than getting wet.
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Monday, August 3, 2009
Canadian Horseshoe Falls
The Horseshoe Falls
Here is a view of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. The photograph was taken from the top of the observation deck at the Maid of the Mist pavilion. You can see a couple of the Maid of the Mist boats below. From this observation deck you get a great view of both sets of falls.
Stay tuned for another photograph tomorrow.
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Friday, July 31, 2009
Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls
Our first full day at Niagara Falls was overcast and rainy. First we ate lunch at the Elements restaurant that overlooks the Horseshoe Falls. It was a nice view, but a bit obscured by the rain. Plus, the wind was blowing the mist from the falls right into the visitors' center and observation deck making it even more wet.
More after the jump.
Next we went on the Niagara Fury's exhibit/movie which was in the visitor's center. It starts with a short cartoon that teaches about the history of the falls. Then you go into a 360 degree cyclorama theater where you stand up, watch full motion video of the falls while the floor tips around and you get rained on and splashed in order to "experience" Niagara's "Fury". They do give you a disposable raincoat to keep you dry. Actually, you get a disposable rain coat for almost everything you do at the falls.
After Niagara's Fury, we went on the Journey Behind the Falls tour. This was pretty neat. There are a couple of tunnels bored into the rock behind the falls. Two tunnels have openings where you can see the water falling over the falls from behind. The main tunnel opens out onto a two-level observation area next to the Horseshoe Falls. You can see a close-up profile of the water cascading over the falls which I thought was interesting. You can also watch the Maid of the Mists boats as the approach the falls to get their passengers soaked by the falling water.
Although the tour and view was interesting, the cloudy skies were not very good for photography. Another issue I had was keeping the lens dry. The wind was blowing the mists from the falls right into us which made it difficult to keep water off the front of the lens. I did have a rain cover for the camera itself though which worked like a charm. The camera still works and is none the worse for the wear of getting so close to Niagara's Fury.
More photographs next week. Have a good weekend.
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Thursday, May 28, 2009
Color Corrected Image
Looking Glass Falls in Autumn 2
It is a slow week this week blog wise. I am still working on the histogram post. I am having trouble getting images of histograms for illustrations. It is difficult to discuss them without a visual reference. Plus, our plans fell through this past weekend. My parents had come up to visit and we planned to go to a local festival. However, it rained all weekend and we decided to stay in. We still had a good visit though, and that is all that really matters.
More after the jump.
One thing that I have been working on is a color corrected version of an image I took last Autumn. The photograph up top is the result of the color correction. The original had a slight blue cast to it that was particularly pronounced in the water itself. The original photograph is shown below for comparison.
Looking Glass Falls in Autumn
I had been wanting to make some prints of this image, but color cast had been getting on my nerves so I hadn't ordered any prints. I spent a few days on and off working on the image to remove the blue cast. At first I tried simple white balance adjustments. However, none of the adjustments made really satisfied me. While they corrected the water, the other colors were affected too much for my liking. Eventually, I used a combination of the HSL color range saturation and lightness adjustments. Those allowed me to target just the blue ranges leaving the other colors alone. Plus, I could use those other color ranges to put a little more pop into the colors that was lost by removing the blue tones globally. I am much more satisfied with the photograph now.
One other adjustment that gave me problems was sharpening. I had originally processed this in Nikon Capture NX 2. However, when I reprocessed it with Lightroom 2 / Photoshop I seemed to loose some fine detail and crispness that I had in the original version. I finally pulled out a couple of my Photoshop CS4 books and tried a couple of other sharpening methods and got results that I was much more pleased with. I'm not sure that the final image has quite as much detail as the Capture NX2 version, but it is so close now that it is hard for me to tell the difference.
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Friday, October 17, 2008
Going W...I...D...E
Reedy River Falls from the Liberty Bridge
I finally broke down and picked up a Sigma 10-20mm ultra wide angle lens. The local photography store had it at an exceptional price, and it is a lens that I will need for developing my architectural / Real Estate portfolio. I have use it a couple of times now, including yesterday when I was in Greenville while running some errands. So, I took my camera with me and went to Falls Park to test the lens out on the Liberty Bridge. The bridge provides a great view of the Reedy River Falls. However, I had never been able to get the bank to bank vantage that illustrates the sweep of the falls. The new Sigma 10-20mm can easily get the bank to bank shot and then some. As the Liberty Bridge forms an arc across the river, it is almost possible to get both ends of the bridge in the shot at the widest setting.
Anyway, this is going to be a fun lens with so much potential. I am chomping at the bit to take it up into the mountains for some Autumn landscapes. That will probably be in a couple of weeks from now. I'll leave you with a couple more keepers from yesterday's brief excursion and test session.
Shadow Arch
Across the Reedy River
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Friday, October 3, 2008
On the Edge
On the Edge
Yesterday I spent an hour at a local nature park called Hatcher Gardens. It was a beautiful afternoon: clear, cool, a good breeze. My favorite kind of weather. I ended up playing around with my 50mm lens again and got some interesting shots of the small waterfall in the park as well as some flower images. The waterfall was in a dark, shaded spot and I was using slow shutter speeds to blur the water. They are kind of abstract, but that was the effect I was going for. Sometime I will take a tripod and try to capture them the "correct" way.
He's a photograph of some of the flowers. There was some interesting contrasts between lighted and shadowed areas. Notice how the flower in the foreground is nicely backlit.
Pink Glow
That's it for today. There is a Revolutionary War re-enactment tomorrow that I hope to go to. I hope the weather is as nice tomorrow as it has been the past couple of days.
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