Electric Chocolate (plus B+W)
by Jake Case
This is from a very special evening at Grand Falls back in August. The monsoons were raging here in Arizona, and the Little Colorado had such a heavy discharge that the entire width of the falls was engulfed by a single channel. I talked to some USGS personnel on-site, and they were estimating 5000-6000 cfs of water flowing at the falls. A got a few good shots on this evening, but this one was the most special.
After taking the more "typical" Grand Falls compositions for the sunset, I noticed this storm cell dropping some nice bolts in the distance. This composition was very much influenced by the location of the lightning in relation to the falls. I realize it may not be the strongest comp, but I feel like the magic of the moment makes up for what the composition is lacking. I consider this one of my strongest works up to this point, but would love to hear what the great minds here have to say!
I have this cropped to a 5x7 ratio, which I think looks best, but will likely use a 4x5 ratio for larger printing.
Raw conversion in Lightroom, dodging and burning using TK's luminosity masks.
Canon t1i @ 18mm
ISO 100
f/22
15 seconds
Comments
23 commentsAgree with this Jake. It's not ideal, but you should be proud of what you captured. I don't know how much a tighter crop would help this, though I'm sure you've played around with that already.
I think the colors and environment are pretty unique. Granted, I'd be happy with any lightning shot.
Max
Guy
Already mentioned, but what a fantastic combination of such powerful natural events. The b&w is very dramatic and easily wins my vote. Although I do think it could use some additional minor work like burning down the bright cloud area on the left And if I were to crop anything, I would actually start at the bottom and crop out about 1/2 of the water below. Not so much that you cramp up the bottom of the falls, but there is enough at the bottom that I think it takes a little away from the action above.
In the color version, the color seems a little off to me. Of course I wasn't there, but the the water and landscape has a little salmon color to it and for me the sky is to purple. at least for my taste anyway.
Awesome scene and capture of nature's fury - just needs a little bit of tweaking. And I would agree with you that a 4x5 crop would be strong and of course work well for printing ratios.
Lon