Sparkling Cascade
by Catherine Reilly
I know what I saw: the reason so many of us would gladly watch a waterfall for hours, if we could, and how our watching turns into a trance that escorts us beyond time. I wanted very much to capture an image of this edge of Silver Falls, in MRNP, that would reveal the special delight of such a scene. Sunlight frolicking in the water and in the shadows. So, I worked all the “technicals,” the composition, the timing, and took a lot of shots. Opening the images in Photoshop brought initial disappointment. I know what I saw: dull, uninspired, color…; static-looking stills of flowing water…; definitely NOT trance-worthy. Into the digital darkroom to scout for any keepers. I was not optimistic. Thanks, yet again, to Ansel Adams for confessing that he took his shots in the field and made his photographs in the darkroom. And the same thanks to all here at NPN, who continue to inspire by sharing your knowledge and creativity. The result isn’t necessarily such a spectacular image. But it is one of my favorite, now, because of what I made of it. It is not what my eye saw on the spot. It is not what the camera recorded. I know now what I see: I see what my soul saw in the seconds that the water and light fell together over the cliff. Know what I mean?
D700, 70-200 @ 200, cpl, tripod; f22, 1/8, ISO 200. Mostly sunny day, but backlight from top left into shadow area in front of the cliff. In the darkroom, lots of time spent finding and dodging all the water trickles and “trails” on the left of the image followed by a long series of color adjustments and layer masks.
Comments
15 commentsA minor (minor!) nit - to my taste, I would pull the greens down just a wee bit on those leaves.
Well done!
Gary.
some appropriate color diversity as well as a texture variation. This is lovely
and original.
This is great! I think perhaps one of your best, if not your best intimate landscapes to date. The streak of light shimmering on the falls really makes the image for me, yet the small details of greenery and little cascades throughout the rest of the image keep me engaged. I really like this!
And when I see an image that I really like, I tend to get more picky because I would like to see the image "be the best it can be" - as I learned from my friend Tony Kuyper. And clearly you are on that path as well from your well written comments. I might post an image soon that relates to what you've written. My initial disappointment when getting my slide back, and then the transformation as I began to work and develop the image. I see that here too. anyway, a couple suggestions. To me, this looks like there's a general cyan cast to this, especially in the shadowy rock areas on the left. The second thing is that the rock/water areas on the left are a little soft to my eye. I realize the falling water/mist is a big factor here, but I think even selectively sharpening some rock areas would help. Even some of the shining water too. I see where Floris is going with the crop - but I wouldn't crop too much. Perhaps just enough to eliminate the dark "notch" center, left edge. But cropping is not an image maker.
This is well seen Catherine! Congrats.
Lon
Peter
Rgds
Mark