Aquamarine Dream

Gallery: LandscapePosted December 13, 2012710 views27 comments

The view looking over the edge of an absolutely beautiful waterfall in the Columbia River Gorge. The blue tones here are due to the clarity of the water which is spring fed from a large aquifer.

My goal with this image was to capture the feeling of sitting right near the edge of this powerful waterfall. When I was composing the image, I simplified it down to the most important elements (overhanging tree with vibrant spring greens, beautiful blue water going over the falls and a small portion of rock and grass to show the edge of the falls). During post processing, I went with the square crop to simplify things further.

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 10-24mm dx, polarizer
Single exposure - 1/5 sec at f/16, ISO 640

Thanks for taking a look and for any comments/suggestions you have. I'm very interested to hear what you think about this one. Please check out the larger version.

Comments

27 comments

Comment posted by Eva McDermott on December 13, 2012 at 10:31 PM

Love the abstract qualities here Scott! Phenomenal water motion and turquoise color.

Registered on January 4, 2009, 1015 Posts, 13229 Comments

Comment posted by Youssef Ismail on December 13, 2012 at 10:37 PM

Goal achieved! Feels like I am right on the edge. Those blue tones make this feel so crisp and refreshing. Very neat.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 474 Posts, 5555 Comments

Comment posted by Joseph Campisi on December 13, 2012 at 10:53 PM

Excellent in every way Scott!

Registered on November 24, 2008, 304 Posts, 3211 Comments

Comment posted by Raied Alani on December 14, 2012 at 1:07 AM

Amazing!
Like: blue color, the green color of the tree
dislike: i would like to see more from the rock below.

Registered on December 3, 2012, 27 Posts, 90 Comments

Comment posted by Kah Kit Yoong on December 14, 2012 at 4:28 AM

This is beautifully lush and vibrant. I'm a little undecided about the rocks at the bottom but they don't overly bother me either.

Registered on September 27, 2006, 636 Posts, 10682 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Richter on December 14, 2012 at 4:37 AM

Scott, the almost abstract character of the falls is amazing to me. Your unusual framing by the foreground elements works interestingly in my opinion and keeps me well within the frame.

Peter

Registered on November 10, 2010, 218 Posts, 2723 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Pelton on December 14, 2012 at 6:55 AM

Very well done, Scott. I like all the elements you included, especially the falls section in the background. Very beautiful scene.

Registered on November 25, 2003, 380 Posts, 4647 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Palmieri on December 14, 2012 at 7:22 AM

Really love the effect on the water and the colors are fantastic. I think you succeeded in your goal of creating a "feeling of sitting right near the edge". TFS!

Registered on September 1, 2011, 35 Posts, 748 Comments

Comment posted by Natalie Mikaels on December 14, 2012 at 8:04 AM

Wow. This rocks. A wonderfully unique waterfall composition. You really captured the power of the waterfall. Well done.

Registered on November 3, 2011, 45 Posts, 181 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on December 14, 2012 at 9:09 AM

Scott, I love the turquoise colors and all the water action. WOW!

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on December 14, 2012 at 9:52 AM

Scott, This looks great! I love the turquoise color and the motion of the water. For me it usually seems hard to make these overhanging branches work well, but you sure made it work here! The background falls looks fantastic and I was wasn't sure about the rock at the bottom, but the more I have been looking I think it works very nice!...

Good stuff guy!
I especially enjoyed your larger version!

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Registered on February 1, 2004, 752 Posts, 14140 Comments

Comment posted by Daniel Rappaport on December 14, 2012 at 11:29 AM

Beautiful, unique waterfall capture

Registered on September 9, 2009, 294 Posts, 2006 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on December 14, 2012 at 12:52 PM

Gorgeous color in that water. I also like your framed comp. Beauty.

Registered on May 7, 2007, 670 Posts, 19650 Comments

Comment posted by INGOMA on December 14, 2012 at 1:22 PM

The colors and textures here are phenomenal, Scott! The tree frames the image nicely. Do you have any version where you concentrate solely on the water? Excellent work here!

Registered on July 2, 2004, 231 Posts, 3110 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on December 14, 2012 at 1:44 PM

Scott,

This is an incredible image! The color immediately stands out in the water, but the second one gets to realize the impact of the rest of the scene and how this has been composed, it gets even better. As Youssef said, YES, you most certainly succeeded in accomplishing what you set out to do. This unlike any waterfall image I've seen. One of the elements here that makes a huge difference is the rock and cascading water near the center-right edge. Talk about scale! No matter if those rocks are 6" or 10ft tall, their size in the frame makes the main fall appear ginormous and certainly very powerful.

This is a wonderful image, not only from a beauty perspective, but also in it's ability to bring the viewer right there. Congrats!

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Nathan Apodaca on December 14, 2012 at 2:10 PM

I love the glacial blue, with the rich green foliage. Great job simplifying this scene. No nits whatsoever! Thank you so much for including a larger version!

Registered on November 16, 2011, 67 Posts, 1127 Comments

Comment posted by Michael Cothran on December 14, 2012 at 2:18 PM

Your title is fitting for the image. That is some awesome water motion. And the "aquamarine" color is really cool. The evergreen branches at top, and that tiny spec of land at the bottom help keep the eye on the water.

Registered on December 5, 2012, 31 Posts, 730 Comments

Comment posted by Ned Fenimore on December 14, 2012 at 2:43 PM

Fantastic as always... was this on our trip?

Registered on November 1, 2003, 467 Posts, 2803 Comments

Comment posted by Chris Chamberlain on December 14, 2012 at 6:49 PM

Beautiful color in the water, and great perspective. I actually might prefer just the falls without the foliage, or even the foreground. Don't know, I'd have to see it. Ths is nice too!

Chris

Registered on March 13, 2007, 500 Posts, 8365 Comments

Comment posted by Scott Smorra on December 14, 2012 at 8:02 PM

Thanks to everyone for all of the comments. I really appreciate them. I did try a few different crops here, but none of them worked as well as the one I posted. I felt like the image lost a bit of impact when I cropped to exclude the rocks at the bottom. When the rock is cropped out, it doesn't feel like you are sitting right near the edge of the falls.

Lon - to give you a sense of scale here, the falls are about 35 feet tall and I'm guessing the rock below the falls is about 5 or 6 feet tall.

Ned - Yes, this was from that day we spent out in the gorge last spring. We will have to get out there again next year!

Registered on November 2, 2009, 161 Posts, 2143 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Schrayer on December 15, 2012 at 1:00 AM

I really like the color and motion in the water. While I like the framing at the top of the image, I'm not so sure about the bottom of the frame. I think it needs more foreground at the bottom edge to complete the framing. That's a pretty minor nit, though.

Registered on May 28, 2004, 114 Posts, 2890 Comments

Comment posted by Zack Clothier on December 15, 2012 at 1:47 AM

Love the color and feel of this, I personally would like to see a bit more of the FG rocks, but that's being picky. Wonderful image!

Registered on January 28, 2010, 343 Posts, 2257 Comments

Comment posted by Jimmy Gekas on December 15, 2012 at 1:26 PM

Whoa, this is sweet. I think the composition by the square format is perfect...maybe better if the bottom rocks are absent? Just a thought and I am sure you have thought about that, too. Special colors in the blues make this really sing.

Registered on July 26, 2007, 244 Posts, 2807 Comments

Comment posted by Chet Dowell on December 15, 2012 at 3:57 PM

Scott, you have a definite winner here. Amazing color, excellent comp. You put the viewer right there for a real treat. Chet

Registered on December 3, 2012, 237 Posts, 1171 Comments

Comment posted by Oleg Kuchorenko on December 15, 2012 at 4:40 PM

Great feelling of composition! Looks very interesting !

Registered on July 2, 2012, 9 Posts, 111 Comments

Comment posted by Catherine Reilly on December 18, 2012 at 9:26 PM

Phenomenal!

Registered on August 16, 2006, 603 Posts, 9192 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Metternich on December 18, 2012 at 9:59 PM

Sweet Scott!!!

Registered on June 19, 2009, 276 Posts, 6240 Comments