Low Water Paddling

Gallery: Man & NaturePosted October 21, 2014242 views10 comments

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted anything! I took the summer off due to a bunch of travel with family and friends. In September, the kids went back to school, and the woods and waters called me back to the wild. One of my first trips was paddling with friends on the Sacandaga River in the Adirondack Forest Preserve. After a month with very little rain, the water was low, and we found ourselves gliding over river grass (actually mostly a species of grass-like Potamogeton pond weed). A beautiful trip, despite some difficulty getting over and around a few beaver dams.

I shot this by firing dozens of bursts while gliding along with the camera barely above the water. Most exposures were off-level, but shooting wide gave me some room straighten them up.

Canon 5D Mark III; 24 mm.
1/160 sec. @ f/8; ISO 320

Comments

10 comments

Comment posted by Allen Brooks on October 21, 2014 at 5:13 PM

An interesting perspective. I like patterns made by the grass.

Registered on July 27, 2011, 262 Posts, 2597 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on October 21, 2014 at 5:16 PM

Welcome back, Wayne. Sounds like a great summer. I sure like like low angle with the touch of boat wake and those terrific swirls of pond weed. Very well done. BTW, that floating maple leaf in the llc is perfectly placed...

...what a catch.

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

Comment posted by Wayne Jones on October 21, 2014 at 5:31 PM

Thanks guys.
Mark: Maple leaf in LLC was easy. The real trick was getting the the floating text in focus! :D

Registered on April 18, 2007, 953 Posts, 6435 Comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on October 21, 2014 at 6:08 PM

Beautiful image - the little lip in the lower-left corner is quite distracting though. Editing this out leaves you with a stunning image.

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Marsh on October 21, 2014 at 7:48 PM

Nice capture Wayne and welcome back. I like how the grass leads your eye to the kayakers. This is when a tilting LCD screen would come in handy but Canon will not put these on their high end cameras. I think because they would not be fully weather sealed.

Bill

Registered on December 29, 2012, 21 Posts, 225 Comments

Comment posted by D.A. Edwards on October 22, 2014 at 2:20 AM

Great scene and the grasses really make the image. I might consider cropping out the relatively small bit of blue sky at the top but the photo is fine as presented.

Registered on October 8, 2014, 226 Posts, 1187 Comments

Comment posted by Thomas Haney on October 22, 2014 at 11:09 AM

Beautiful shot Wayne, couldn't tell what the grass was in the thumbnail. Personally I'd consider a 25% crop from the top and and a chunk from the left as well, to focus in on grass and paddlers.

Registered on April 7, 2013, 138 Posts, 537 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Reid on October 22, 2014 at 4:04 PM

Nice to see you posting again Wayne and a very cool shot. The grass looks just great and I agree about a touch off the top but very nice as is.

Registered on January 27, 2013, 65 Posts, 2460 Comments

Comment posted by Kathy Barnhart on October 31, 2014 at 11:27 PM

Love how the grasses look like hair in the clear water, and you got all that red in there somehow! Wonderful shot and I'm thinking cropping down from the top (leaving out the sky) might bring the viewer's eye to the grass and kayaks.

Registered on November 11, 2011, 404 Posts, 1639 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Pelton on November 2, 2014 at 8:14 PM

cool image, Wayne, I really like the grass.

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