Tama Falls & Alternate

Large View Available

One of the less photographed cascades / falls in NH White Mountains.  Heavy rains were forecasted last week so I figured it would be a good time to try and capture them.  Weather cleared earlier than I expected, so the flow was lower and skies were much clearer, the lighting more variable.  I waited around these falls for a couple of hours, hoping some clouds would move in to give some even lighting, but those opportunities were slim.  Around 1PM I noticed that the sun would be hitting pretty much only the right portion of the falls and leaving the surrounding forest largely in shade.  As the sun moved, the center and left part of the falls were illuminated by the sun.  So I decided to try and render this interesting spotlighting on the falls by taking a base exposure of the scene at low ISO and slow shutter speed which was good for the shadows and created a silky exposure for the water, though much of the brightest areas were blown out and detail-less.   I then took a much faster exposure when the sun lit the right portion of the water that had detail but some motion blur.  As the sun slowly moved the center and left were illuminated so I took an exposure while they were highlighted.  I combined these 3  exposures in post.  I did get a single exposure of the scene but the water looked a a bit dull when the sun wasn't shining on it. Possibly because it is a more gradual drop rather a nice vertical.  I don't think the image would have come out as well if the forest had dappled lighting - too distracting.  Interested in your thoughts to see if it worked.
D810, Tamron 15-30, partial polarization, base exposure ISO 200, f16, 0.7  sec.; water exposures ISO 320, f13, 1/8 sec.