KGSPhoto

In the Rapids

Climbed down the cliffs to get up close and personal with the rapids at The Great Falls National Park in VA. The falls and the river were churning at sunset. ...
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Climbed down the cliffs to get up close and personal with the rapids at The Great Falls National Park in VA. The falls and the river were churning at sunset.
Read less

NIKON D7000

settings

Aperture f/16.0 ISO 100 Shutter 1/3

upload_date

Jun, 2012

Views

3460

Likes

+178

Awards

Featured

Absolute Masterpiece

+15

Peer Award

+14

Superb Composition

+13

Top Choice

Jaw Dropping

Magnificent Capture

Outstanding Creativity

Superior Skill

Exceptional Contrast

All Star

Emotions

Impressed

Top Ranks

Top 10 rank

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Categories

stunning capture :D

your work is gorgeous! really enjoyed looking through your images!

I'm In AWE! This is Amazingly Busy/Yet So Peaceful! BRAVO!

Would you mind sharing what your settings were for this? Love It! Would like some help with flowing waters.

how stunning

Premium

Great capture !

Congrats!

Great shot

Beautiful capture!! Well done!

Congrats on feature. Wonderful image!

beautiful!

amazing!!!!!!!!

Great image. Congrats on feature

PRO+

Stunning!

congrats

Beautiful! Congrats on the feature!

PRO+

very cool shot

Awesome shot, nice work!!!!!

Nice, congrats on your feature!

Awesome capture!

Superb capture & well worth climbing down the cliffs for. Congratulations on being featured.

Thanks everyone! It's an honor to have one of my shots up on the front page!

Awesome capture! Congratulations on your feature!

Stunning shot, congrats. on your win!!

Excellent capture.Congrats!

wonderful... :)

Wonderful capture

Great capture.

WOWZA....this is stunning!!

PRO+

congrats

Love this shot!

awesome!!

Beautiful, congrats!

love it

Eyecatching dramatic Image

Platinum

Awesome capture! Congrats!

Platinum

Breath taking

amazing!

Platinum

Beautiful capture. Congrats. - Jake

Awesome! Like Gabajo commented I would also like to know your camera settings to learn from!!! Thanks and congratulations to your Featured win!

Thanks for looking. Here's the settings from this shot: iso 100, 1/3 sec., f/16. Shot on tripod, with a trigger release, and a ND filter. I only edit on Lightroom, other than that not much else. Hope it helps.

Platinum

Absolutely beautiful~

congrats!! :D

Nice capture

Excellent shot!

Gorgeous!

Amazing image! Absolute masterpiece.

See all

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Behind The Lens

Location

I grabbed this shot at Great Falls Park in Virginia. It's located just 15 miles outside of Washington D.C.

Time

This was taken in the golden hour. Around 20 minutes or so before sunset.

Lighting

The lighting was soft as the evening set in, especially down in the rapids of the Potomac River.

Equipment

I shot this with my Nikon D7000 and a kit lens, 18mm-105mm f/3.5. A Manfrotto tripod and a remote shutter release.

Inspiration

Ever since I heard about and seen photos of Great Falls Park I wanted to travel there and explore and capture some shots for myself. There are several overlook areas located above the river and waterfalls, but I wanted to get down up close and personal with the power of the rapids. Luckily when I visited the river was running low so I was able to climb down a smoothed out cliff side to get down to the boulders on the side of gorge. Once down in it things were very loud and very amazing! I set up at the edge of the rocks just beyond the breaking waves and clicked away. I made sure to climb out before the sun set so I could see where I was going.

Editing

I used Lightroom for my post processing. Basically smoothed out lens distortion, brought down the highlights and punched up the shadows. Brought the clarity up at tad and that's about it. The hardest thing to deal with was shooting in the dark gorge with a bright sky over the top of the falls.

In my camera bag

Currently I normally have my Nikon D600 and my old D90 in my bag. Along with a Nikor 24mm-85mm f/3.5 and a Tokina 16mm-28mm f/2.8 wide angle lens. Tons of ND filters ranging from half stop to 6 stops, UV filters and my remote shutter release.

Feedback

Capturing waterfalls are pretty fun. If you want to get that silky water motion look make sure you use a tripod and a shutter release of some kind since you'll most likely be shooting with a long shutter to get the motion blur. Also see about using a polarizing filter to cut down on water reflection and/or neutral density filters to cut down the light coming into the camera if you are shooting in bright daylight. Once you find your location and have your gear together it's all about shooting away at your subject. Try different shutter speeds for varying amounts of motion blur. Try super low angles or look for something interesting to include in your foreground. It's all about enjoying yourself and having fun so shoot until you've covered all your bases. Be happy you're not working with expensive film!

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KGSPhoto

In the Rapids

Climbed down the cliffs to get up close and personal with the rapids at The Great Falls National Park in VA. The falls and the river were churning at sunset. ... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow KGSPhoto

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Climbed down the cliffs to get up close and personal with the rapids at The Great Falls National Park in VA. The falls and the river were churning at sunset. ...
Read more

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