Just let things go--be a waterfall
just practicing slowing down water here.
just practicing slowing down water here.
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May, 2016Views
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valeriepullom
June 26, 2016
Keep up the good work, I am trying to practice on night shots right now.
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at Natural Falls State Park in Oklahoma. As a self taught photographer I try to surround myself with other photographers to learn from and trade secrets offering up my own tips and tricks where I can. For this particular outing I took a friend (who also is a photographer) with me to just discover the park and work on our photographing skills.Time
I had planned this photo shoot a week out. Starting early in the morning, we drove out to the state park (about an hour and a half away)to arrive at 8:30 AM. On the way it started to rain and I was worried we wouldn't get much shooting done, however the rain become more of a drizzle chasing many people away to indoors, these falls were ours for the morning.Lighting
The day was overcast and drizzle rain, I tried to time my shots when the sun shown through the clouds, I really wanted to get the most natural light I could get to showcase the falls and vegetation. The rain really helped brighten things up a bit which helped out a lot.Equipment
My Rig is a Cannon EOS 60D with a kit lens and tripod. I am so very new to photography and have yet to dive into different lenses.Inspiration
I absolutely love nature, and my very first photographs with my Canon Rebel were of waterfalls. I am always taken away with the slow-motion capture of water and how soft it can look. One of my favorite hobbies is to geocache, and it was through that hobby I discovered the falls. There are a couple different vantage points to view these falls, but I really wanted to get the scale of them. I wanted to improve my craft to an even more professional level even if I was limited on gear. To me capturing a moment like this can last a life time, and that is what I wanted to do. I wanted to be captivated by the beauty of the falls.Editing
I did some Lightroom work but not much, I had already framed my shot, and felt the detail was quite sharp. I did boost just a small amount of color because of it being overcast that day, but all the post editing was really light.In my camera bag
Being that I am amateur, I make due with what I have. I only own to lenses, so I am limited somewhat on glass options. I have two basic lenses, a zoom lens that i have used for my macros, and DoF shots, and a basic portrait lens. I did have a Canon Rebel, but when the card reader pin broke on it..my photography days were kind of at a stand still. Then one of my photography buddies came up to me and offered me a trade for his Canon EOS 60D for an old truck I had. I loved photography so much I swapped him straight across from it. So my bag is light, two lenses, a 60D and a ton of SD cards.Feedback
The best advice I can give as I am self-taught is just practice playing with your camera. Take tons of photos, use the functions one at a time and just shoot, see what that function does and how it effects your image. Don't be afraid of the Manual Mode you can't really break your camera when exploring the settings and really pay attention to shutter speeds and aperture. Take time to understand the Marriage between the too, and just frame your shot. The less you have to do in post edit (in my humble opinion) the better quality the photograph. Understand your basic rules like the rules of thirds, and then break them often. I always try to remind people photography isn't always about the rules, it's also about expression. It's art, let the camera be and extension of your soul and how you view the world. For this shot in particular, you want to have a steady hand. When you press the shutter button, you can cause camera shake (giving a slight blurred imaged) to avoid that I used a tripod, and the shutter timer functions. I didn't touch the camera I let it do the work for me. I slowed the shutter speed down and adjust my aperture to allow just enough light in without over exposing.
