Robert H Clark Photography Blog

Water

String Theory – Elakala Falls No. 1, Shays Run, Blackwater River State Park, WV

Blackwater Falls State Park, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Photography Trips, River, Robert H Clark Photography, Water, Waterfall Photography, Waterfalls, West Virginia, West Virginia Photography 1 Response »

Sep 152012

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. To a physicist or a musician, the concept of String Theory, will probably have different meanings. To a physicist String Theory is a research framework that attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity. To a musician it is the music and theory of all instruments with strings. For me the complexity of these ideas is staggering. Quantum mechanics is pretty heady stuff in its own right and one need only listen to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring to realize the beautiful complexity of his music. I would argue that in physics there is music and in music there is physics. In this image which I have lovingly named “String Theory” the concepts of physics and music have merged. Gravity, of course, plays a large role here, as does time, and perhaps the science of fluid dynamics. And I think we could throw in a little Chaos Theory for good measure. But there are also sound waves in physics and in music. A waterfall is all of these things and more. To watch the movements of the water, to trace the lines of the flows, is to witness the concepts of gravity and time. The music comes from the joyful sounds of water striking rock and splashing in the pools below. This is the complete orchestra. Standing quietly though, if you listen, you can hear the individual notes and melodies that make up the orchestra; Water upon rock; water upon water; the reverberation of notes that bounce within the stone walls; and then, more subtle, the dampened notes of water dripping on the green moss. If you stand long enough you can hear the notes trickle away, carried downstream to play again for anyone who will listen.

This is Elakala Falls No. 1. It receives that distinguished moniker since it is the first waterfall in a series of four fall along Shay’s Run in Blackwater River State Park, WV. I shot this image about two weeks ago with my WV shooting pal Mark Muse. The conditions were less than ideal and we were pelted all day by rain and generally unpleasant conditions. But despite the rain the concert was not cancelled. The river played on and the rain joined in for an improvisational set. During the intermissions we photographed, happy to be part of the show. Well, to be honest, only sometimes were we happy. We did not enjoy covering our cameras with plastic bags, or defogging our polarizing filters, or being soaked to the bone. But those things were just part of the process and if we slowed down, and allowed ourselves to listen, we could hear the music. Stop and listen. A simple concept that is hard to practice in a world hell bent to speed up. Places such as this are important to our well being, our heath, and our soul. Unplugging from the stream of bits and bytes and plugging in to the earths natural rhythms is calming and invigorating. Take some time to listen to the music. It is out there waiting for you.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

“Fire on the Flats” – Salt Creek Flats, Death Valley National Park, CA

Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Lightroom Workflow, California, Death Valley, Death Valley National Park, Death Valley Photography, Desert, Lightroom, National Parks, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Reflections, Robert H Clark Photography, Salt Flats, Split Neutral Density Filters, sunset, Water 1 Response »

Jul 222012

Fire on the Flats • Salt Creek Flats, Death Valley National Park, CA

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Today I am bringing you a little color and a little intensity. The image was shot on the Salt Creek Flats, a large expansive playa of heat tortured earth. Here in the summer the temperatures can reach well over 115 degrees. The heat leaches the salt and minerals from the soil which leaves the earth with a myriad of patterns, salt circles, ruptured soil, and the occasional pool of water. In the winter, when this shot was made, the temperature is more moderate and in fact very pleasant. Alec John, Travis Bechtel, and I spent several days exploring and shooting in the flats. It is a habit we have to shoot and scout locations multiple times in order to get to know the conditions and find interesting compositions. This was made on the evening of our second visit to this area. We had experienced amazing clouds through out the day and geared up for a potential “special event” for sunset. We were not disappointed. The clouds thinned along the western horizon and cleared the way for the sun to really light up the clouds moving in from the east. A large amorphous dragon-like cloud began to spread out over the playa and I began to look for a location to pick up a nice foreground and some water to capture the intense reflections of t he cloud. I found this beautiful round pool rimmed by puckered soil and a rime of salt. I began to shoot as the color started to happen. The intensity built till it looked as if the entire cloud was on fire. About fifteen minutes later it was all over as the flats entered the twilight zone of darkness.

How I Made the Shot: As a matter of photographic practice I often use a series of graduated split neutral density filters in my work. The filters allow me to balance the exposure in high contrast scenes such as this shot. Here the sky was well over 4 stops brighter than the foreground. So a split would allow me to expose for the foreground and hold back the sky creating a balance exposure. But on this trip I was experimenting without using filters. To capture the full range of light I made bracketed exposures-usually 5 stops but sometime 7, in the following increments: -2/-1/0/+1/+2 or -3/-2/-1/0/+1/+2/+3. In this way I was assured of having the data I needed to make blended exposures in Photoshop. I have found on recent shoots that I prefer this method as I not so intent on fumbling with the filters and instead looking at the light and watching it unfold. I can set the bracket sets on the camera and freely shoot. Back in the digital darkroom I can process the RAW files and bring them into Photoshop for blending. In this case I only needed two RAW files, one for the sky and one for the foreground, to make the final master.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

ers allow me to balance

Sunset at Lands End – Ellingson Island, North Shore of Lake Superior, MN

Lake Superior, Lake Superior Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Minnesota, North Shore, North Shore of Lake Superior, Photography Trips, Singh-Ray Filters, Split Neutral Density Filters, sunset, Twilight Photography, Water, Wide Angle Photography No Responses »

Dec 272011

Sunset at Lands End • Ellingson Island, North Shore of Lake Superior, MN

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Today’s image is just an interlude. A brief and still moment in time where day and night begin to overlap. At the moment it is a metaphor that represents my current situation. Right now, at the mid-point of the holidays I seem to exist in the transitional spaces of time. I have taken down my website, for good or bad, and am in the throws of rebuilding the site under a new architecture with WordPress. I have been thinking about this for some time and finally pulled the plug. Had I been on my game I would have built the new site early and made a smooth transition to the new one. But alas I simply procrastinated, unsure of where I wanted to take the whole thing. But it is coming together and I think I will be ready to relaunch in about a month. And there is more photography to come as well. I have two early trips planned in January to Death Valley with my buds Alec Johnson and Travis Bechtel and another trip at the end of the month to the Grand Canyon that will include a trip to Canyon X and a day of shooting with Tony Kuyper. So good things are going on.

In the meantime please enjoy today’s peaceful moment from Lake Superior. The image was made at sunset on Ellingson Island at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. I shot this during the North Shore of Lake Superior Workshop I assisted on with Alec Johnson. This was one of the last shoots of the workshop and was a beautiful and fitting end to a great time with a fabulous group of people.

This will be a the last post for about a week or so. I will return from Death Valley next week and I hope to bring you a lot of new images and adventures from the trip.

As always thanks for stopping by and supporting this blog.

Bob

Elakala Falls No. 1, Shay’s Run, Blackwater Falls State Park, WV

Blackwater Falls State Park, Heliopan Filters, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Nikon D3x, Photography Composition, Photography Trips, Photoshop Technique, River, Robert H Clark Photography, Water, Waterfall Photography, Waterfalls, West Virginia, West Virginia Photography 2 Responses »

Nov 202011

Elakala Falls No. 1, Shay's Run, Blackwater Falls State Park, WV.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. In my last post I presented an image from Elakala Falls No. 2, on Shay’s Run, in the Blackwater Falls State Park. Today I want to start at the beginning with Elakala No. 1. You might ask, as some have already done, why I did not start with this one. I am not sure really. Elakala No. 1 after all is the most iconic of the group of four waterfalls that tumble along Shay’s Run as it travels to meet the Blackwater River. But quite honestly Elakala No. 1 has been shot quite a bit and in truth I became enthralled with Elakala No. 2. It had such a thunderous power that kept me lingering and shooting for a long time.

You can’t argue about the beauty of Elakala No. 1 though. Where No. 2 was a pounding wall of water, No. 1 is a delicate veil of water linked by molecular glue. A study of this image will show a waterfall made up of smaller flows each one with its own series of cascades. The sound here is more symphonic. If you listen carefully, each cascade has its own sound, all part of the whole but with an individual voice. The amphitheater of rock is also quite interesting. It is a jumbled wall almost hand built in appearance, ancient, striated in layers, and painted with rich colorful hues. The walls are reminiscent of hand built farm walls I have seen throughout West Virginia. From above the sound of the waterfall is a rushing noise, a continuous sound of instruments warming up for the concert. Standing in the hall below the sound of water reverberates along the walls replaying the melody, each instrument clearly delineated.

The colors here are an intense, full-bodied, palette of tones. The water is a rich golden brown, affected by the concentration of natural dissolved organic acids such as tannins and lignins, which give the water the look of tea. Shay’s Run flows through a coniferous forest of pine, hemlock, and spruce. The brown needles shed by the trees degrade over time and mix with the run-off of organically rich plant and animal matter to give the water its brown color and a musty smell. The wetness supports vibrant green mosses and lichens. This is a place to delight the senses. Elakala No. 1 is also a place to reflect which is probably another reason why I did not start with this waterfall. Sometimes more powerful images surface to the top while the more sublime take a little longer to reveal their secrets. Slowly over the last few weeks this image has revealed its quiet secrets-the sounds, the smells, and the colors. A complete symphony I think.

Technical Details: The image was shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 17-35mm lens at 26mm. The image was exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 1 second. To slow the down the shutter speed and remove specular highlights I used a Heliopan Warming Polarizer.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

Potoma Waterfall – Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, West Virginia

Harpers Ferry, Heliopan Filters, National Parks, Nikon D3x, Potomac River, River, Robert H Clark Photography, Shenandoah River, Twilight Photography, Water, Waterfalls, West Virginia No Responses »

Nov 032011

Potoma Waterfall, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, WV.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. As most of you know I have been on a self imposed exploration of my regional backyard. I have cut back some of my trans-continental travel and taken the opportunity to visit some incredible local locations with one of my shooting pals Mark Muse. Today’s post is a real jewel and is located a mere 10 minutes from my office. Just downriver from where the Shenandoah and the Potomac join a small stream that drains from the mountains around Loudon Heights empties into the Potomac. But before it does the stream drops over a knife edge of stone and splinters into multiple cascades. On this day the falls were swollen with water from rains and snowmelt. The flow of water twists and turns through an obstacle course of large boulders before finally joining the Potomac River. Sometimes it just pays to stay at home.

Technical Details: I shot the falls in the early evening. The sun was already dropping low in the sky and the dense canopy of trees obscured most of the sunlight and gave me a beautiful even light for shooting. At this time even an ISO of 100 I could get 1/4 to 1/2 of second exposures which was plenty to give the water a frozen look. But I wanted a little more “flow” to the water and cut out some small specular highlights on the wet rocks so I used a Heliopan Warming Circular Polarizer which gave me an additional 3 stops. So my exposure data was ISO 100 at f11 for 4 seconds. Nikon D3x with a Nikkor 17-35 at 20mm.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

Twilight on the Shenandoah – Harpers Ferry, WV

Harpers Ferry, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, National Parks, Nikon D3x, River, Robert H Clark Photography, Shenandoah River, sunset, Twilight Photography, Water, West Virginia No Responses »

Oct 202011

Twilight on the Shenandoah, Harpers Ferry, WV. Image shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 24mm PC lens. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 30 seconds.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. We have had quite a variety in the weather department over the last few weeks. Though fall has officially arrived the color in the leaves has been somewhat uninspiring due to wet conditions, warm afternoons, and wind. All this has combined to keep the trees on life support so to speak and has negated any possible color intensity. What we need now is a good hard frost to really kick start the leaves. But I am afraid this year may well be one to forget. What little color we have is fairly dull. But not to worry because there is still fantastic color in the skies especially around twilight.

Several days ago I found myself out along the river at twilight. The air was crisp and clear. The river flowed fast, swollen with recent rain, while overhead cirrus wisps drifted on high winds. I love the blue light at this time of the evening. The day is gone and night is approaching but the skies luminosity still casts a light over the landscape. The river flowed silently except where it dropped over unseen rocks below the surface. There the water gurgled, a lively musical serenade to break the evenings stillness. Out beyond the floating gardens of rushes and reeds a great blue heron preened its feathers. More than once the great bird looked my way, checking on me, and perhaps wondering why I was there. As the light fell he took flight heading up river towards the gap. His day was done. And as I tripped the shutter for the last time so was mine.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

Morning Fog on the Shenandoah River – Harpers Ferry, WV

Harpers Ferry, Heliopan Filters, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Mountains, National Parks, Photography Composition, Photography Technique, Potomac River, River, Robert H Clark Photography, sunrise, Trees, Water, West Virginia, Zeiss Lenses 3 Responses »

Oct 122011

Morning Fog on the Shenandoah River, Harpers Ferry, WV.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. In my last post I admonished myself for not getting out and enjoying the many scenic possibilities that exist in my own backyard. I received quite a few comments via e-mail from folks all coming clean about falling prey to the same malady. It is easy to do of course. When you plan a shooting trip, say out west, your whole focus is on that trip and the physical and mental act of scouting, shooting, chasing the light, composition, and the list goes on and on. It is different at home however. Because all the home obligations from family to work to putting a roof on the house take over. It is natural because unless we live totally in a self-absorbed vacuum we still have to take care of the business end of life. And that means manage our commitments. It is just life. But, and here is a really big but, if we do not take the time to pursue what we love then it will pass us by. Lost opportunities will turn into the “I wish I had done that”. I for one have a big bucket list of places I want to go and things I want to see, do, and experience. It is quite long and I may never get to the end of the list but I am going to try. If you want something to happen then you have to take matters into your own hands. You can’t wait for it to come to you. You must throw you aspirations out into the karmic airwaves and step by step begin the journey. The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Oddly enough the journey, for most of us, begins at home.

I am fortunate to live and work in a very beautiful place. Just twenty minutes from my house the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers meet just below Harpers Ferry. The Appalachian Trail passes below my office and Loudoun Heights and Maryland Heights, part of the Appalachian chain, tower over the the confluence of the two rivers. Needless to say it is not only beautiful but an amazing barometer of the changing seasons. Fall color has started to appear and it will not be long before sheets of ice will stretch across the river. Though constantly changing the river is the catalyst which draws me to shoot. Fall brings some incredible fog events caused by the temperature inversions as the weather changes. So I have been spending a few days at “home” now just getting reacquainted with the river. As I have discovered it has a lot to offer.

Technical Details: I was on the river fairly early in the morning. The fog is generally thicker at this time and depending on the temperature swings can hang low to the river, obscuring all but the closest details, or float higher revealing more of the landscape. On this day I waited for the fog to begin to burn off just a bit and set up the shot to play on the various converging lines. The image was shot with a Sony a900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 24mm. The image was exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 6 seconds. I used a Heliopan Circular Warming Polarizer to remove specular highlights and a Singh-Ray 3-Stop, Soft Edge, Split Neutral Density Filter over a portion of the sky and background to hold in the sky and fog.

Thanks for stopping by today. Remember where your journey starts. Get out and shoot.

Bob

Sep 102011

Glen Avon Falls, Beaver River, North Shore of Lake Superior. Shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 17-35mm lens at 17mm. See story for capture details.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Today I am returning to Glen Avon Falls on the Beaver River. This is the companion shot to the composition I posted on August 22 and was taken the following morning from the top of the rock chute and just below the upper falls. On this day a light morning mist filled the river below the lower part of the falls and diffused the sunlight rising just behind the large rock on the left. I want to talk about this image in regards to some recent discussions I have heard concerning HDR photography. So if you don’t want to hear me get on my soap box then please stop reading here.

As a former 4 x 5 shooter I used to compose my shots and expose for one take. I had to use whatever means necessary ranging from composition to use of filters to get the shot in one take. Even today, as I have professed in this blog, I am still kind of a one shot guy. Get it right in camera can save hours of time in post production. But I have found that digital offers me a far greater opportunity to “craft” a shot that quite honestly would be nigh on impossible to do in one take. The above image is a prime example. I am shooting almost into the sun with a misty, shrouded fog, dark rocks, and rolling water. In terms of exposure I could get close but not where I needed to be to hold detail in the rocks, water and the mist. The solution is to expose for each and combine the files. My argument is that this shot is an example of HDR-high dynamic range photography. I am extending the capture range of the shot, which could not be covered by the sensor, through multiple exposure brackets.

HDR photography in its broadest terms is generally exhibited through what I might refer to as “wacked-out, over-processed, haloed, grunge” shots where multiple exposures are cooked in an HDR software. If it sounds like I don’t like this style then the answer is yes. I do enjoy looking at those that are well crafted but for the most part much of what I see is akin to velvet paintings. And before anyone jumps on me for that statement please understand that I do not begrudge anyone their art or practice thereof. If it makes you happy then I am all for it. There is plenty of room at the table for all of us to share what we do and love.

But the recent argument I heard, and I won’t say where to protect the innocent, suggested that the concepts behind HDR are not legitimate, partly because it is associated with the over-cooked look” or the “I did not capture it in one take argument” is puzzling to me. Is the fact that I shot and combined three exposures to craft the above image mean it is not a legitimate photograph? In my honest opinion it is legit. This photograph is not over-cooked, or wacked-out through over processing in an HDR program. It is true to my vision for this image and represents what I saw and experienced that morning. It is in fact a high dynamic range shot crafted through multiple exposures. HDR software such as Photomatix, Oloneo, and even Photoshop HDR are excellent programs to help you extend the dynamic range of a shot. All of them allow you, the photographer, to make processing decisions based on your perceived vision of the image. Wack it out if you want or keep it natural. Its your decision. The Glen Avon shot I posted on August 22 was processed in Photomatix. That shot, processed in Photomatix’s Fusion engine, is not over-cooked, in my opinion, but rendered in a natural look to create an image based on my vision. Today’s image was created through layer blends in Photoshop. Both images have a similar look but were achieved using different tools from my toolbox.

The argument that goes along with this that I, or anyone else who shoots in this way, and does not get it right in camera, is either lazy or not skilled just floors me. This might be true for a percentage of shooters but I just don’t think it holds water. If I was lazy and not skilled I would take one shot in .jpg, let the camera make the decisions, and move on. The image above took planning. It was scouted and included test shots for compositional decisions. Then on the day of the shot I had to deal with the light, the water, compose the final composition, think about the foreground, the corners, how I envisioned the final image, processing decisions, color or black and white, and the list can go on. It is the same for all of the other skilled photographers I know who use these techniques. HDR capture and processing is but one tool in our kit. I don’t shoot everything this way but its there when I need it for difficult situations. But to say it is not legitimate because it was not captured in one take or is practiced by lazy, un-skilled photographers is just bunk. I will now stand down from my soapbox.

Technical Details: Three images were combined to make the final shot. Exposures were at 1/4, 1/2, and 1 second. The RAW files were processed in Lightroom and moved to Photoshop where I used layer masks to paint in the parts of the shot I wanted. Once I had the file components to my general satisfaction I made the conversion to black and white. Just so you know I envisioned the shot at capture as a black and white. From there it followed a typical path with curve layers for various parts of the image, dodging and burning, and a mid-tone contrast layer.

Walk in beauty.

Bob

Reflections – Ellingson Island, Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, Lake Superior

Adobe Lightroom, Heliopan Filters, Lake Superior, Lake Superior Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, Minnesota, Moab Masters, North Shore of Lake Superior, Robert H Clark Photography, Singh-Ray Filters, Sony α900, Split Neutral Density Filters, Water, Zeiss Lenses 2 Responses »

Aug 252011

Reflections, Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, North Shore of Lake Superior. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 24mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 1 second.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. I am off on Saturday for a weeklong trip to Crater Lake National Park. I have a good bit of work there next week but suspect I will get in some shooting time. In the meantime, and until I return, here is a new image from my recent venture on the North Shore of Lake Superior. On Sunday evening before the start of the workshop I did a brief scouting trip down to Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. It was a beautiful and very calm evening. Lake Superior was glass like, without ripples and the color of lake and sky seemed to merge with only a thin line along the horizon separating the two. The overhead band of clouds were almost perfectly mirrored in the calm waters. Out from the shoreline, Ellingson Island appeared to suspend between water and sky, connected to earth by the thinnest tendril of stone. I was enveloped by stillness. The lake barely lapped at the shore and for a brief moment time simply stopped.

Technical Details: Though the clouds were perfectly reflected in the water I could not get a good single capture. So the final image is a composite of two images, one exposed to capture the clouds in the sky and the other to capture the clouds in the water. In each case I used a Heliopan Warming Polarizer and a Singh-Ray “sandwich” consisting of a 4-Stop Neutral Density and a 2-Stop Soft Edge Split Neutral Density Filter. The two RAW files were processed and combined in Photoshop. The 4-Stop Neutral allowed me to increase the exposure to gain some movement in the clouds and smooth out the water.

Thanks for stopping by today. I will see you back here in about a week.

Bob

Glen Avon Falls – Beaver River, North Shore of Lake Superior

Lake Superior, Lake Superior Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, Nikon D3x, North Shore of Lake Superior, Photography Composition, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Photomatix HDR, sunset, Twilight Photography, Water, Waterfalls, Wide Angle Photography 2 Responses »

Aug 222011

Glen Avon Waterfall, Beaver River, North Shore of Lake Superior. Shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 15mm Rectilinear Lens. See the post for technical details on the shot capture.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. I am preparing once again to leave town for another trip, this time out to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. After this one I will be able to stay home for a while and rest a bit. So in this brief respite between trips I am getting the cameras ready, cleaning sensors, lenses, and other packing chores. And of course I am trying to process out a few more images from the Lake Superior shoot. Today’s post may be my last until I return so I thought I would show you one I am very proud of.

For me this image represents the constant struggle we face when trying to craft an image. This is a shot of the upper falls on Glen Avon Falls on the Beaver River which empties into Lake Superior. I made two scouting trips to the falls and came away simply befuddled. I just could not get a handle on a worth while shot. The problem I faced is common and many of our workshop participants faced the same dilemma. Glen Avon is not what I might call a singular waterfall. It is instead made up of many cascades rolling through different levels. The problem was one of isolating the shot to achieve a uniform and cohesive composition. Alec and I scouted the falls before the workshop and I knew right away it was going to be a challenge.

When we brought out the workshop folks for the scouting session I once again just struggled to understand the place. When scouting waterfalls it is generally best to start at the bottom and work your way up. It is often difficult to see the cascades and features when approaching from the top. So for most the afternoon I mingled in with our students and made my way down stream. Again not much was revealed to me that gave me a meaningful composition to capture. We would all return that evening for the “formal” shoot and I was resigned to leaving the camera in the bag.

On the way out after the scouting exercise I finally saw what I was looking for. Or that is to say what I had missed. Making my way along the edge I came back to a long rocky chute that connected the upper falls with the lower. This was the isolation of forms I was looking for. The shot angle possessed a strong diagonal leading line and prominent foreground features that jutted into the scene providing a beautiful counter-balance to the strong line of flowing water. I saw the shot in my mind as late evening and in black and white. When we returned for the evening shoot I studied the angles once again from the top and bottom of the chute. The bottom was the best for the evening and the top position would actually be good for a morning shot. Around 8:30 pm I began to frame up the shot. I positioned myself, rather precariously, on a slippery ledge of rock, and put my tripod into a series of contortions to get the right camera angle. To get it all I had to shoot ultra wide with the 15mm rectilinear lens. I shot two test exposures to get a lock on the histogram and then made three sets of three exposure brackets, each bracket two stops apart, to merge in Photomatix. I shot the three sets in order to make sure I had the flowing water captured in a form I liked.

Technical Processing: The RAW files were brought into Adobe Lightroom and I choose the three image brackets that gave me a consistent look to the water flow that could be merged. Each exposure was approximately two stops apart and included a dark file at 8 seconds, a midtone at 30 seconds, and a lights at 2:00 minutes. Each file was processed and corrected in Lightroom and saved out as TIFFs for Photomatix. After import I processed the file twice-once in Exposure Fusion and once in Photomatix Tone Mapping. This was simply to compare the files and see which one I like better. In the end I went with the Tone Mapped version and let Photomatix convert to black and white. The final Photoshop work included some minor curves adjustments for the falls and dodging and burning layers.

The final image is born from the struggle that exists for all photographers. We can all point a camera at something and press the shutter. But the crafting of a memorable image takes time, patience, vision, and a little help from the muses. Sometimes our vision is clouded and what we seek will only be revealed by letting go. Easier said than done I can assure you. But working through this is, and always will be, part of the process. Basically some days are diamonds and some days are rust. Enjoy and embrace the struggle for inside lies the genesis of something beautiful.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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