Cascade in Eglinton Valley - Redux

[Octane (Humayun)]

I happened upon this stunning cascade in the Eglinton River Valley. It took me a little while to climb down the embankment to reach a position which was suitable for framing this gorgeous scene.

The sound of the water was very dynamic; from big and bold rushes to faint little trickles.

Crop from full frame.

Slightly higher resolution available here.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM
1s f/16.0 at 17.0mm iso100

Comments, critique, etc., most welcome.

H

[Octane (Humayun)]

Perhaps this looks better?

I intentionally only post small images online, to avoid theft and the like. But, every now and then, an image needs to be seen a bit larger to appreciate the detail present.

http://users.tpg.com.au/octane2/cievr2.html

H

[lacad01 (Adam)]

I see what you mean about the larger image, certainly get to appreciate the scene a lot more than the smaller one. Great shot, has really good depth to it and quite a tranquil looking spot

[Octane (Humayun)]

Adam,

Thanks, mate. Yep, another tranquil and serene spot. Can't wait to head back in a couple of weeks.

H

[Vanda (Ian)]

Nice composition - why did you choose B&W? The 1s exposure has captured the water movement well. Use a tripod? Thanks

[Octane (Humayun)]

Ian,

Why choose black and white? Variety is the spice of life! But, seriously, the image worked much better in black and white than it did in colour. The reason behind this is that the lighting for this particular shot wasn't exactly what I'd call flattering.

The other reason was that black and white makes you pay attention to detail in an image rather than be bedazzled by the colours. There is an enormous amount of detail in this image and I'm very happy with it.

And, finally, my last reason for choosing black and white was because I'd already captured this in colour.

Yep, I used my Manfrotto travel tripod, a 072B, from memory.

I think I've managed to eek out everything I possibly could from my last expedition. I can't seem to find any more images to work on. So, that was about 40 images from a 2 week trip. I think that's a pretty good result.

Thanks.

H

[Vanda (Ian)]

Nothing against B&W - in fact I recently bought a orange graduated filter for some fun with clouds in B&W. Could not get my hands on a pale yellow - yet!

[bloodhound31]

Me personally mate, I think B&W works extremely well in only a rare few photographs. I like this shot composition and detail and would be interested to see it in color to compare.

You sure are finding some pretty spots though. I need to quit my job to find time to travel around Australia looking for such pockets of treasure.

Nice work mate.

Baz.

[AlexN]

This looks really good H! Im wondering if you used an ND filter for this? shooting water like this I tend to go overboard on the "silky water" look... Whack a ND8 on the 17-40 and go for nice long 2~4sec shots... Sometimes it works, sometimes it really doesn't.. All a bit of fun I guess..

I hear you Re. B&W drawing peoples attention to detail and subject matter rather than just being wooed by colour... Being that we're astronomers here, we all know full well that a beautifully coloured image that lacks fine detail is still very pleasing, however a B&W image showing immense detail is often, IMHO, more appealing and interesting to look at...

Cheers..
Alex.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Cheers, Ian, Barry and Alex.

No ND filter for this one, Alex. Just a good quality circular polarizer which slows light transmission by about 2/3rds of a stop. This was imaged early morning down a fair bit of an embankment which was flanked on all sides (except towards the top left) by some rather large trees. These trees helped to cut a lot of the light out through their canopy allowing for a 1 second exposure to portray the silky motion of water.

The print of this looks amazing. I wish I had room to hang them all up!

H

[AlexN]

I'm heading up into the sunshine coast hinterlands this weekend to do some similar work.. taking the ND4 & ND8 just in case the canopy is not as thick as I'd hoped! I've got a ND400 but that might be a little extreme!

Hoping to get some good waterfall images myself.. Will see how they turn out in black and white, but I may resort to flashy colour!

[Octane (Humayun)]

Look forward to checking them out upon my return.

I won't be browsing on my iPhone this time around. Last time I browsed and checked email, I ended up with a nice $500 mobile bill!

H

[Liz]

A beautiful image Humayan!! The larger res is supherb