Fall at the falls – III
Please click on the image for a larger view.
Time to get close to the water. This is what I really like to shot. To take in the details in the rocks, the flow of the water, and the incredible colors you get this time of year. Often, you will see the colors of the trees reflect in the small rapids.
Enjoy. :)
Fall at the falls – II
Please click on the image for a larger view.
Where im standing while taking this shot and the shot in the next post, is actually under water during the spring thaw. It’s the very top part of the Onaping falls, or High Falls as some call it. You can see where the water level usually runs when the river is at its peak. As you probably have noticed if you have seen my pictures on this blog, I LOVE to get close in on the falls. I like this shot, but when i got home I realized that the top right corner is blown out. I could crop it out, but it makes the shot boring, so I left it in. I guess I need to get a split grad filter for next time.
Oh by the way. In case you missed the first shot in the mini-series, just click here. For more fall colors, or just to check out my site, click here.
My posting of new shots is not exactly regular, so if you like, you can subscribe to my blog and get a notification that way. You can find the subscribe box just below the comment box.
Going under ground
Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-200mm, 18mm, f/5.6, 6 sec, ISO400
I think an apology is in order. A while back I upgraded varies plugin’s on my blog, and for some reason the commentLuv plugin did not get re-enabled after the upgrade. I just realized yesterday that something was missing from the comments – the link back to the commenter’s own blog.
If you have commented on my images, please know that I appreciate them all, critical or not, and at the very least I should offer a link back to your blog. It didn’t happen, for that I’m really sorry.
Today’s shot is from an old limestone mine in Denmark. The mining ended in 1953, but the kilns were still producing burnt lime from other quarries all the way up to 1978. The mine is now part of a museum. Lots of tourists take the tour underground, guided or not. The constant temperature in the mine is perfect for storage and maturing of cheese, up to 200 tons of it. Just try for a second to imagine the smell… yeah, I know.
Besides being a bat habitat, the mine is also home to an underground concert hall – the acoustics are amazing.
The Mill
Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-200mm, 170mm, f/8, 1/2sec, ISO200
Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I think that was a very short weekend….
I’ll kick this week of with a shot from the paper mill in Espanola, Ontario. It’s from a set of shots taken in October last year. I just happened to be going by early in the morning, and seeing the mist or fog by the hydro damn and bridge, that’ s just an opportunity that shouldn’t be wasted so I had to pull over and grab some shots. Here and here are some earlier post from Espanola.
Harris Creek
Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-200mm, 82mm, f/13, 1/6 sec, ISO200
I found this shot while going through some shots from 2009. I thought it would be alright for a post here.
The shot is from Harris Creek, which is running under Hwy 17 East of Blind River, Ontario. It’s a nice little spot where it’s easy to get to the tiny falls.
P & R – Back at High Falls
Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-200mm, 42mm, f/8, 1/3sec, ISO200, B+W circular polarizer
First I would like to say thanks you so much for your nice comments, encouragement and support. It is truly appreciated.
Last round of my “post & run” week.
It’s from my favorite spot to go shoot in my area, and yup, it’s another fall shot from the beautiful High Falls in Onaping and there will probably be more posts to come from this place.
Enjoy.
More falls colors
Nikon D300, Nikkor 15-35mm f/4, 35mm, f/6.7, 1/750sec, ISO20
It’s time for some more fall-fireworks from High Falls in Onaping, Ontario. Please feel free to click on the images for a larger 1200px view.
Above is from the trail that takes you along the falls and into the bush. If you walk far enough you will eventually end up on a look out that is over grown by now. Its called Sudbury Basin Lookout. Beautiful spot, but the sun was in the wrong place to get a usable shot from there.
Nikon D300, Nikkor 15-35mm f/4, 35mm, f/9.5, 1/125sec, ISO200
One more from the trail. This shot was also posted on Google+
Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-300mm f/4, 70mm, f/27, 1/2sec, ISO200
After walking in the bush for a couple of hours with a heavy backpack, I’m back at the falls dead tired and sweating like a ..well you know what I mean. I got there just in time for the late afternoon sun hitting the trees across the falls, which reflects these amazing green and golden colors along with the sky in the water. I could not pass this opportunity to grab a few shots of that. Absolutely gorgeous place.
Before I sign off, I want to say a huge Thank you for all your nice comments and tweets. Please know that they are all very much appreciated.
Fall colors at High Falls
Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-200, 29mm, f/27, 1.0 sec, ISO100, B+W circular polarizer
As mentioned in an earlier post, the weather has been outstanding up here lately. So there is no excuse, just get out there and shoot. I have explored the High Falls in Onaping, Ontario af few times now, and it changes every time I’m up there. The shots in this post are from the end of September, at the peak of the color show. I decided to put more than one shot up today, because I have a lot of shots from this place, and my blogging has been a bit on the slow side lately. It is nice to have some new ammo, so here we go.
Oh btw, if you are on a big monitor, feel free to click the images for a larger view.
The top shot is from the basin at the top of the falls. The incredible colors of the late afternoon sun on the trees and the sky paints the water. Amazing place to shot when it looks like this.
Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-200, 27mm, f/8, 1/3 sec, ISO200, B+W circular polarizer
This shot is roughly half way down the falls. At this time of year the water flow in the falls are really low, so there are plenty of opportunity to get very close to the rocks and the falls. It’s a very different story in the spring…
Nikon D300, Nikkor 16-35 f/4, 35mm, f/11, 0.7 sec, ISO200
The last big drop before the water slows down and continue its run down the Onaping River.
Chutes
The fall colors has peaked up here and are starting to look a bit faded, some trees are bare and getting ready for next year.
Its Thanksgiving weekend and the weather the last week has been absolutely outstanding. Currently its 23°C outside which is pretty good for Northern Ontario in the month of October.
I went for a quick drive down the highway to Chutes Prov. Park to capture some tight shots of the falls there. The sun was out so it was perfect conditions to play with my new variable ND filter. (I still can’t believe I didn’t get around to buy one before now…) It is so cool to slow down the shutter speed and get the silky feeling of running water even in direct sunlight without the blinkies.
The shot above was a complete surprise when I looked on the LCD screen on the camera, it looked like gold was running down stream.
Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-300, 70 mm, f/22, 1/8 sec ISO200
Busy week
Wheew, what a crazy week. Went camping with the kids on the Canada Day long weekend, where I had a chance to shoot some fireworks. This was my first time trying this. Example above and below. Here is what I found tough that night about this type of photography.
- Focus – where do you focus? Its pitch black and for a quick second you get a short burst of light. That’s all there was to aim at. Of course auto focus is out of the question. So it was a bit of a guessing game on my part. I picked a small aperture, so I tried to imagine how far out the fireworks would go and focus about a third into the scene on manual focusing. The depth of field should hopefully take care of the rest. I did get some sharp images, but also a fair bit of blurred images, so perhaps the lens I was using has a problem with focus creep (if that is even possible) when the camera is tilted up wards. I have to look into that a bit more.
- The bugs – The camp ground was on a lake, so of course they would shoot the fireworks out over the lake. So I picked a spot just by the shore about 100 ft away from where they were launching. I got bitten by mosquitoes so bad on my left hand that I had a hard time bending my fingers the next day. My neck and face was in the all-you-can-eat/drink zone too, so that was not fun at all. Next time, I’ll bring a bug-jacket. I just didn’t want to take the chance and spray bug spray on me and then by accident get some on my gear. I hear that stuff is pretty aggressive.
Back at work for Monday and Tuesday, then of to Toronto for Scott Kelby’s Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It seminar, which by the way was absolutely outstanding. If he brings this seminar close to a city near you, sign up – you wont be disappointed. I also had the pleasure of meeting Terry White at this seminar. Great guy and extremely helpful.
A couple of busy days back at work before the weekend, this time fighting of a cold I probably got at camp. I’m still a bit under the weather but its going the right way.
Being off-line for a week means that I still haven’t caught up on all the blogs I usually visit, I’m working on it though. But boy did I miss some good ones this week. Like Mike Olbinski’s Phoenix Haboob time-lapse movie. Scott Wood also made a movie of the event. The time-lapse movies these guys made was just spectacular, and congrats on all the attention they got out of it. Simply amazing.
Then there was Zack Arias review of the Fuji x100 camera. Best review I have read in ages! Check it out. A guy next to me at the seminar had just purchased this camera at a store in Toronto the day before and I had the pleasure of checking it out. Very nice camera, with some great features.
I hope within the next couple of days I get around to all of your posts. In the mean time, take care.
Running water
Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-200mm, 60mm, f/27, 0.5 sec, ISO100
To me, one of the coolest things in photographs are when there is a sense of movement, there is an energy or a power in the shot. Examples of that could be lightning, storm clouds, streaking cars or trains. Water does the trick for me. I love shooting running water and by playing around with long exposures you get some pretty neat effects. To me, a tag sharp image of water falling or running is less interesting than if there is a blur to the water. Water in rivers and creeks moves, sometimes fast, sometimes slowly usually depending on the time of year and to me that movement needs to be in a shot of, lets say, a waterfall. In order to get the sense of flowing water or that cool silky look, the shutter speed needs to be slowed down – way down.
Here are a few tips on how to achieve that look.
- Use a good solid tripod.
- Use a cable release or use the timer on the camera.
- Keep ISO low.
- Use aperture mode and choose a small aperture like f/16 or f/22
- Shoot at dawn or dusk, or on an over cast day.
- To cut even more light use a polarizer, which not only remove reflections and boost colors, but also eats at least one stop of light – slowing down the shutter speed even more..
- Or you can use a ND filter also called natural density filter. The will usually reduce the light between 1 and 10 stops depending on which one you buy.
- Your goal is to end up with a shutter speed at around 1/10 sec or slower. It depends on how fast the water moves of course, but generally at that shutter speed the magic starts to happen and you get that silky smooth feel of water running.
Try it out next time you are out shooting running water, it’s very rewarding. Btw, the shot above is from Moose Creek, Levack, Ontario.
Moon shine…
Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-200, 65mm, f/5.6, 1/30sec, ISO200
You don’t buy that do you? I probably have about 20 versions of this image, and I have wanted to post one of them for a long time – well at least since I started this blog. Most of my versions are B/W with different levels of blurred back ground. Then the other day I was playing with this image again, I moved the temperature slider in LR3 by mistake instead of the Exposure slider, and I really liked what the blue cast did to the image, sort of like a moon beam hitting the rocks in the lake, so explored that a bit more from there, and this is what I came up with. I like this image a lot, and it’s probably one of those shots I going to make a 18×12 print of and hang in one of my bed rooms. I’m just not totally sure if I’m finished with it.
Your input and advice is always appreciated.
The paper mill…
Nikon D300, 18mm, 1.5 sec @ f16, ISO200
A new post is way overdue. That’s what happens when work takes up all your free time.
This shot was taken in Espanola, Ontario. Same day as my last post, but earlier in the morning. Its a silhouette of the towns paper mill which dates back to 1899. With all that history, there must be some gems hidden from view that just begs to be bracketed. I wish I could go explore the plant, but that’s not gonna happen anytime soon.
(…sigh)
Niagara Falls
Nikon D300, 28mm, 10sec @ f9.5, ISO 200
They say that visitors shoot more than 10 million pictures at Niagara Falls every year. So I thought I would join the fun and shot some images while I was there anyway. I was in Buffalo for “The Flash Bus Tour” with David Hobby and Joe McNally. (Absolutely amazing event. I hope you got a chance to check it out). Anyway, when you go to Buffalo, you gotta go see the falls. Its going to cost you a dollar to cross the bridge, so it’s a cheap place to go for a spectacular view. Its been 10 years since I last went there, so it was nice to be back.
In early April the Maid of the Mist is still in the dock, but they still light the falls at night which what i hoped for and what I wanted to capture. So after a bite at the Red Inn just up the road from the falls, we went to back to check out the light show. Amazing.
The light changes colors, and I was fortunate to get a shot of the red on the American Falls. The big red blob in the shot is ice, which looks really cool with layers of different colored ice.
