Category Archives: long exposure

Water Falls and Ice at Blackwater Falls State Park (WVa)

Had a great 3+ days with the family staying in a cabin, hiking around, and taking photos of the winter scenery. There was not enough snow to cross-country ski or sled, but the cold temps and the couple of inches on the ground (and on branches) made for some great photo opportunities. I’m posting a few today and will follow up in the next few days. Meanwhile enjoy and feel free to leave comments, especially constructive critiques.

Here’s a basic view of the falls.

After spending some time shooting from straight on (more or less) while experimenting a bit with different focal lengths, I started to see if I could find a different way to see the falls. I liked this side view a lot.

And I also liked this close-up view of the icicles behind the falls.

Elakala Falls is another beautiful water fall in the park. It’s not as imposing as Blackwater, but quite beautiful just the same, perhaps more so.

Elakala Falls

Swim Photos: It’s “all about the water”

It is a commonplace among photographers that a remarkable photograph is “all about the light.”  That is certainly true for the most part, but I find that when I take photos of swimmers, it is also, to a large extent, “all about the water.” Take a look at the following three photos. The first shows the marvelous swirls that are often churned up in unpredictable, frothy patterns. How it came to be that the swimmer appears to have a halo of water surrounding his head is guesswork. Also note the reflection of that halo and the cap in the water just under his head. Click the photo to see a larger image.

In the second photo, which was taken at a slow shutter speed, we see drops of water flying in different directions as well as a fan-like pattern behind the swimmer. The drama of the swimmer’s butterfly race is seen in his expression and the movement captured in the photo. It is also seen in these water streaks.

In the third photo, the water itself is mostly invisible as the surface as very smooth. But it profoundly affects this image by magnifying the swimmer and refracting the light in various ways as if it were a modernist sculpture of the swimmer, not a literal representation of her. This is also one of those photos where the colors are extremely rich, which was likely due in large part to the use of a polarizing filter on a very bright day. And, finally, the bubbles make the image even more striking.

Summer Swimming

Some pix of Jonathan from the first summer meet this past Saturday (6-16-12). First free, then back, then fly. Everyone had fun (it helps to win), weather was beautiful, and I took about 400 photos. Others can be seen on the Daleview Swimteam web site.





I also experimented a bit with long exposures. See the following image taken at the end of the team’s warm/psych-ups. Pretty cool to see the streams of water.