I haven’t had a chance to get into the kind of waterfall photography of my dreams. Hudson Valley and upstate NY have the tall waterfalls I’ve been chasing but I can’t reach them without a car. That doesn’t mean I can’t practice on smaller, local ones.
When you have running water, it’s super tempting to capture those long exposure shots. But, getting them is a pain. A pain.
That was before I did my research and bought ND Filters. Before I could afford a tripod, I steadied my camera against whatever was available– rocks, fences, trees, my knees. That limited my composition, though. Getting those sharp photos was a challange.
Taking long exposure shots during the middle of the day isn’t wise. Your photos may come out white even with an ND Filter. I’ve tried to make it work, though. Ideally, you take nature photos at sunrise or sunset. But, that also means I’ll be on the trail in the dark. Sounds like a horror movie. I’m not comfortable enough to camp by myself so right now.
I did manage to get a mid-day long exposure waterfall shot. I talked about in the post Hiking Adventures: Capturing Beautiful Fall Landscape Photos. That day was a little overcast and the dense forest blocked most of the stray sunbeams.
Winter brings its own issues. My camera gets snowed on while I’m waiting for it to finish taking the photo. An umbrella would help but I don’t carry one during my hikes. I may have to. Another thing to stuff in my bag.
But, I did manage to capture one when it wasn’t snowing.
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