Two Rainforest Streams

[mastamak]

One of these photos was taken in the lowland tropical rainforest of North Queensland, Australia and the other in the cool temperate rainforest of Fiordland New Zealand. As a challenge, I will leave it to you to work out which is which. I would appreciate any criticism and advice on how to capture good photographs in this challenging environment. It is dark. Only 40% of the ambient light reaches the floor of the forest and it is generally wet. One photographer I admire says that he always photographs in the rain and uses very long shutter speeds - 30" or more. The other problem is how to get rid of the clutter as there is so much going on in a very small space.

Image #1



Image #2


Grant

[Rodders]

Nice shots there Grant. Top is Australia & bottom is NZ, although sporting events normally go the other way around
Your correct, clutter can be big problem with these kind of shots. I'm no expert, however you could try a tighter crop on some of the water and rocks with a shallow depth of field to help blur some clutter in the backround.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Grant,

Another thought is to get in really quite close with a wide angle on one item (the subject) and the rest should recede into the distance.

Like the second, but be closer to the action.

Now this is possibly easier said than done if 'the action' is a waterfall and one doesn't want to get everything wet

Cheers,

[arith]

I like the top one. You could try some dof I suppose or a subtle change of light in photoshop.

[mastamak]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am off this afternoon to try again in the creek down the road to see if I can master this environment, especially now, Arith, that I have figured out what dof is. (I am only a junior member so excuse my initial ignorance).

By the way, you are correct Rodney in picking the locations and also the sporting achievements.

Grant