Waterfalls in Ohio's Hocking Hills area

[Mike Buckley]

Last week I spent four days in Ohio's Hocking Hills area and captured these waterfalls. I went there because several years ago I saw wonderful photos displayed online (I think here at CiC). Ironically, those photos were all in color.


Photo 1: Cedar Falls (Hocking Hills State Park)




Photo 2: Upper Falls in the area of Old Man's Cave (Hocking Hills State Park)




Photo 3: Ash Cave (Hocking Hills State Park)




Photo 4: Conkles Hollow State Nature Preserve




Photo 5: In the area of Old Man's Cave (Hocking Hills State Park)

[andrewaxford]

Love the motion in the water Mike, enough to show movement but not milk falls.

[Donald]

What I particularly note is that each image is a good lesson for students to think about shutter speeds when photographing waterfalls. I am not a big fan of the 'fluffy water' shot, in which the shutter has been open quite long and all water turns to cotton wool. Here, instead, we still have good structure and form in the flowing water, but also the sense of movement.

Each is a strong image in its own right. Not a weak composition amongst them and each is a well finished and presented image.

[Polar01]

Mike great shots, down there myself for a couple of days that is all the time I had. It is truly a great place to go to with tons of good possibilities everywhere you look. It was images posted by kdr (Kevin) that got me wanting to go there hope to get down that way again in the future. Like the Upper Falls shot the best there was just something about that spot for me.

Cheers: Allan

[Rita]

Beautiful shots Mike. I also like the effect of the shutter speed used. Just enough milkiness (if that's a word) without being too much. This looks like a place that one could spend a lot of time.

[Manfred M]

A nicely done series, Mike. I find it interesting that you decided to go B&W here (although I can't say that this is a surprise). As others have said, I think you have found a good balance in interpreting the motion of water; we see neither the individual drops of water nor do we see the "cotton wool" effect, referenced by Donald. You have found an nice balance that demonstrates the motion of the falling water, yet preserving some texture.

[rpcrowe]

Wonderful series of beautiful images...

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, everyone!

Considering the discussion of the implied motion in the water, my process was perhaps alarmingly simple. I almost always shoot in Aperture Priority and these photos were no exception. I captured a scene using an ideal aperture though only after checking to be sure the shutter speed would probably be slow enough. I then reviewed the captured image magnified on the camera's LCD so I could closely examine the look of the water. Once I got the look I thought I wanted, just to be safe I then stopped down one stop to a smaller aperture, which of course resulted in a second image taken at a slower shutter speed. This produced only a slightly different look with no major differences. When I got home and reviewed each pair of images, in every case I chose the image captured using the faster shutter speed.

[Shadowman]

What I particularly note is that each image is a good lesson for students to think about shutter speeds when photographing waterfalls. I am not a big fan of the 'fluffy water' shot, in which the shutter has been open quite long and all water turns to cotton wool. Here, instead, we still have good structure and form in the flowing water, but also the sense of movement.

Each is a strong image in its own right. Not a weak composition amongst them and each is a well finished and presented image.

I was shooting a scene recently that had water, trees, and semi dull sky and while trying to get a good exposure and reasonably sharp image, I noticed that I'd blurred the water. It was the first decent shot and I cursed the fact that the water was all dreamy looking.

[Shadowman]

Nice series, the Ash Cave is my favorite of the bunch as I can visual the atmosphere and imagine the sounds, smells, and textures.

[Mike Buckley]

Nice series, the Ash Cave is my favorite of the bunch as I can visual the atmosphere and imagine the sounds, smells, and textures.

Thanks, John. It's my favorite also for the reason you mention. I have the advantage of having been there and that image best conveys the mood and emotions I experienced.

I made the image by capturing three exposures: one for the ideal tones on the right side of the scene, one for the middle of the scene and one for the left side of the scene. (Now that I think of it, the process described in an earlier post to capture the waterfall was not used for this photo.) I ended up using only two of the captures by combining them in Photoshop. I placed the image exposed for the right side of the scene over the image exposed for the left side and erased the left side at 100% opacity. I erased the middle area at opacities that gradually changed to very little opacity.

There were no people in any of the three exposures, which added to my experience of solitude in such a beautiful, peaceful place. There may have been a few people in a large area behind me (this cave is really huge) but I don't remember.

All of the other images in the series were made using just one capture.

[Ziggy]

Nice series. Looks like you had a decent flow of water. Sometimes Ash and Conkle's Hollow are kind of dry.

[bnnrcn]

Very nice series Mike Although they are all nice I especially like the first three images as they show the environment and I like the feeling of vastness in those images . I also like the B&W treatment.