Tidal Waterfall; plus versions for Izzie and Trevor

[NorthernFocus]

These falls along the tideline are some of my favorite places to kick around on the rocky shores of Prince William Sound. They change hour by hour with the state of the tide. Best viewed in the light box.

Nikon D810, 24-120mm f4, CPL filter, Sirui tripod

My versions.

1) I started out shooting tight. The barnacles on the rocks, golden colored seaweed, bright green algae around the fall. and brilliant greens of spring foliage caught my attention.



2) In the previous shot I couldn't fit in some interesting rocks to left of the fall. So I backed off to capture them and the overall setting.



And a couple influenced by CiC

3) For Izzie and the other misty water haters....



4) And one for Trevor. There was this interesting bit of driftwood with barnacles attached. Trevor, I do realize that you'd have likely concentrated on the wood and ignored the fall. But at least I made an attempt at getting artsy ...

[terrib]

All nice. I really like the composition of #2 & #3. I'm ok with either water texture but I do like the trees in the second one best as they aren't so bright.

[Mike Buckley]

Three wonderful compositions! When I display photos of a landscape scene, I almost always display the image that I believe is the strongest. I really like your idea of presenting several images of the same general scene providing varying amounts of context. Hopefully I will remember to do the same in the future.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[bnnrcn]

Nice images Dan. I love the second image, beautiful composition and colors, very lively

[IzzieK]

I am not really picky on smooth milky waterfalls or the natural looks. It is just that there are some water/waterfall that are overly done when it comes to milkiness. I like #1 because it shows a stronger image though compared to #2, #2 has the environment shot there. #3 is OK too...and number 4 the barnacles showing with the waterfall looks like you you either went down low to catch these two together in one scene or use a tilt-shift lens. If you use the latter lens you certainly got away with it because it is a nice shot...

[John 2]

1, 2 and 3 for choice in my case and I can't choose between 2 & 3. Like the viewpoint you have chosen as well. Head on wouldn't have been as satisfying.

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks for looking and commenting, folks.

Mike, it's mostly due to indecision when post several images of the same scene. Or needed for decent story telling

Binnur, that one is my favorite as well for the same reasons.

Izzie, no tilt-shift. I don't even shoot UWA yet which I could have used in this situation. It's always a dilemma for me wanting to capture intricate details(like barnacles) but also the wider perspective to include the colors/lighting.

John, IMO waterfalls rarely show best shot straight on. Particularly small ones like this. They look much more dynamic showing the curves of the water cascading down.

I should point out that images 2 and 3 had really high dynamic range in them from direct sunlight to deep shadow. I bracketed them planning on doing HDR in post. However the DR of the RAW images was adequate to pull them out of a single frame in each case. One of these days I'm going to stop wasting card space with multiple frames.

[Digital]

Dan, very nice series of images.



Bruce

[PRSearls]

Those are really beautiful. Composition wise, I like number two best because it puts the waterfall in context. I like the silky water treatment too but the background trees a little better in three. A beautiful location well captured.

[FootLoose]

I prefer the composition of the 2nd shot because you have all the lines (trees, water, river's edge etc) leading to the point where the river vanishes into the forest.

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks for the comments, guys. Landscape is definitely not my strong suite. I was fairly satisfied with the comp in no.2/3. But the washed out trees in no.2 is simply poor PP. Now I notice the entire BG is overly bright. I mentioned using single RAW images in spite of the HDR scene. In no.2 the highlights were extreme due to the long ss. I think in processing I used a gradient on the upper right quadrant and pulled them down until I was satisfied with the sky. Didn't pay enough attention to the rest of the BG in that area. In no.3 the BG trees pretty much represented the mid-tones in the original image so didn't get altered much in post.

I've also got to get try some wider angle glass on this type of scene.

[Ziggy]

Both 2 and 3 work for me.

[wrench]

Really nice series! I really liked the different views of the same scene, each one showing something new, but keeping the waterfall in each one anchors it for me. I really like them all, but #2 and #4 are my favorites.