The Art of the Do-Over

The nice thing about shooting my local area is that I can have do-overs.  My friend and fellow photographer Jeff and I have had conversations about this and although I stress over choking on vacation shoots, I don’t worry so much about local stuff.  I’m not going to steal Jeff’s thunder with this post since I know he’s planning to write about the same thing, but suffice to say that on my 3rd trip to Cold Brook and Senter falls, I finally got a shot that’s eluded me.

Try as I might I’ve just never come away of a good image of this section of the falls.  Today though I found a composition that works.  I had to shoot fast because that beautiful sunlight was getting away from me.  Too little and the scene is flat.  Too much and there’s blown highlights all over the place.  I’m pretty satisfied with the results.

I chased the light further up the falls and after some trial and error I got this –

I hadn’t caught light in the falls before and was so excited to try and capture its glow.  I think I did.  Was a little nerve-wracking though.  I wasn’t sure if I was stepping onto a snow-covered boulder or just some snow between boulders and I’d slam down and break my ankle.  Luck held though and even my ancient tripod made it through the ordeal.

For comparison and other views of the falls you can check out This Post and Flickr.

That’s about it.  Oh and one other tip for the field – if you’re setting your tripod down in mud, water, snow or something kinda mucky, slide the lowest section down first even if you don’t extend any other sections.  Yeah, I know this is contrary to popular tripod technique of extending from the top sections down, but this way keeps the wet stuff out of the leg locks.

Anyway, that’s it for now.  The first part of the week looks to be crappy weather-wise, so I’m not sure I’ll get out again soon.  Cheers!