Copperhead Falls

Well my friend and I came down to Arkansas a couple weeks ago, to visit the beautiful waterfalls and some fall color. TIm, your book is great, and your state is something else with all the falls. Here is one of Copperhead falls, and gorgeous place, fantastic hike, and I want to return.

Nice shot Mike, although there is something across the middle of your photo that messes the image up - looks like some sort of writing.

That waterfall was named after a copperhead that was sitting right next to my big white Zone VI camera bag while I took a photo of the falls with my 4x5 camera many moons ago. It was very cold that morning and the little guy was too cold to move around much, and so he remained coiled up next to my bag for nearly 30 minutes. I have never seen another camera bag besides this Zone VI bag that was white - back in the old film days when hot temps could ruin film, I thought it was the only color a camera bag should be. I guess the manufactures were more concerned with SELLING the bags to people with a fashion sense than they were with what happened to the film inside. I wish they made more white bags...

Thanks Tim, I appreciate the insight. Your book is wonderful, and quite funny too. I read all about the wateralls in your book from my friend Mark Karpinski, who is on this forum too.

love the story, I have a DryZone backpack, and it's bright yellow . I got it because it was waterproof, and the after thought that if I ever got lost, I would be easy to spot, and that any hunters might see it, since it is so bright.

Sorry about watermark, it is just a precaution by me.

Hey, yes, bright yellow is nice and "cool" too! And I always heard in high school that anything painted yellow would float when your canoe tipped over, ha, ha.

Here are my thoughts on watermarks and "protecting" images posted online. First off, the watermark can be easily removed so it really offers no protection at all. If someone wants to steal and use the photo they will. And they would never have paid your for it anyway (theives seldom pay for anything) so you would not really be out any money if someone stole it and used it - i.e. you don't lose sales to the people who steal your images. Low res images posted on this site can only be printed something like 2" x 3" - hardly a masterpiece that they could sell at Sutherbys. On the other side of the coin a watermark takes away from the enjoyment of a photo which is why people normally post them in the first place - for others to enjoy - watermarks are annoying and look silly. I prefer to not worry about theives, which gives me more time to enjoy life and take more photos! For people just starting out in this business and trying to make a name for themselves - which would you rather people say about you - "His photos are great but they all had that silly watermark across the middle and I really could not enjoy them." or simply "His photos are great!" Just my half cent worth...

Great insight Tim, explained well. I will not post the watermark in there across the image. Yes, it can still be stolen, but you are right, it is only a small res file, and would amount to nothing. thank you

Very nice Mike! I really like your comp here, and it looks like you had plenty of water. I'm not sure of your aperture setting and shutter speed, but I think a slower shutter speed might help this shot so as to blur the water a little more. I like to stop down as far as I can to get the slowest shutter speed possible - and sometimes I can't get slow enough (1 sec or longer). I really need to get at least a three-stop density filter and work on this myself...

Thanks for your comment Bill. As for slower shutter speed, that depends on situation and scene, I usually always blur my water to silky smooth motions. I used f/16 on this, because on my lens, this app is just as sharp as f/22, and a 1/2 sec comes in different comps, and settings. I only shoot f/16-22, unless I need a wider app because of light disappearing. I also used a 4 stop ND in this area for different shots. I shot about 200 shots in 2 days, the lighting was perfect and waterflow was real nice. So speeds ranged from just how I wanted to capture the scene. Some are slower, some a tad faster, I even shot 15-20 sec exposures in this area on the way back down from the falls above here. Below is a link to some more online work, with different water shots from areas. once again, thanks for your imput, I appreciate it.


http://cybrghst.deviantart.com/gallery/?order=9