I ran across this view while sifting through images from a trip to Wahclella Falls with Bryan Swan and Greg Lief in April. It's something a little different than my normal shots here, and I liked the cobbles along the stream, in particular. I actually like logs in most scenes, too, so that was part of the appeal to me as well. This was a brief dry spell in an otherwise very damp day... my "ProBrella" got quite a workout!
Comments and suggestions welcome, as always.
Tom
Olympus E-300, 11-22mm lens at 11mm, 1/2 second
Posted by Hans Hibbard on July 11, 2007 at 9:49 AM
Boy I like the rainy atmosphere of this. Good job wielding the 11mm to create a pretty tight scene. The log is nice, and actually provides the most lead-in from that left side and makes the photo work as-is. Tough to tell just using my hand to crop but, I think I'd actually prefer this if it were cropped just inside of the bush on the rock in the left side BG though. The water and the hillside lose my interest somewhat beyond there.
Posted by Darren White on July 11, 2007 at 11:15 AM
I have a very similar scene but I was standing in the water where it sweeps down.....its nice to have the water low like this....and this is one I am gonna hit again very very soon.......I have a few more ideas I wanna toy around with......
Definitely a classic PNW scene nicely photographed. There's also a pano alternative crop for this image. Not better, just another quality image you could pull out of this scene.
Crop it really narrow horizontally. just above the falls, and just below the smaller bolder that is in the middle of the stream, about midway down the frame.
Thanks for the comments and cropping suggestions. I think this was my aging mind at work, but this was taken this year (not 2005)... so at least I got the month right..!
Tom
Posted by Mike Stovall on July 12, 2007 at 2:33 PM
Probrella, Lol.. Is that one of those large Taj-Mahal golf umbrellas? This is a different look on a classic falls. The stream makes a good leading line in towards the falls and the rocks/boulder/cliff make a border on the right side that my eye doesn't feel a need to go past. What I'm saying is it feels "complete".
Mike, I am not kidding about the Probrella! I had to modify it from the factory default, but it mounts in the hot shoe on my camera, providing a perfect little cover for the camera. The attached shot is from Henline Creek last month and you can see the ProBrella at work! BTW, this was a symbolic moment, since I melted my prior camera the year before at Heline in a freak thunderstorm, and vowed to find a better solution - I had been using a "camera poncho" before, and that turned out to be rather inadequate.
Some caveats on the ProBrella: the kit mounting system is clunky and a pain in the butt, frankly. So I paid about $20 for a hot shoe swivel mount, sawed off the bottom of the ProBrella and simply epoxied it into the swivel mount. So once the ProBrella is mounted, I can adjust the tilt a bit. It does a super job of keeping the camera dry, though I still need to watch for drops on the lens when there's spray or wind. It's also very light - I clip it on to the outside of my pack. Another caveat: there are some rivets in the umbrella that are rusting a bit from being wet a lot. Nothing structural, though. I'll definitely build another of these when this one wears out.
Tom
Posted by Mike Stovall on July 13, 2007 at 1:27 AM
Thanks for the info Tom, I thought that was just your pet name for your umbrella. I have been wanting to hack something similar, but hadn't thought about mounting in the shoe.
If I don't need to hike a long way in, I bring my Taj-mahal umbrella, which is really a portable tent on a stick rather than an umbrella, but it is clunky and awkward...
Yep, I had a modified umbrella for awhile, too - a compact travel umbrella that mounted on a camera mount on my tripod leg. Even though it was a small umbrella, it was still large enough to be a pain in the butt, and noticeable to carry. Also, the larger size tended to catch the wind a bit, and wiggle the tripod (though I never had it actually pick up the tripod, and float it over a cliff like a parachute..!)
Not to be a ProBrella salesman, but the umbrella portion of this unit is a true photographic umbrella that would also work as sun shade. The mounting system sucks, but just getting the umbrella for about $18 isn't a bad investment. I picked it up at 47th Street Photo (?), but I'm sure it's sold elsewhere. I bought the hot shoe mount at Adorama. Probrella could make this a terrific product with a bit more engineering, and slightly better materials (e.g., stainless steel parts).
Discussion
9 repliesComments and suggestions welcome, as always.
Tom
Olympus E-300, 11-22mm lens at 11mm, 1/2 second
Crop it really narrow horizontally. just above the falls, and just below the smaller bolder that is in the middle of the stream, about midway down the frame.
Tom
Some caveats on the ProBrella: the kit mounting system is clunky and a pain in the butt, frankly. So I paid about $20 for a hot shoe swivel mount, sawed off the bottom of the ProBrella and simply epoxied it into the swivel mount. So once the ProBrella is mounted, I can adjust the tilt a bit. It does a super job of keeping the camera dry, though I still need to watch for drops on the lens when there's spray or wind. It's also very light - I clip it on to the outside of my pack. Another caveat: there are some rivets in the umbrella that are rusting a bit from being wet a lot. Nothing structural, though. I'll definitely build another of these when this one wears out.
Tom
If I don't need to hike a long way in, I bring my Taj-mahal umbrella, which is really a portable tent on a stick rather than an umbrella, but it is clunky and awkward...
Not to be a ProBrella salesman, but the umbrella portion of this unit is a true photographic umbrella that would also work as sun shade. The mounting system sucks, but just getting the umbrella for about $18 isn't a bad investment. I picked it up at 47th Street Photo (?), but I'm sure it's sold elsewhere. I bought the hot shoe mount at Adorama. Probrella could make this a terrific product with a bit more engineering, and slightly better materials (e.g., stainless steel parts).
Tom