I've been thinking about ways to get this early spring shot for a few years. Every spring, just before the leaves come out on the trees, these flowers (please identify if possible, they're pretty common) come out and blow around all over the place. They sure do look nice in front of the oft-photographed Ponytail falls, but they are always blowing around. Furthermore, you have to posistion your tripod pretty much on the ground and shoot at 30mm+ to avoid the overhanging branches (just out over the top of the frame here) and compress the focal plane enough to give proper balance to both the falls and flowers.
Soooo......to solve both problems, I took one image for the falls at 2 seconds/f16, ISO 100, and another one for the flowers, manually selecting them as my focal point instead, and shot at f/7.1, 1/160 sec. at ISO 800. I then combined the images to achieve the DOF I needed and freeze the flower motion.
1Ds Mark III, 16-35mm f/2.8 II, polarizer.
Thanks for comments. The faint blues in the water are intentional and should look more even and subtle than they do here. It's not been a good week for me and sRGB color space.
Bleeding hearts? They look like the same ones i found around Dewatto creek last week when i was walking it. Nice shot Marc. You thought it out didnt you?
Great idea. Well executed and thanks for explaining how you did it. The overall scene, while beautiful, looks a bit dark to me but it could be my monitor. Beautiful touch of color with the bleeding hearts. A unique and very pleasant composition.
Marc, awesome shot!! It is always interesting to hear your your technique details. Sharpness and color are out of this world in this one, regards, Rajeev.
Terrific composition and technical expertise however, on my monitor the greens appear too dark and rather dull. Guess I need a different calibration device as it would appear no one else is seeing this.
Marc, this is a real treat. I love the process as well since I know how breezy it gets right around the falls.
The saturation and color correction is spot on as usual and I love the edge burns in this one.
I'm not sure if these are Bleeding Hearts. I was up on that trail 2 weeks ago and saw these flowers in other locations....thinking they were Bleeding Hearts, but when I looked closer they didn't appear to be. I'm no expert but I was certainly interested in what they were.
Marc, what a superb image. Your planning you took to get the Bleeding Hearts to stand still was worth it. The spot color they add just makes this photo. The comp is excellent... feels just right. It's great when an image has that feel where it fits so comfortably in your eyes and mind. That's an area where I still struggle, so I really appreciate that in this image. The lighting on moss and FG foliage is rich and vibrant. That added spot color, though, works and works well.
Hey, if you get in a spunky mood, I posted my first shot on this site today in ESS, from Colorado National Monument. I'm asking folks to tear it apart, both barrels, so I can start to weed out the bad habits that hinder how I compose. Brutal is welcomed.
I've thought about separating near & far shots with a focusing technique similar to what you've done here. Now I know what can be accomplished. And this is a great way to showcase it.
So, now we bracket for exposure (at least 3 shots) and also for focal point (at least 3 shots). If you had bracketed the SS for the waterfall (just supposing in another example), that'd be another 3 or so. All to be combined in PS later - the digital advantage shows through
As always, your shots inspire the world around us. Thanks for sharing. I hope to wrangle free from home life sometime soon to shoot these ideas in my head.
Oh, those flowers are bleeding hearts. I'd like them in my garden at home, but my wife doesn't really like them Of course, if I had my way, there'd be lupine & balsamroot and other natives right out back (wherever they're sold locally, of course).
What amazes me is not so much how good your shots look (which is essentially a given) it's really how much thought you put into them. A true inspiration.
Thanks for sharing.
Really nice, Marc.. the trees really work for me in the image.. the detail is perfect.. maybe a tad dark for even my "darker" taste.. the flowers really make the shot, and each small grouping is lined up perfectly to compliment the frame and stream... great eye as usual...
The first thing I noticed were the trees and I thought, "wow, he really made those trees work for him!" then I finished scrolling the rest of the frame into the browser and saw the flowers. My next thought was, "Well there are no more unique perspectives left for that falls. Marc found the last one.
Great job on the blend and overall processing Marc. It's seamless and gorgeous.
the falls are nice and the little flowers are nice...but in my opinion, the 2 tree trunks on the right are very distracting for me.....only because of the hundreds of times I have shot this fall ( going for it one more time this weekend ) and had to deal with them myself!
Thanks for the comments. I believe the trunks add a lot of depth to the scene but are not ideally placed. I'd rather have them there than not at all, however. Just my opinion on the comp. I'm glad the blend work looks pretty good. I do like this one pretty dark to show off the water and flower highlights.
Those are not bleeding hearts. BH have a heart shape while these are open little flowers... unless there is another breed of BH I have not seen (totally possible).
They seem to be the wild version of the garden variety (Dicentra eximia) - at least they are shaped and formed the same.. I have seen these very prolific on the switchbacks up that trail.. and other trails in the area..
Marc - Nice dreamlike quality to this image. The falls, cascade and slope of the flowers all drop to the R and are nicely balanced by the dual mossy trunks. Thanks for sharing the detailed technique notes - I'm filing them away in my noggin! May I ask you: what was the purpose of the polarizing filter here, just to serve as an ND filter?
I'll concur on the Bleeding Hearts ID. Based on the flowers and the foliage, no doubt about it.
Marc, in addition to really bringing out the greens in the moist foliage, the polarizer takes a bit of sheen off the water and emphasizes the contrasts there in many situations.
We see a lot of outstanding waterfall shots around here, but the monotony of the yellow-green/brown color of the vegetation begs for a bit of color. The flowers are what really makes this shot for me, good job on putting the effort in to capture them so nicely.
I'll add to the long line of praise here. This is really nice Marc. My preference is that with flowers like this, the scene should be more uplifting...and to make that happen, the darkest portions of the image should be brightened...but thats a minor nit.
Let's see now...take a poll. How many photographers do you think will be at this spot in the next 4 days? My guess is 9,000 Where do I take my number and get in line?
Nice image, Marc - very creative merging, and another great example of picking a vertical composition to very nice effect. These are most definitely bleeding heart. Ubiquitous in the lower Gorge canyons right now.
I know of several other waterfalls with flowers like this too
I'd bet anything in Eagle Creek, Wahclella Falls, Triple Falls, Shepherd's Dell Falls just for starters. Plus any number of seasonal unnamed ones. Plus Rowena (minus the falls). Just wander around, this is the time!
What about Silver Falls - anyone been there lately? Or WA falls?
Well I can tell you that I had already planned on shooting these falls before this image was posted....and I have a witness........so yes....expect to see some stuff from me and possibly a few others..........but it will be different than this.........
Beautiful! I have to say the fact you took the time and went over the general procedure for making this photo means a lot. This one is website worthy...as in your website. Depending on how true to nature you want to be, I might clone out some of the twig-like branches.
Discussion
33 repliesSoooo......to solve both problems, I took one image for the falls at 2 seconds/f16, ISO 100, and another one for the flowers, manually selecting them as my focal point instead, and shot at f/7.1, 1/160 sec. at ISO 800. I then combined the images to achieve the DOF I needed and freeze the flower motion.
1Ds Mark III, 16-35mm f/2.8 II, polarizer.
Thanks for comments. The faint blues in the water are intentional and should look more even and subtle than they do here. It's not been a good week for me and sRGB color space.
Roman
Totally sweet, Marc!
The saturation and color correction is spot on as usual and I love the edge burns in this one.
I'm not sure if these are Bleeding Hearts. I was up on that trail 2 weeks ago and saw these flowers in other locations....thinking they were Bleeding Hearts, but when I looked closer they didn't appear to be. I'm no expert but I was certainly interested in what they were.
Marc, what a superb image. Your planning you took to get the Bleeding Hearts to stand still was worth it. The spot color they add just makes this photo. The comp is excellent... feels just right. It's great when an image has that feel where it fits so comfortably in your eyes and mind. That's an area where I still struggle, so I really appreciate that in this image. The lighting on moss and FG foliage is rich and vibrant. That added spot color, though, works and works well.
Hey, if you get in a spunky mood, I posted my first shot on this site today in ESS, from Colorado National Monument. I'm asking folks to tear it apart, both barrels, so I can start to weed out the bad habits that hinder how I compose. Brutal is welcomed.
So, now we bracket for exposure (at least 3 shots) and also for focal point (at least 3 shots). If you had bracketed the SS for the waterfall (just supposing in another example), that'd be another 3 or so. All to be combined in PS later - the digital advantage shows through
As always, your shots inspire the world around us. Thanks for sharing. I hope to wrangle free from home life sometime soon to shoot these ideas in my head.
Oh, those flowers are bleeding hearts. I'd like them in my garden at home, but my wife doesn't really like them
Kevin
David M. Cobb
Thanks for sharing.
Great job on the blend and overall processing Marc. It's seamless and gorgeous.
nicely done on the dof issue!
-Slavomir
I'll concur on the Bleeding Hearts ID. Based on the flowers and the foliage, no doubt about it.
Let's see now...take a poll. How many photographers do you think will be at this spot in the next 4 days? My guess is 9,000
I'd bet anything in Eagle Creek, Wahclella Falls, Triple Falls, Shepherd's Dell Falls just for starters. Plus any number of seasonal unnamed ones. Plus Rowena (minus the falls). Just wander around, this is the time!
What about Silver Falls - anyone been there lately? Or WA falls?
Kevin