Columbia Gorge Trio

Wiren

had time for a couple hour jaunt to the Columbia River Gorge today, my efforts for your perusal, C&C accepted.

1.

2.

3.

karlabbott

Art is in the eye of the viewer, so take my comments for what they are worth.

#3 is the best in the series. However, I believe that you can get closer (through lens selection or physically) to the falling water here and make the water encompass more of the image than it currently does. That said, your use of the water cascading from the upper left to the lower right is nice

#2 lacks visual interest for me. Straight drops are hard to shoot well up close as there usually is nothing but a falling stream of water.

#1 leaves me wondering what the subject is. Don't get me wrong -- I understand that you wanted to take in the whole scene, but to do that, I think you'd need to go wider. In the bottom pools below the straight drop, I see a lot of composition opportunities if you wanted to isolate portions of the scene.

A matter of personal taste, but I think you have left the shutter open too long on these. The exposure may be technically correct, but the water is lacking in detail for the most part. The mid section of #3 has some really nice detail in the water.

Waterfall photography poses some very interesting challenges. If you haven't already seen Ron Bigelow's articles on waterfall photography, you may find them quite useful. These articles truly helped me see waterfalls differently.

http://www.ronbigelow.com/articles/waterfalls-1/waterfalls-1.htm

One thing I really like about your shots is the detail in the green -- this may be a situation where a blend between these exposures and some that are exposed for the detail in the water would work well. Those greens are just wonderful

karlabbott

You obviously know how to take waterfall shots:

http://www.onthewallphoto.net/Landscapes/Landscapes-1/9261056_rHN8v/2/624058467_tRHkb/Medium

That's a great waterfall capture

Wiren

Thanks for the kind words and critique Karl. I appreciate your point of view on these. I was trying to get some close of ups of the falls with my 50-200mm lens in shot #2. I don't typically do that and another artist on Fred Miranda has shown some great visual interest in water shots.

Shutter speed too long......possibly, I have always liked soft water and do have the tendency to expose my water too long as I don't just want to freeze the motion (to me that's boring) but I probably could use a shorter speed for more detail while keeping the water soft, a challenge for me.

I love waterfalls (as you noticed) and have been improving with them each time I go out, I think I have finally conquered my tendency to blow out my water highlights by dragging the shutter too long.

Again, I appreciate your view and the link to that site, I will take a look at it.

Lee