Indiana's Largest Waterfall (by volume)

pathfinder · July 2, 2007

Nightingale and I decided to explore Cataract Falls to prepare ourselves for the waterfalls we expect to see in Glacier National Park this September.

So Sunday morning, we arose at "Oh" dark thirty and loaded our gear. My trusty GPS said sunrise was at 6:23 am, and we had ~ 50 miles of travel, almost an hour, to get there before sunrise.

Cataract Falls is the largest waterfall in Indiana ( by volume ) as Clifty Falls is much taller but frequently Clifty Falls is just a bare trickle of water. Mill Creek flowing over Catract Falls may sound like a small stream, but is really a significant flowage that at times may be quite violent.

Cataract Falls is a series of steps with two major divisions - the Upper Falls and the Lower Falls. The last time I was here in March, the Lower Falls were completely submerged by the water level in Cataract Lake where the flowage from the falls ends up.

It turns out that we did not need to be there at sunrise - the Upper Falls are tree shaded until about 10 am or so. None the less, we shot a few frames, to try and learn a little more about shooting flowing water. We used no polarizing or ND filters as the light was not that bright on the water. We used ISO 100, small apertures, and long shutter speeds as needed for correct exposure.

Parts of the rocky river bed are currently exposed with small plants trying to gain a purchase. The surrounding forest is the typical midwestern shaded glade.

[imgl]http://Pathfinder.smugmug.com/photos/168573427-L.jpg[/imgl]

[imgr]http://Pathfinder.smugmug.com/photos/168553351-L.jpg[/imgr]

This is one part of the Upper Falls
ISO 100 f14.0 0.8 seconds

This is another
ISO 100 f13.0 1/8th sec

This is looking up stream from the Upper Falls to the Limestone cofferdam just below the Cataract Falls Covered Bridge. The bridge was constructed in 1876, and recently renovated by the DNR. It is a 140 foot long truss bridge, constructed as a Smith Truss structure. The interesting thing about Smith Truss bridges is that they were not built on site by local carpenters. Smith Truss bridges were built in Ohio, dissassembled, shipped by railroad cars, and re-assembled on site.

ISO 100 f18.0 1/13th sec

Here is the Upper Falls looking from the left shot as a pano

ISO 100 f20.0 1/5th sec

Here one is looking from the right upstream again

ISO 100 f22.0 0.4 sec

We had a pleasant morning and I know a few things I will want to try when I return to this area either this summer or in early fall.

Comments and criticisms will be entertained, or hung, or shot as seems appropriate:huh

Lex · July 2, 2007

nice job, especially without any ND filterization. Some nice falling water for water training. You will likely want to travel with an ND filter to shoot much water though, you got real lucky or good here to not blow out highlights at all, but they are nice efforts.

pathfinder · July 2, 2007

I own 4x and 10x NDs, I just wanted to see how I could do without them. Just was not that bright Sunday morning early. By afternoon, with the sun shining on the water, it would be required.

I'd like to think not blowing highlights was not accidental:D

Sam · July 2, 2007

Good shots. Looks like this is a place one could spend hours photographing.

Sam

Marc Muench · July 3, 2007

What a great morning you two had

The exposure times in the soft light look great, the water movement is not tooooooo milky:) The 4 stop ND filter can help on brighter days if you want another trick for the bag. I find 1/2 to 2 sec exposure times work well with water like this, and am just guesin that might be about the range of your shots here

Please bring the covered bridg shot with you to glacier.

The first "upper falls" image looks great in the middle but I think would look better with out the bottom section. Also, I really like to composition of the second image, with the three moss covered rocks

thumb

slflash · July 3, 2007

Pathfinder,
What great shots.

I love the bridge shot. Do you have any from Nightingale's stuff to post? I would love to see her's as well.

schmoo · July 3, 2007

pf - I am sure the place is even more beautiful with the fall foliage. Can't wait to see what you do with it then.

The water movement is lovely (and answered some questions I had about not having an ND filter for moving water shots

) but I really like the first photo of the tenacious sprout on the rocks. But then again I'm partial to shots like that.

USAIR · July 3, 2007

Jim Great waterfalls all wonderful
But like everyone else love the covered bridge

Wonder what Marc has instore for the bridge photo

Fred

Lex · July 3, 2007

ok, you were fortunate, not lucky... not to blow any highlights.

I do think maybe you overcooked the greens in shot two above... just my opinion.

pathfinder · July 3, 2007

Lex wrote:

ok, you were fortunate, not lucky... not to blow any highlights.

I do think maybe you overcooked the greens in shot two above... just my opinion.

Yeah, I pushed the greens a bit. Too much? You might be right , but I'm not sure - I'll have to see what it looks like on paper before I decide.

I just know that back in the deep shade, the greens of moss and some leaves gets really green. It called to mind this image I shot in Yosemite 2 years ago. When I walked by the rocks Sunday morning, this is the shot I remembered from 2 years ago.

ISO 100 f 22.0 6 secs

And Fern Spring from that trip to Yosemite also

=============================================================ISO 100 f22.0 3.2 secs

[imgl]http://Pathfinder.smugmug.com/photos/165408076-M.jpg[/imgl] [imgr]http://Pathfinder.smugmug.com/photos/22100575-M.jpg[/imgr]

pathfinder · July 3, 2007

schmooo wrote:

pf - I am sure the place is even more beautiful with the fall foliage. Can't wait to see what you do with it then.

The water movement is lovely (and answered some questions I had about not having an ND filter for moving water shots ) but I really like the first photo of the tenacious sprout on the rocks. But then again I'm partial to shots like that.

Schmoo, I'm glad you liked the tenacious little green plant, I did too. I liked the contrast/color against the white OOF rock in the background. Great minds and all that:D

As for seasons, I have plans for this area in fall and winter both.

Andy · July 3, 2007

PF - super job, lovely spot

pathfinder · July 3, 2007

Thanks, Andy.

Ya know, sometimes you REALLY have to go away to truly appreciate what you have at home.....

I have been by Cataract Falls a number of times over the years, and thought it a pleasant spot to visit, but not really gave it much more thought than that. After travelling out west several times, I have come to look at the area around Cataract Falls with new eyes and am seeing more and more interesting areas to explore. In some ways, it reflects what I have seen in Yosemite or Utah on a smaller, more intimate scale.

I have always kind on envied you, and your scenery from New York, and didn't really think there were similar sights here in our fly over state. But I was in Indianapolis last weekend at the Eiteljorg Museum and found absolutely gorgeous areas for daylight and night shots that I want to pursue.

Here is a small example that I grabbed with a P&S (Panasonic DMC-LX1), as I was with several family members, from inside the Indiana State Museum.

Behind the Indiana State Museum and the Eiteljorg Museum

Harryb · July 3, 2007

Excellent ste PF especially that 3rd shot.

pathfinder · July 3, 2007

slflash wrote:

Pathfinder,
What great shots. I love the bridge shot. Do you have any from Nightingale's stuff to post? I would love to see her's as well.

Sheila, she has some good work - I'll see if I can't get her to post some either here in this thread or one of her own. She tends to be shy about posting.

pathfinder · July 3, 2007

Thanks Harry.

Didn't know that you wandered about in these parts:D

Lex · July 3, 2007

I don't know, the poison ivey (least I think that's what it is) on the lower right appears to have to much aqua green cast, the moss I could live with a little easier, but the leaves seem a bit unnatural to me. But again, it's how it prints out that matters, or how it looks on your monitor. I have attempted to calibrate this one as best I can, that's my opinion, maybe someone else could review too...

Doug

pathfinder wrote:

Yeah, I pushed the greens a bit. Too much? You might be right , but I'm not sure - I'll have to see what it looks like on paper before I decide.

I just know that back in the deep shade, the greens of moss and some leaves gets really green. It called to mind this image I shot in Yosemite 2 years ago. When I walked by the rocks Sunday morning, this is the shot I remembered from 2 years ago.

ISO 100 f 22.0 6 secs
And Fern Spring from that trip to Yosemite also

=============================================================ISO 100 f22.0 3.2 secs

[imgl]http://Pathfinder.smugmug.com/photos/165408076-M.jpg[/imgl] [imgr]http://Pathfinder.smugmug.com/photos/22100575-M.jpg[/imgr]

pathfinder · July 4, 2007

I had to go to Indianapolis on business this morning, so I stopped back by Cataract Falls again - this time in the late afternoon - about 6 pm - and picked up a few frames with my Panasonic DMC-LX1 - a small handheld P&S to see if it would work in the sunshine. No NDs for this little rascal either. But I did shoot in RAW and develop via ARC in PSCS3. ARC 4.1 rocks!

More of the bridge for Marc:D
ISO 80 f 8.0 1/160

More of the falls and the wet rock face
ISO 80 f8.0 1/320

The masonry of the bridge abuttement
ISO 80 f7.1 1/250th

And here is a 100% crop of the image that Lex is calling poison ivy - I don't think this is poison ivy, but I am willing to look at a vote of hands

seastack · July 4, 2007

Nice shots!:D

I thought I'd mention for the sake of discussion and ideas one post-shoot processing technique I've been playing with on water shots. By combining two shots of different shutter speeds I'm sometimes able to catch both the soft flowing nature of water and the more dynamic action in one image - sort of a "best of both worlds" that is impossible en camera.

With water shots I already bracket the shutter speed heavily for different effects from the flow of water as you did. I've got the tripod already set up so why not? Sometimes I (almost) like the really long speeds, especially at the edges, but with too much water it can turn into just a white blob as Marc was alluding to when he said "not tooooo milky."

If you shoot the same scene with a faster shutter speed you can copy that image and paste it in a new PS layer above your slower speed, softer water image. Then with a layer mask you can paint in some of the more defined water flow onto the soft. I've found this is particularly useful for big waterfalls.

Erie Buoy · July 4, 2007

Not poison ivy
Your photos (especially the bridge shot) have great composition and strikingly vibrant colors. The scene is really great -- funny sometimes how local scenes do "blend into the background" for the locals, but are really quite striking when removed from the "local" context.

I'm afraid that I don't have anything of substance to add photographically, but can confirm that the plants in the last shot are not poison ivy. It's an easy identification in the cropped shot since all of the leaves are serrated along their edges; poison ivy leaves never show serration.

pathfinder · July 4, 2007

seastack wrote:

Nice shots!:D

I thought I'd mention for the sake of discussion and ideas one post-shoot processing technique I've been playing with on water shots. By combining two shots of different shutter speeds I'm sometimes able to catch both the soft flowing nature of water and the more dynamic action in one image - sort of a "best of both worlds" that is impossible en camera.

With water shots I already bracket the shutter speed heavily for different effects from the flow of water as you did. I've got the tripod already set up so why not? Sometimes I (almost) like the really long speeds, especially at the edges, but with too much water it can turn into just a white blob as Marc was alluding to when he said "not tooooo milky."

If you shoot the same scene with a faster shutter speed you can copy that image and paste it in a new PS layer above your slower speed, softer water image. Then with a layer mask you can paint in some of the more defined water flow onto the soft. I've found this is particularly useful for big waterfalls.

Seastack, this is a great idea of yours.

I had not considered this and it is certainly easy to effect once the light bulb goes off, or a kind gentleman ( you ) gives you the suggestion.

I will definitely keep your trick in mind. As you say, just one more click of the shutter while the camera is already mounted to the tripod. Using the mask with a soft brush should make this rather easy to create in Photoshop.

rutt · July 4, 2007

You really are the king of covered bridges. Great reflection shot. Very dramatic. Love the soft water and crisp bridge and reflection. Nice tension in the diagonals.

pathfinder · July 4, 2007

Thank you John.

There are about 40 covered bridges within an hour of me in Parke, Putnam, Vigo, and Owen counties. The Mill Creek Creek Bridge, just above Cataract Falls, is in Owen county. They look picturesque, but some are not in the best of shape. This one is lucky as it does not depend on the county, but is part of a recreation area run by the Department of Natural Resources, and was completely rebuilt last year ( The bridge is now a revenue source !!)

I was intrigued to learn that it was not built locally, but was a "mail order bridge" - built in Ohio and shipped by railroad. It is 140 feet long.

Maybe you can read this placard from the DNR

I think this area will really be more productive in the fall and winter. Summer is not the very best season for these areas in terms of sheer beauty. I think I need to add the human element to these bridges in some ways too. Perhaps an Amish farmer pulling a loaded wagon full of hay.....

seastack · July 5, 2007

pathfinder wrote:

Perhaps an Amish farmer pulling a loaded wagon full of hay.....

Is that really an option? Wow, great if it is.

nightingale · July 5, 2007

So here are 2 of mine-no bridges though; I let that up to the bridge guru.:D
Hello to all my fans who keep me from lurking too much! Nightingale

[imgl]http://nightingale.smugmug.com/photos/169817342-L.jpg[/imgl] [imgr]http://nightingale.smugmug.com/photos/169817193-L.jpg[/imgr]

urbanaries · July 5, 2007

pathfinder wrote:

Thanks, Andy.

Ya know, sometimes you REALLY have to go away to truly appreciate what you have at home.....

I have been by Cataract Falls a number of times over the years, and thought it a pleasant spot to visit, but not really gave it much more thought than that. After travelling out west several times, I have come to look at the area around Cataract Falls with new eyes and am seeing more and more interesting areas to explore. In some ways, it reflects what I have seen in Yosemite or Utah on a smaller, more intimate scale.

I have always kind on envied you, and your scenery from New York, and didn't really think there were similar sights here in our fly over state. But I was in Indianapolis last weekend at the Eiteljorg Museum and found absolutely gorgeous areas for daylight and night shots that I want to pursue.

Here is a small example that I grabbed with a P&S (Panasonic DMC-LX1), as I was with several family members, from inside the Indiana State Museum.

Behind the Indiana State Museum and the Eiteljorg Museum

hmmm PF, that sure looks familiar!!!!

let me know next time you're in the 'hood!

urbanaries · July 5, 2007

And btw, this is unbelieveable......

bow

pathfinder · July 5, 2007

seastack wrote:

Nice shots!:D

I thought I'd mention for the sake of discussion and ideas one post-shoot processing technique I've been playing with on water shots. By combining two shots of different shutter speeds I'm sometimes able to catch both the soft flowing nature of water and the more dynamic action in one image - sort of a "best of both worlds" that is impossible en camera.

With water shots I already bracket the shutter speed heavily for different effects from the flow of water as you did. I've got the tripod already set up so why not? Sometimes I (almost) like the really long speeds, especially at the edges, but with too much water it can turn into just a white blob as Marc was alluding to when he said "not tooooo milky."

If you shoot the same scene with a faster shutter speed you can copy that image and paste it in a new PS layer above your slower speed, softer water image. Then with a layer mask you can paint in some of the more defined water flow onto the soft. I've found this is particularly useful for big waterfalls.

I've been thinking about this technique more, and I had a second thought.

Why not consider a second curtain flash shot..... Long exposure via an ND, then a brief exposure just before the shutter closes with a flash. This should capture the flowing water and then highlight the water droplets sharply just before the shutter closes.....

pathfinder · July 5, 2007

urbanaries wrote:

hmmm PF, that sure looks familiar!!!! let me know next time you're in the 'hood!

Will do.

Not sure how soon that might be now, though.

Neat area isn't it?

Marc Muench · July 6, 2007

nightingale wrote:

So here are 2 of mine-no bridges though; I let that up to the bridge guru.:D
Hello to all my fans who keep me from lurking too much! Nightingale

Very nice indeed especially the close up of the water veiling the green grass. You guys make quite a team

Marc Muench · July 6, 2007

pathfinder wrote:

Seastack, this is a great idea of yours.

I had not considered this and it is certainly easy to effect once the light bulb goes off, or a kind gentleman ( you ) gives you the suggestion.

I will definitely keep your trick in mind. As you say, just one more click of the shutter while the camera is already mounted to the tripod. Using the mask with a soft brush should make this rather easy to create in Photoshop.

Why not? This sounds similar to what I used to do with double exposures in camera but way better