More Waterfalls

I ventured out earlier this springtime with my youngest to photograph the waterfalls at Platte River State Park.  I am trying to get shots of it in every season to put into a collage.  I was a little more prepared this time around with a 10 stop filter and a 3 stop grad to keep the upper areas of the falls the same exposure as the lower falls.  I used a circular polarizer to cut out the reflections in the water.

Platte River Falls Take 2

My youngest and I visited Platte River State Park earlier in the month.  My two older boys were feeling left out as they had never viewed a real water fall either.  On our trip, I was planning on photographing them with the falls in the background so they would have something to remember.  I snapped a couple shots of the falls from the top before heading toward the lower falls.  Our trip was abruptly halted at the sight of a mysterious dead squirrel that appeared along the walking trail.  They got their fright a little earlier that planned.  After all, it was Halloween.


I had it suggested that I try to focus a little closer on the falls to get some of the intricate details.  Even though there were beautiful fall leaves all over the ground, I believe a turn to black and white brings this photo to a whole other level.

Here is another shot of the little falls that lead up to the larger.

Platte River Falls

My son and I visited Platte River State Park for the first time this week.  There was a photo of a waterfall that had shown up on a screen saver and he really wanted to see one.  Since this is fairly close, we decided to drive there to see.  Not having been there myself, I really didn't know what to expect.  I had viewed others photos of the falls, but you can't really get an idea until your actually there yourself.  I decided to take my camera along to grab a couple practice shots.  If the time works, I think I may go back and try some other stuff.  The photos are two little fall leading up to the bigger falls.  The little ones, as you can see, are only about 6 inches tall.  There wasn't a whole lot of water rushing over them since we haven't received much rain in the last month.  It provided just enough for some nice blur.  

We hiked down to the river bed following the trails that had been there for some time and stood in the river bed that was now a nice sand bar.  Since it was mid day, the sun was coming through the trees pretty directly, so it made capturing the shadows under the falls tough while trying not to blow out the highlights of the lighter areas.  Cameras cannot capture the same type of dynamic range as the human eye, so you have to really compensate for that.  Post production software, such as Lightroom, help quite a bit when confronted with this situation.  I moved in closer to try and avoid the harsh light.  I used f/13 to get a longer shutter speed to blur the water but it wasn't enough.  I had to use a 6 stop neutral density filter along with a Circular Polarizer (2 stops) to get the timer to between 45 and 60 seconds.  In total, I had 8 stops of light between the ND and CPL.  The last shot was taken at 65 seconds.  As always, click on the photo to view it larger on my website.