Blog

28 May

Hello Friends,

Time for another blog and I thought that today, I will give some tips on photographing moving water.

Have you ever tried to get that perfect waterfall to look silky smooth?

There are a few things that you can do to get this look. First and foremost, you will need a sturdy tripod. Mine is a Stealth CLT 303L carbon fiber tripod. It is a super strong and lightweight tripod. I used to not take my tripod when I went hiking because it was too heavy and cumbersome. This is so light I hardly know I have it.

The second thing you will want is a cable release. There is a way around it, but a cable release is the best option. If you don’t have one you can use the timer on your camera. The thing you want to do is eliminate as much camera shake as you can, and with the cable release, it helps you accomplish that.

The 3rd thing you may want is some neutral density filters. These filters will bring the light down like your sunglasses do on a sunny day. The way to get this look is have a shutter speed so slow that it is open for an extended period of time. (2 to 5 seconds) When it is light outside, you will need the neutral density filters. I set my camera to f22 and then use the light meter to tell me what the shutter speed I can use to get a correct exposure. If if isn’t 2-5 seconds, I take out the filters so I can extend the time. Then I do a final composition with the water flowing through my scene.

After the camera is set and the tripod is sturdy and stable, I take the exposure. If you have a camera that can lock the mirror up before it takes the exposure, that will help eliminate camera shake, too. Finally, I take the images into Lightroom and Photoshop for the final development. There are some “purest” photographers that think that you shouldn’t have to bring your images into Photoshop to finalize them. To that I say BS. Photoshop today IS the darkroom of yesterday. The image isn’t finished until you finish the process of enhancing , sharpening, color correcting and adding anything, to get that vision of your art, that was in your mind when you took the photograph. (end of rant HaHa)

Anyway, I hope this helps give you an idea of how to take these kind of photographs.

Please feel free to contact me if I can help with any more tips to get your photography looking great!

Thanks!

Tom

The Best Valley

Hello World!

I guess that you CAN teach an old dog new tricks! I am new at blogging, and I had a hard time thinking about what my first blog should be about. Then I thought “It must be about something that is very special to me” What came to mind is the time I spent in Glenwood Springs going to school. I fell in love with that entire valley! Where else can you hike up to a lake on top of the world (Hanging Lake)

Then take a dip into the best Hot Springs that Colorado has to offer at the Glenwood Hot Springs Pool to unwind. This Pool is wonderful either day or night. I prefer it at night, actually, a cold winter night when the steam is rising makes the pool magical!

The next day, you can take a trip down valley and stop by to see the towns of Redstone and Marble. These towns are exactly what you would think of when you think of a Colorado mountain town. There is great shopping (if you are into that, and believe me, my wife certainly is) but I love to go through the town of Marble and keep going up the mountain and make my way the the town of Crystal. It is about a 5 mile drive from Marble and you had better have a good 4 wheel drive to get there. You will pass beautiful flowers growing along the river like these.

Then eventually, you will get to the Crystal Mill sitting perched on a cliff on the opposite side of the river. Be sure to get permission to go down to the river to take pictures as this is a privately owned property. There are people that still live in the town of Crystal in the summer time and one of them owns the property that the Mill sits on. They are very nice and they will give you information about the town and the mill.

If you keep going past the town there is a split in the road and if you go to the right, it will take you to Crested Butte, and if you take the road to the left, it is a big loop and brings you right back into Marble. This is one of my favorite places on earth and I hope you can get a chance to go there. If not there is always my photographs of the valley that you can enjoy on your walls forever!

Feel free to let me know how you liked (or didn’t like) my first blog and let me know if there is anything you would like me to blog about next time!

Thanks for the time!

Tom

Tips on photographing water

The Best Valley