Took a walk this afternoon up the road from my house and liked the way the light snow is highlighting the branches. This is a wonderful spot to sit and reflect, but I've found it frustrating to compose/photograph the few times I've tried. This was the best I came up with for today. But it really is a "better in person" place. Feedback and suggestions welcome.
Stream shots can be very frustrating. They look so gorgeous in person, but getting them to translate can be a real composition/exposure struggle In the winter it can be harder because the snow makes everything so white and easy to blow out. This is a good try, but it could use some pop. How did you shoot it? What gear, filters, and settings did you use?
Hi John,
This looks like a very peaceful location. Nice capture. I've got many places like this near by. I love wooded creeks and streams but they are very difficult to capture with a good image. Mostly I think due to how busy they are with branches, limbs, and shrubs going every which way. I usually work these locations starting with a wide lens and find elements within the scene that catch my eye and start getting as close as I can to simplify the image but let the wide angle lens do its thing to give perspective. I like having snow or ice as it helps mask a lot of the scene busyness. I usually end up wet, muddy, and cold.
Best,
Mike
Thanks for the feedback. It's comforting to know I'm not alone in my frustration with streams...To answer your question Scott, I shot this with a Canon 6D and 24-70 F2.8L lens. Settings were f/16 at 1/4 second and ISO 400 at the 24mm end. Since it was overcast I didn't need an ND filter, so I just used my standard UV. I played with a lot of different settings for shutter speed and f-stops, but this was the one I liked best. I don't like overly creamy water flow, but a certain amount of motion is nice.
That is nice. I know what yu mean by, better in person, place. It is imposible to be sure byt what about the same pov but wider lens to put the action in the centre of the scape? Just supositioning really as I have no idea what a wider shot would include. These better in person situations are frustrating and challenging.
Thanks for the feedback Ian. Actually I ended up cropping the picture a bit because the area outside the current frame is just tangled branches, shrubs, and dead leaves which made the image even busier than it is now. And the sky above is washed out completely because of the afternoon clouds. If the sky had been more interesting yesterday this might have worked better as vertical landscape and opened it up.
Made the "Explore" page on Flickr yesterday.