Tropical Waterfall and Blurred Motion

Waterfalls just beg to be photographed. I can’t pass by one without getting a few shots. It’s never a quick process though. You see, I’m fascinated by moving water and I feel the need, especially in the case of a waterfall, to show that motion.

That means setting up the tripod and a cable release,
trying different shutter speeds and then discovering a new perspective and repeating the process. Sometimes it can go on for hours. Such was the case with this waterfall I stumbled upon in Florida. I guess I never expected to find this in Florida so I needed to make the most of it.

Here’s my approach to photographing motion in a waterfall. (This approach works just about anytime you want show some blur in an image, not just waterfalls.) Overcast skies are good. They provide a nice diffused light source (as opposed to hard spotty light) and less light, which helps me get a slow shutter speed for the water movement. A small aperture (F11 or greater) for a lot of depth of field (also helps with slowing the shutter down). Sometimes a polarizer to take the glare off the water or plants and yes this also takes away more light which slows the shutter down even more.

Compositionally, it’s also important to include a stationary object like an exposed rock or tree. For shutter speeds, anything from 1/15th to 5 seconds will show varying motion effects.

In this shot, a light breeze also caused the ferns in the foreground to blur a bit. I think it works.

Gear: Nikon D2X / Nikon 12-24mm F4 lens / Manfrotto Tripod w/ ball head / Nikon MC-30 cable release.

Exposure: ISO 100 F16 1.0 second

As always, click any image for the large version. TR