The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
While this may not look out of the ordinary to you, it is. This is a nameless creek that I’ve explored many times since it is so close to my house. The waterfall here is made by a huge fallen tree and I’ve NEVER seen it run this full. Ordinarily it’s a trickle, like someone left the hose on. So when I spied it I knew I’d have to try to find a composition that worked. I’m standing a bit over ankle deep in the flow. The surrounding forest is unmanaged and quite left to itself so there are a lot of trees that come down and branches that fall. I did my best to keep things from being too distracting.
Specific Feedback
Open to processing ideas and improvements.
Technical Details
Tripod and CPL
Lr for the basic adjustments for contrast and white balance. A bit of a crop and a whole lot of distraction removal in Lr and in Ps (I think).
Ahhh – classic David Muench wide-angle FG to BG! The light is perfect and I love the composition. And lovely as the waterfall is, the FG grabs me with fascination and won’t let go. The SS is so right to cradle the rocks in soft water, and the little filaments reaching out from the fall provide a bridge across the intervening water, which otherwise could be a sort of block. The rocks just visible underwater also bridge that gap so nicely.
Did you do any studies of just the FG area? It’s rich with possibility!
Sorry it’s so hot, @linda_mellor - if it hits 90 up this way it’s only a couple times a year. This creek doesn’t run this high then, but there are others with some depth not far away, plus the Wisconsin river is in my backyard, so there’s that if I get into a heat crisis.
I didn’t play in the rocks on this occasion, @Diane_Miller, but since I visit it so often it didn’t occur to me. I have in the past though and can put up some different views if you like. I’m thinking about putting together a video of this stream in early spring since I have a lot of stills and video clips. I think a bird one will come first.
Hi Kris,
what a lovely scene. I love the rocks in the foreground and the water cascade in the background.
I could spend hours shooting scenes like that.
In my opinion, your image could benefit from some dodging and burning. The rock at the left edge is quite bright. Maybe I would try to darken it. The same is true for the two rocks in the LLC. My eye is drawn to these spots.
I did my usual “Study the image before reading the description” routine and I thought that this appeared to be a tree dam. Then of course your description confirmed that, the bark texture was the giveaway.
Interesting that it landed in just the right way and I wonder if there are any beaver around that helped to plug up the gaps.
Beaver are very keen on detecting waterflow under the surface and they instinctively do whatever they need to do to plug it
Lots of evidence of a furious flooding waterflow judging by the debris at the sides of the tree dam.
I wouldn’t have guessed that this was normally just a weak trickle stream because of the way the underwater rocks appear.
I would hate to get caught up in this when it’s full on flooding!
I really like the SS you chose for this, the textures and highlights are spot on for my taste.
I almost always wind up with a different SS on each scene because the water never seems to be flowing at the same rate.
I like the detail in the moss and lichen on the FG rocks too!
Thanks @Jens_Ober - I didn’t really notice those rocks since they didn’t catch much of my attention at the time, so I put a slightly darkened version in OP. Thoughts? And I’m with you in the hours of lost time on creeks and rivers. I’m a volunteer for the Ice Age Trail (all 1000 miles of it are maintained by volunteers) and my segment has the Kelly creek which is due for a 25 foot bridge this year. I’m going to see what it’s looking like in the next couple of days before the bridge goes in. No doubt I’ll lose track of time!
Hey @Merv - yes, this is probably a big white pine that came down in this spot, possibly a hemlock, but they don’t get to this size often. It’s fully 3 feet across so I doubt beavers had anything to do with it although they have a nice dam that maintains a spring-fed pond that also creates this brook. And yeah, the water was very high for this and other rivers and streams this spring. I didn’t play much with SS this time out, but went with my instinct. Relived it turned out ok. More to come!
