Cyan Dreams

Here’s a version with the bright whites knocked back a little per @Ed_McGuirk’s suggestion.

I’m still working through images taken in October when Steve and I spent a wet weekend photographing fall color. We visited Spirit Falls on the north edge of the Columbia River Gorge in Washington, and I’ll post a fall image of that next. I’m backing up to post an image of Spirit Falls from earlier last year first, though, because the comparison is interesting.

Last year was the first time I visited Spirit Falls, and I made three trips there. The first was at the beginning of May to explore. It was early in the season and the greens were still pretty dull. I returned in mid-June, and took this image. Although the greens were much better than my earlier visit, we had a relatively dry (and hot!) June and they still weren’t quite as good as they can get; on my list is to return in the future. (By July it was so dry that the county closed off access for fire prevention until the rain returned in the fall.)

One of my favorite features of this waterfall is how cyan the water is in the spring. (You’ll see in the next image it was much less so in the fall.)

Specific Feedback Requested

All comments and suggestions welcome; it’s often answers to questions I can’t think of that help the most.

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
NIKON Z 7II
NIKKOR Z 20mm f/1.8 S (with a variable density filter for water texture)
1/10 sec. at f/5.6 and ISO 64
0.8 sec. at f/16 and ISO 40
0.8 sec. at f/16 and ISO 31

Truth in Blending Statement: Three images for DOF and to the best water textures.

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Wow, I gotta make my way up there one of these days. Lovely image, John. I like the comp and that the ferns in the lower left aren’t blurred from movement. Nicely done.

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What a wonderful image! It looks like an excellent job of blending for both DOF and for different shutter speeds for the best water. Gorgeous colors!!

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The colors and light here are just wonderful John, they add up to a vibrant and lush looking image. But I really appreciate your composition, everything looks so well thought out and balanced, you obviously put a lot of thought into composing this scene. The darker shadow areas on both sides really make the light and color in the center pop.

My only suggested tweak would be to slightly pull back the highlights at the bottom of the left falls. It’s not clipped, but pulling that back a tad might make the lovely aqua water even more prominent.

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The color palette in this scene with the cyan water and lush greens of the surrounding foliage is simply gorgeous, John. I like your chosen SS for the water as it captured some wonderful details as it flows through the image and out the LRC.

I hope you do not mind, but I have another question about your Z7. I noticed that you have the 24-200 and was wondering what you thought of it. I can see the appeal of just one lens with that range, but I know there are some trade offs with a super zoom such as variable f stop, etc. I ask because I have been holding out for the 24-120 f4 before purchasing the Z7.

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Thank you all!

@David_Bostock let’s meet up there in June sometime.

@Ed_McGuirk great suggestion. I posted a new version trying to do that.

@Ed_Lowe ask me in a year :wink: Kidding aside, I think it’s great so far but have primarily used the wider focal lengths. Although I probably should work at improving my skills with longer focal lengths, I find 9 time out of 10 I’m drawn to the wider points of view and I really haven’t worked with the higher zoom this lens offers. I used the 24-200 lens (along with the 20mm fixed lens) more than I normally would this year because I was struggling with which wide-angle to purchase, the 14-24mm f/2.8 (better quality) or the 14-30mm f/4 (lighter and cheaper). I finally got tired of switching between the 20 and the 24-200 so often (and wishing I could shoot wider at times), and finally pulled the trigger on the 14-30. I haven’t used that one yet, but have high hopes. I’m curious to compare the 14-30 and the 24-200 at similar focal lengths; I’ll try to do that experiment when I have a bit of extra time.

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