After walking by this section of the brook at Pulpit Rock in NH, I knew I’d have to try for a whirlpool shot when the conditions were better. Soon they were and I set up and did this 20-second exposure. The Charlie Brown Tree was an essential bit of this composition and I have another shot taken years later without the tree and it just isn’t the same. I was on some rocks and a log that were down next to this pool and just couldn’t do the shot this way without the tree on the right because of more trees to the left of the Charlie Brown Tree. Even so I think it works. I think it’s my very first whirlpool shot and was taken in March of 2010.
Specific Feedback Requested
Ideas, impressions and processing improvements welcome. I can put up a shot with the tree cropped, but it’s weird looking to me.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Tripod w/CPL & ND
Lr processed for a little crop and a whole lot of work with brushes and masks to balance tonalities. Also some lens correction, color & wb adjustment, sharpening & NR. Then into Photoshop to remove some bright leaves from the surface of the water that were eye magnets.
Kris, this is terrific. I did not even notice the tree trunk on the right until you mentioned it. I also noticed another whirlpool in the distance so you have a repeating pattern here. I think the Charlie Brown tree is essential as you said. It looks like your post processing work was stellar as always.
I downloaded your image and cropped the tree on the right, then did a content aware crop to extend the right side. Didn’t quite work as I would have hoped. Too much technical detail there to work properly…
Wonderful, and two whirlpools puts it over the top! The tree on the right works for me because of the CB tree, and it fits as a border element because of the similar amount of FG.
I agree with @Diane_Miller about the tree on the right. I didn’t even notice it until it was mentioned. My eyes go straight to the whirlpool and that little Charley Brown tree which is mimicking the whirlpool with it’s rounded top. Without that CB tree, I don’t think this image works nearly as well.
So glad you all got the CBT reference. A few times people have asked me what I meant. What I meant??? Really? There are people who don’t know what a Charlie Brown Tree is? Oy.
Glad the big tree doesn’t ruin it since there’s not much I can do and yeah, I wasn’t sure that Content Aware Fill would be up to the job. I did take the exposure down on it so it would be less noticeable. The double whirlpool is a bonus.
Anyway… here are a couple shots taken after the CBT disappeared (it was a little hemlock and so deer probably got it) and downstream just a little. I’ve been tripping down memory lane lately and revisiting some early work when I lived in NH.
They were both taken in 2012, the first in May the second November. In the second one you can clearly see the different rates of flow across the channel. It’s kind of trippy.
I think this series is my favorite. There’s something about the double whirlpools, and having the contrast of the dark straight central part of the stream between is very striking. I keep coming back to it. I do like the composition with the tree, but I enjoyed your interpretation without it as well. I think you made the best of it with the large whirlpool.
Thanks @karlag - I’m glad you’re enjoying them. It was a great place to walk and explore. A few times the trail crosses the brook itself like in this shot -
The narrow gap at the top of the cascade is where you cross. It’s magical. This the top of a double waterfall with another big pool at the bottom. Let me see if I can dredge up another shot. I know I have one since it was precarious to shoot and kind of funny. The sort of thing there ought to be clown music playing over.
@Kris_Smith Thanks for sharing the additional photo. I think I would have to be prepared to get wet. I definitely need to get out and do more practicing!
I love whirl images, and this is a great one. Just to play around, I made some quick lens distortion actions to see if it was possible to get that tree trunk vertical.
It’s pretty darn soft because I should have made sure the tripod (an ancient Bogen 3001 with a pan-tilt head that has to weigh 8 pounds or something) was more solidly placed. It was on this sort of semi-floating tree stump clogged with debris, I was on a neighboring mushy clump next to it with the stretched to its limits cable release in one hand and the branches of a bush in another. They were in the way of the shot so I just had to balance there while the shutter opened, looking ridiculous. Clown music.
That little extra warp looks like it got rid of most of the tree, @Ola_Jovall - I was a bit afraid to take it that far, but it still looks normal. Thanks for giving it a go!
I definitely need to get out and do more practicing!
