Shooting a Waterfall in the Rain

One of the things I had learned during the last decade is that image making is a pursuit that involves a healthy amount of plastic bags and gaffer tape to solve various problems.

Let’s take the following image for example.

Smooth and Rough

Smooth and Rough

There was a light rain when we arrived, not to mention the water droplets from the waterfall that the wind slammed in our face. It was a blessing to walk the scene with the Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder with no need to open the backpack and soak several lenses just to find a composition.

In my favorite composition (of the several I tried in just a few minutes) I wanted to emphasize the clash of dark rough rocks and light smooth water. So I needed a long exposure to smooth out the water flow. Unlike the 5DS R, none of my Zeiss lenses are weather sealed. And water accumulating on the LEE Big Stopper is also problematic. Since I don’t carry an umbrella (which would be the trivial solution), I used the largest water-resistant thing in my bag: the Shadepirate flag in the plastic bag I used to carry it in.

Shadepirate flag functioning as an umbrella

Shadepirate flag functioning as an umbrella

Some extra light also came from the direction of rain/water so the flag actually served double-duty. The setup worked quite well, and had to wipe just a small amount of water from the filter between exposures.

Polishing in Progress

Oceans are the great stone polishers. They start with rough cliffs and grind them into perfectly round pebbles. But I find the middle of this process filled with irregular shapes, sizes and chaotic arrangements the most interesting.

Polishing in Progress

Polishing in Progress

Taken with the Canon EOS 5DS R and Zeiss Otus 1.4/55 lens. Originally composed with the Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder and captured (after having a nice coffee and cake in the nearby cafe) with Kuuvik Capture 2. The exposure was elongated with a LEE Big Stopper.

Timeless Mountains

Mountains exist on a different time scale than we humans live our fleeting lives. Only if they could tell all those things they witnessed. Maybe that would be too much beauty and too much horror for us, and it’s better that they silently keep the planet’s secrets.

Timeless Mountains

Timeless Mountains

I wanted to wash away the lovely clouds to amplify the sense of timelessness, so I used a total of 16 stops of ND filtering: a LEE Big Stopper and a LEE Little Stopper stacked together (and sealed on the edge with gaffer tape to avoid light leaks and hot spots). It was a long trial and error to get enough sunlight on the mountain with the quickly changing cloud layers casting unwanted shadows here and there. I played for almost an hour, and the above image is the best one.

Taken with the Canon 5DS R and Zeiss Otus 1.4/28. Kuuvik Capture was used to control the long exposures.

Gullfoss in Pink

On the evening the image below was made we originally planned to go to the highlands of Iceland. But just a few kilometers into road F35 I noticed that coolant is leaking from our 4×4 – the culprit being a hole somewhere in the radiator. So we quickly abandoned the original plan. But while going back to Reykjavík, we stopped at Gullfoss, and subsequently at Geysír.

I have been at Gullfoss half a dozen times before, but never experienced such a colorful light show. The pink clouds reflecting from the water transformed the waterfall into a nacreous beauty. I was glad that we had to change the plan and came back.

Gullfoss in Pink

Gullfoss in Pink

The image really shines in a large print where the eye can enjoy the abundance of intricate details that the Canon 5DS R and Zeiss Apo Sonnar T* 2/135 can deliver. A LEE Big Stopper was also in use when making the exposure.