Missing from the Exif: La La Falls/The Falls
These are basically the same shot, so I can get a two for one deal on this post.
Sometimes when you are out taking photos, it does pay to follow your heart. Or in this case, the car in front of you. Having driven up to the Upper Yarra Dam, to get shots of it filling up nicely, and to act as reference shots if the dam does reach the spill way, I got stuck behind a car coming back. And when the car in front of you slows down on the corners and speeds up on the straight stretches, you know you going to get frustrated.
This is what happened to me most of the way back. But being on the lookout for photos anyway when I saw an opportunity, I took it. Having never seen the sign for La La Falls before, I saw the sign and went… hmmm, water fall… hmmm, lots of rain, hmmm, waterfall will be working. Ironically, the slow car in front of me had the same destination in mind. So after stalking them through the back streets of Warburton, we ended up at the same car park.
At the carpark you are faced with a sign.. “3.5km return: Moderate”. So a quick phone call to Mrs Wolfcat, to inform her that I was traipsing off into the bush was in order (Always let people know where you are going). So camera in hand and my tripod over the shoulder into the bush I went. Of course a Moderate track after 70mm+ of rain, isn’t quite as easy as it would be in the dry. But I made it up. (Note to Self, must get fitter ).
So back to the photo, knowing I was going to photograph a waterfall, I had taken the tripod with me. If you are going to shoot waterfalls a tripod is always a must if you want water blur. The other thing that is a good part of your kit are some ND Filters so you can shoot longer exposures during the day. Lucky for me, as I don’t own any, was the fact it was very dull and overcast and the surrounds of the waterfall were in a deep gully.
A quick succession of test shots, 1/10th , ½, and 1 second exposures to get the right water effect and I was happy. I could shoot at F22 ( the minimum aperture on the Tokina 11-16mm lens ) at 1second and not over blow the shot. I tried about 50 shots whilst I was there, and walked away with two I was happy with.
One is a crop of a portrait shot, to create a vertical panorama. The other is the more typical landscape shot. The shots were geotagged with Geosetter when I got home and minimal post processing in Lightroom 3.
I was happy with both of them. So the moral of the story is, follow your instinct, or at least the car in front of you to get a good photo.
| Camera | Nikon D90 |
|---|---|
| Exposure | 1 |
| Aperture | f/22.0 |
| Focal Length | 11 mm |
| ISO Speed | 100 |
| Exposure Bias | 0 EV |
| Date and Time | 2010:10:31 20:56:35 |
| Exposure Program | Shutter speed priority AE |
| Focal Length In 35mm | 16 mm |
| Scene Capture Type | Standard |
| GPS Latitude | 37 deg 46′ 32.67″ S |
| GPS Longitude | 145 deg 42′ 28.05″ E |
| GPSAltitude Ref | Above Sea Level |
| GPSAltitude | 482 m |
| Lens | 11.0-16.0 mm f/2.8 |
And the Landscape Version:
Of course both of these are on Redbubble as well
Click here for the Vertical Shot and Here for the Landscape Version
