From My Portfolio: Shutter Speed Magic

Shooting Rifle Falls last weekend was a great opportunity for me to experiment with water, motion and shutter speeds. I packed away my polarizers to soften the glare of the shiny water and neutral density filters to add depth to the blue skies. Well, at least my intentions were in the right place. I completely forgot that all of filters were bought to fit my older smaller lenses, not my new 16-35 or my 70-200. All kind of curse words! So that meant I was going to have to rely only on shooting in the shadows, a small aperture and large f-stop to stop down the camera enough to capture those tale-tell cottony streams of long-exposed water.


I was able to hand hold this shot at 1/60th of a second. The faster shutter speed freezes the waterfall.


At 1/13th of a second, the waterfall is in between worlds of being visibly slowed down, but still showing movement. At this point, you would have to have a steady grip to hand-hold this without camera shake.


A tripod is a must trying to capture this image at f/22 and 3.2 seconds. I tend to favor the slower exposure because I love the dreamy, almost otherworldly feel of the water. Which shot works for you?

Birthday Road Trip

I just got back from my birthday road trip a few hours ago, and I had a blast! I decided to head to Rifle, Colorado, a mountain town about four hours west of Denver along Interstate 70 so I could photograph the lush Rifle Falls. The breathtaking waterfall was amazing to see, hear and feel. You'd think you had wandered into a jungle as the spray hit the rocky limestone cliffs, creating a misty secret garden of moss covered rocks. I felt like a child getting pelted with the spray, and I had to resist a strong urge to leap into the base of the waterfall. I've never seen anything like it.

This Cancerian felt like she was home. When I wasn't sitting for hours just watching the falls, I was shooting from every angle I could, amassing nearly 300 shots from morning through the night. I hiked to the top of the waterfall to get this gorgeous bird's eye view. This was the first one I edited as soon as I got home, and more will follow. I'm proud of this one because I used some of the new techniques I learned in my Photoshop 2 class with Armando Martinez. Curves helped me make that rock on the lower left hand part of the frame blend in more. Did you notice it when you looked at the image? I hope not!

These solo excursions on my birthday have become an annual rite of rejuvation. Last year, I went to Mt. Evans...which was no easy feat for this city girl. I had to overcome some fears driving up there alone, but having done so filled me with a great sense of accomplishment. I was a little afraid traveling by myself at first, but I grew more comfortable with it as the days progressed. And I made new friends along the way, including a new photographer buddy I met at the falls, Vince. Plus, being alone gave me the opportunity to reconnect with myself, an act that within itself is always time well spent.