How To Take Pictures Of Waterfalls

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Waterfalls are a magical show of sight and sound.  Capturing these tumbling cascades of rushing water with your camera is not hard, but taking one that you will treasure requires some forethought and planning.  This particular waterfall, called Soco Falls, was taken just east of Cherokee, North Carolina not far from the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Smokey Mountains.  It is located on a winding road with a very small parking area near the road.  A 5-minute hike down to a wooden platform on the steep hillside gives you a nice view of the falls.  Click here for directions to the falls.

I took a few pictures but the lighting was not good.  The falls were lit by a high afternoon sun, with dark shadows and bright highlights.  I wanted more subdued light so I came back late in the evening, when the sun was no longer shining directly on the scene.  Instead of shooting from the wooden platform looking down on the falls I decided to hike down near the creek below the falls.  Carrying a camera and a tripod was not easy on the slippery path of rocks and mud (later I found out that a few people have fallen to their death at these falls).

With my camera on a tripod, I set my zoom lens to its widest view, 18mm.  To get the silky-water look you need a fairly long exposure, so I set my camera to aperture priority mode.  Aperture priority lets you set the f/stop (its aperture) manually while the camera sets the shutter speed automatically.  The larger the f/stop number you use, the longer the shutter speed has to be to get the same amount of light into the camera's sensor.  The setting for this picture was f/22 with a shutter speed of 8 seconds and an ISO 200.  The other thing that you need is a shutter release cable otherwise just you touching the camera's shutter button will blur the image.

Long exposures to capture the moving water is almost impossible in bright sunlight, so wait for more subdued lighting.  Cloudy, even rainy days are perfect.  Stop down the lens for long exposures to get the silky-water look.  And finally, taken lots of pictures from many viewpoints.  One is bound to be just the one you are looking for.

First Day of Spring Snow Storm

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Winter is back!  Yea!  I love it!  Unfortunately not many others agree. Gloria and I drove around the countryside and found these Winter landscapes.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them.

Winter Barn

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I woke up this morning to about four inches of snow, so Gloria and I got in the Yukon, kicked it into 4-wheel drive and went looking for pictures.  This old barn down a country road was a perfect setting for a nice Winter landscape.

Diamond Dust Sundogs

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Coming home from grocery shopping last evening I spotted sundogs on each side of the setting sun.  Also called "mock suns" the scientific name is parahelia.  Sundogs appear as colored patches of light 22 degrees on each side of the sun and are formed by ice crystals in very cold high cirrus clouds or from "diamond dust" crystals drifting in the air at low levels.  This was probably diamond dust because the wind was blowing the fine particles of snow into the air.  The temperature was about 7 degrees Farenheit.

Also notice the dark beam shooting out of the left side of sun.  This is another atomospheric phenomenon called a crepuscualr ray, which is just a shadow of the cloud near the sun's position.

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About a month ago, my nephew, Ambrose Solis, captured this bright sundog with his camera phone in Colorado.  This one was definitely caused by ice crystals in the high cirrus clouds.

Sometimes sundogs are accompanied by various arcs and halos, also caused by ice crystals.  Be on the look out for sky phenomon such as these.  They even occur in the Summer time and can easily be photographed with the simplest camera.

Winter Landscapes

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Happy New Year everyone!  I never would have thought 2010 would have come this quick, but here it is.  I got up early this morning, unusual for me, and thought I'd put up a few of my Winter images.  Even though there is plenty of snow outside, these are from the past because I have been really lazy and haven't picked up my camera for quite a while.  I'll have to change that.

The top image is from my backyard deck where we enjoy the company of many birds.  This was taken with my first digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix, back in 2004.  I still have this wonderful camera.  It brought me into the world of instant picture gratification.

The second picture is also with the Coolpix and in my backyard back in 2004.  The limbs flow across the picture like it wants to fly to a warmer climate.

With my then new Canon 300, the Kansas City area had a huge ice storm.  This wonderful winter wonderland was in Loose Park, a place I love to visit with my camera.  I had the honor  of it being published in the Kansas City Star newspaper.

Mellow Yellow - Aspen Fall Colors in the Rocky Mountains

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Mountain Valley Panoramic in Rocky Mountain National Park

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For a slide show of the Aspens in the Rockies click here:

http://tomjmartinez.com/mellowyellow/index.html

Once in the show, click the f11 key for a better view

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I spent a few days visiting my daughter and family in Colorado. Her family moved to Castle Rock, CO from Florida. Quite a change in climate and altitude. She had a housewarming party for all the relatives in Colorado and got a chance to visit with a few I had not seen in many years.

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The Aspens were changing color at higher elevations, so my wife Gloria, daughter Pam, four year old grandson, Tyler and I spend a wonderful day driving around looking for scenes of golden light to photograph. In the morning, we drove through Denver up to Loveland, the west up the Thompson Canyon to Estes Park. We had no time to stop and enjoy the towering canyon, nor buys Estes Park, except for a bit of lunch. Using Pam's State Park pass (saving me $20), we drove into the Rocky Mountain National Park. The Ranger at the entrance told us that the road to Bear Lake, where most of the Aspens are located, was congested with traffic, so instead we drove up Trail Ridge road. We found a few Aspens here, but not what I was looking for, so we backtracked to Estes Park, then drove south down highway 7, 72 and 119. Along this route we stopped at many places for some colorful views of the golden trees along the mountain sides, streams and valleys. Click on the above link to see a slide show.

Beautiful Snow Day

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Saturday morning I woke up to a nice snowfall. We had about 4 or 5 inches on the ground, so I had to go out and play with my camera. Even though it was around 20 degrees, my pond was not frozen, but made an idylic scene. Right before I went back inside I saw a colorful robin fighting the blowing snow. This is only the second time this winter that we have had any significant amount of snow in my area, south of Kansas City. Hopefully we'll have another one before the end of March.

Feathers In The Sky

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A few days ago, the temperature got up to 70 degrees, so Gloria and I went out for some fresh air by walking around the neighborhood. A big change in the weather was expected the next day, so I think these high cirrus clouds blowing out of the West was the start of it. Anyway, these beautiful sky feathers just tickled me into getting their picture.

Railroad Reflection

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I crossed a railroad track and noticed the reflection of the sky on the tracks, so I had to stop to photograph this wonderful play of light and dark. I took a few pics, then luckily a formation of geese added the final element in the composition.

Merry Christmas

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Four days after the Christmas eclipse, on December 29, 2000, the Moon graciously moved next to Venus for a wonderful conjunction. A nice amount of snow on the ground made for a beautiful Christmas card scene. A blue spruce lit up in front of my home created the final touch.

I hope all of you have the nicest of holidays this year, and only the best for the coming year.

Rain Storm Racing Across The Morning Sky

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This rainstorm was one of many that dumped rain all night at a rained out star party near Marion, Kansas. The Astronomical Society of Kansas City http://askc.org/ was holding the star party, and while everyone was still sleeping and trying to keep dry in their RV's and tents, I decided to see if I could get some lightning pictures, but instead I saw this incredible scene of waving clouds and a wall of water against the morning sky all racing across the open panorama of Kansas. I turned it into a panorama using two pictures. It was taken in June 29, 2003, with a Nikon Coolpix 995.
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This past Summer I sent the image to a contest for the KCTV5 2009 weather calendar and it was chosen for the month of June. When I received a copy of the calendar, I saw that three of the pictures in the calendar were taken by a good friend and great photographer, Dan Bush. His pictures made the front cover, inside cover and the month of December. Dan's images are some of the finest images in the country. Take a look at his website: http://www.missouriskies.org/
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If you would like a calendar you can can get one here: http://www.weather-calendar.com/Kansas_City_weather_calendars.html