Notes from the field :

Flowing water always has a lot of creative possibilities. Some may argue that the silky look to flowing water is too overdone, but I think most waterfalls look better this way. This was a bit of a different spin - taking advantage of the fall colors reflecting in the water. The river overall didn't have very good light on it, but by abstracting a section of it, I was able to come away with an image I liked.

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About the subject :

A fast moving river with a lot of large rocks. In rivers like this one, it is fun to look for intersecting flows and create some unique compositions from them.

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Technical details :

This image was made using a Nikon F5, a 70-200 f2.8 VR AFS lens, Fuji Provia 100F film, a tripod and a polarizer on the front of the lens. By rotating the polarizer, different color hues emerge from the reflections allowing you to pick a combination most pleasing to your eye. Shutter speed was probably a couple of seconds.

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About the composition :

1] By rotating the polarizing filter, various colors emerged from the reflections in the water. I found this setting the most appealling since it resulted in many visual lines coming together.

2] Flowing water becomes 'silky' looking when shutter speeds are around 1/2 second or lower. I found this had a pretty good balance between the flow of the whitewater and the flow lines in the colored reflections.

3] The blue and gold reflections are natural colors of the sky and yellow trees overhead. Again, the polarizer really made this image come to life. You could spend hours at a single stream in the fall.

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