Cascades of Time

Cascades of Time
Paul Gallagher Landscape photographer

One of the attractions with being a landscape photographer is the obvious or unconscious desire to be near water. I am sure that many of our readers will be patently aware if they have read my previous articles that I have an overwhelming desire to be near, and photograph the coast, certainly when it comes to Scotland. Maybe this excitement was hatched as a young boy when my parents often took me to Scotland and we regularly visited areas of the coast one of which I have only just returned from, North Ledaig which is just north of Oban on the western Argyll coast.

If I am not at the coast I often find myself venturing inland towards lakes, lochs and even canals but the natural environment of the river is something which normally spoils a landscape photographer with a vast wealth of options in which to pursue their craft. On occasion when visiting river systems we can indulge ourselves with the treat of the waterfall. Even the very name ‘waterfall' conjures up in one's mind something natural and beautiful. If we look at other nationalities even their own spelling of this natural phenomenon seems to suggest beauty such as the Italian ‘cascata’ and the fairytale Norwegian ‘foss’. So what is it that attracts so many folk to seek out such a feature of the landscape, certainly the photographers amongst us? I personally would say it would be the stark transition from calm, almost still waters, to white cascades or the spray that entices you closer. Other experiences that fascinate me are the need to explore, to go beneath, to look from above, but most of all it is the sound.

The very sound of a waterfall is something that is captivating and after only a short time I feel I almost become at one with it. It is never offensive or disturbing, but often transfixing and hypnotic. I for one have often fallen asleep when resting near a waterfall almost without noticing the sound sooth away into my distant hearing as I drift off into a snooze surrounded by what is essentially a life blood. If you ever spend time next to a waterfall, on your departure you become suddenly aware of the quiet that surrounds you yet the experience of being there is often all-encompassing. I cannot think of another constant sound with such power that has the same effect. (Which is probably why the sound of water is used to mask tinitus – Ed.)

When we make photographs of waterfalls we must first consider that what we see and experience is often quite difficult to capture. When we look at a waterfall our eyes are in a continuous state of movement and in doing so they capture tiny moments in time, convey this information to our brains, and our brains process this and deliver to us an understanding of what we are looking at – moving water. The camera does not see in this way at all. When we place our camera in front of a waterfall we must weigh up a number of considerations. Do we want to freeze the motion of the water? Do we want to convey movement with some motion blur, or do we want to make a representation of the waterfall as a living thing with all movement, no matter how small, showing in the final image. We do this by using a combination of aperture setting and shutter speeds. There are an infinite combination of these at our disposal in many photographic situations all producing differing effects but if we consider these carefully it will have a dramatic difference on the image we are creating. In landscape situations I tend to opt for a very large depth of field bringing all parts of the image, from foreground to distant, into sharp focus. For this reason alone, I generally use f22 or f32 and with longer lenses f64. (Bear in mind I am using a 5x4 camera where the standard lens has a focal length of 150mm!) The effect of using apertures of this size is that the resulting shutter speed is lengthened.

Another important part of this equation is the ISO of the film or its setting in our digital cameras. If we have a low ISO such as 100 then with a small aperture of f22 the resulting shutter speed (obviously depending on the available light) can become considerable. This is my preferred method of photographing waterfalls as the resulting image shows an accumulation of time, which is something that our eyes never actually see, not a small, frozen moment in time. This is also where your skills of visualisation come into their own. Visualisation is not the understanding of the literal or what is before you in the landscape, or in this case the waterfall, but how you see it in you mind's eye. If we look at the images in this article they did not present themselves to me like this in reality. By this I don't mean they were not just black and white, but when I was standing there I could barely see the smaller falls of water within the main cascade. I had to stop and imagine what the accumulation of time would ‘look’ like on my film (this would not, of course, be the case with a digital camera, providing it has a monochrome conversion in its menu). If we employ this process of visualisation only then can we actually understand what our composition will become. With all these images I visualised the entire frame to be pin-sharp where no movement was taking place, and in stark contrast to this I wanted to capture the relationship of the entire movement of the waterfall as it made its way downstream. As a general rule if you want a sharp image from front to back with silk-like water use a tripod, stop your lens down to about f22 and set your ISO low which will hopefully give you an exposure time of one second. If your shutter speed is about a 1/60th of a second, the effect on the water will become less and this will be proportionate as your shutter speed gets faster.

Without wanting to sound like a kill-joy or a person advocating a nanny-state, health and safety next to cascades is crucial both to the photographer and their gear. I find Wellington boots a dream to wear when working next to water because you often find that the exact location for the perfect composition involves putting two of you tripod legs in the water closely followed by both yours! Water environments are slippy. Sounds obvious, but having made hundreds of exposures next to rivers and lochs I have on many occasions very nearly fallen in (only 'nearly' Gallagher, you're not trying hard enough – Ed.) Never take for granted those pebbles or rock platforms as solid because more often that not they are coated in slime or organisms that render our footwear traction null and void! The environments surrounding water, and in particular waterfalls, are also something to be aware of. It doesn’t take a genius to work out where all the water is coming from in the first place (the surrounding landscape) which is often boggy, slippy and wet. If you are working next to a waterfall for a period of time my advice is to take you kit out of your bag and after this is done close it again. I once spent an hour next to, and in (wearing my wellies!), a beautiful Scottish cascade only to find the ultra-fine spray surrounding me that had gone unnoticed amidst the excitement had accumulated and almost soaked the contents of my open kit bag! Lastly when we are considering making an image whilst standing in water and considering all of the above I certainly recommend structured approach. Walk into the water. Consider where the camera is to be positioned. Consider lenses, filters, ISO and cable release, etc, then pick out your footings for the way back. Then compile your camera gear on the safety of the bank. After this walk back to your position in the water with all your equipment and make your exposure.

This approach will do two things. It will train you to visualise what camera/lens/filter you need without trying every one in your bag, secondly it will greatly reduce your chances of falling in the river. Statistically, making ten trips to and from you kit bag to try lenses is more dangerous. Above all take the time to keep you and your Kit safe – soak up the environment without actually getting soaked yourself!

Aspects of Expression Paul is presently finalising his first book, Aspects of Expression, which is due for publication in autumn 2008 – watch this space – Ed.

Getting the Wet Look…

Fig. 1 The waterfall in this screen grab shows how the water appears in its original, scanned state.

Fig. 2 This screen grab shows a lasso selection made of the water, prior to applying any curves. The lasso needn’t be overly accurate and the feather chosen is entirely dependent on the pixel dimensions of the original file.

Fig. 3 The curve applied to the selected area of water firstly pushes the dark values to make them darker and then the lighter end of the curve is ‘pinned’ back into line, which preserves the lightness of the whites in the water, whilst also serving to increase overall contrast in the waterfall.

Fig. 4 The finished waterfall with ‘marching ants’ removed. We must remember that all water surfaces face toward the sky and because if its reflective nature it will reflect the grey sky above. You can of course employ a polarising filter in some situations, but the use of this filter and its effectiveness is dependent on the angle of view between the camera lens
and water surface.

Waterfall Studies
 

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