Watching the Falls / December 19, 2017 by Todd Henson

A lone photographer watching, and photographing, Great Falls along the Potomac River.

One morning years ago I was photographing the falls at Great Falls Park in Virginia. This is the location where the Potomac River narrows and drops in elevation, creating these amazing rapids and water falls. You can return to this location over and over and see something different each time as seasons change, water levels fluctuate, atmospheric conditions shift, and people enter or leave the scene.

I love photographing these falls. They are such a grand and powerful example of nature so very close to Washington, D.C. This morning there was a layer of fog hugging the river, obscuring the distant elements in the scene. Fog can be a natural way of simplifying a photograph, helping to focus our attention on one element or another.

What drew me to the scene this day was the lone photographer standing on the rocks to the upper left. He was framing a shot of the falls just as I was, but my shot included him. I like the lone figure, hunched over his tripod, concentrating on the falls. Such a grand scene, enveloped in a layer of fog, and this lone photographer.

There are times I prefer including only the natural elements of the scene, just rocks, plants, water, wildlife, but not people. Other times including a person can add a sense of scale to the scene. It can also affect the mood or emotion of the image. Perhaps the viewer will imagine themselves as the person in the scene. Or maybe they will wonder about the person and their story, what brought them here, what they are thinking or feeling.

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Evening in the Blue Ridge / December 12, 2017 by Todd Henson

You just never know what a scene will look like when you travel any distance from your home. Sometimes it’s less than you might have hoped for. Other times it far exceeds your expectations. But it’s always worth bringing along a camera, just in case.

Today’s image (click on it for a larger view) was created in March of 2015 just after 6 in the evening. We had spent the day elsewhere but decided to head home by way of Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. This road weaves over the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the park, offering many scenic pull offs. There are also many miles of trails if you have enough time to hike or camp.

This particular evening had a nice mix of clouds in the sky and a few lower lying clouds hovering in the valleys. The sun was low and the light was shaped by and sometimes blocked by the various clouds.

I had originally bracketed the shot so I could process it as a high dynamic range photograph to capture as much tonal range in the shadows and highlights. Then I converted it to black and white and performed some dodging and burning to lighten and darken different areas of the image, bringing out the textures of the mountain slopes and the clouds.

I think it worked reasonably well. Let me know what you think. Maybe you would have processed it a bit differently?

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Holiday Island in Occoquan Bay / October 31, 2017 by Todd Henson

Black & white photograph of Holiday Island in Occoquan Bay

This is a photograph I created of Holiday Island in Occoquan Bay, where the Occoquan River flows into the Potomac River. It is a small privately owned island. At just over 15,000 square feet, it has room for a couple trees, a flag pole, and a hunter’s blind. Just offshore to the left is a platform for osprey to nest.

I have always liked this island and often photograph it from shore, each time trying to find a composition I like, trying different techniques, exploring the subject. On this particular day I liked the patterns the waves were making, especially after a motor boat passed from right to left. This created a different set of waves perpendicular to the rest.

Because the patterns were what drew me to the scene I thought converting it to black and white might be appropriate. Black and white often works well when you want to emphasize patterns or textures, when color is not important to the image, as was the case with this one.

One lesson this photograph reminds me of is to return to the same locations over and over again. Photograph the same things looking for different light, different atmospheric conditions, explore different compositions, try different angles or heights. Work the subject, get to know the subject, whatever that subject is.

Keep trying to improve on your previous attempts. You may just come out of it with multiple images you like, and you may learn a few lessons along the way. I doubt this will be the last time I photograph this island. And maybe I will end up liking one of those future photographs more than this one. I’d like to think so. It gives me something to look forward to.

Do you have any favorite subjects, or favorite locations to photograph?

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Story Behind the Image