Watching the Falls

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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.

Watching The Falls is available for purchase as wall art or on a variety of products.

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Evening in the Blue Ridge

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Evening in the Blue Ridge

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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Autumn Cherry Trees, Washington, D.C.

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Cherry trees along the Tidal Basin during autumn, with the Washington Monument in the background. Washington, D.C.

This is an image I created a number of years ago during early November, when the leaves on the cherry trees in Washington, D.C. change color. These trees are most visited during spring when they are full of beautiful cherry blossoms, but as you can see they are also beautiful in autumn.

The Washington Monument is visible in the center of the image, and the water is known as the Tidal Basin, around which are several other monuments. I was fortunate to photograph a jogger under the trees to the left.

Looking at the image now, years after creating it, I can see things I would do differently. If I could go back I would try to frame the image a little more to the left, showing more of the closest tree handing over the water, which would also move the Washington Monument out of the center and more to the right. I think that might make for a stronger composition.

It’s good to learn from your older photos. Study them. Decide whether or not they work. If they do work do you know why? Can you use this to create more images that work? If they don’t work, why not? How could you improve them? What would you do differently?

Keep these lessons in mind next time you go out shooting and look for ways to apply them. Learn from your past work and keep growing as a photographer. And never forget to keep having fun!

Autumn Cherry Trees is available for purchase as wall art or on a variety of products.

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