Picture of the week

In the spotlight

Elowah falls within the Columbia Gorge striking a large rock at the base of a pool.  The wind caused the water to fall at an angle, creating an unusually looking effect like that of a spotlight.  I stopped for a day of shooting at the Gorge during my trip through central Oregon last month.  This is my second pass through the area, using this as an opportunity to explore some different ones from before. Given the number of waterfalls in the area, there is no shortage of new locations for each new visit.

To get better quality waterfall images I choose locations where the foreground is in shadow, avoiding any direct light from the sun. Earlier in the morning and later afternoon worked better for this purpose.  This also involved quite a bit of hiking on rather steep trails in order to find the most appealing waterfalls more conducive to the lighting given the cloudless skies.  For capturing a smoother look to the water for the shot above, I utilized a polarizer filter, and slowed the sensor sensitivity setting down on the camera to ISO 100. The net result was an exposure of 1/2 second at f/13.  A Canon 5D mark III with a 24-105mm L f/4 lens attached (at 73mm) was used for capturing this image. Some additional select images of other locations in the Gorge captured during this visit can also be seen below.

All content and images are property of Stephen Fischer Photography, copyright 2014-2015.  Last updated: 6/21/2015   ()