Latourrel Falls

[ProCaliberTraveler]

I spent the weekend in Portland, Oregon and stayed with a friend. My buddy took me to the Columbia River Gorge with the intent of visiting Multnomah Falls. We got distracted plenty of times along the way by several other of the 75+ waterfalls in the area.

One of my favorites was Latourrel Falls. The geology nerd in me got really excited from seeing the overhanging basalt column cliff behind the falls. I loved how the landscape and plants around the falls created lovely frames. The light was really nice, with this being a cloudy, rainy day, and the colors were rich and vibrant.

Coming from the high desert where the color is a bit more subtle, I was stunned by how colorful Oregon was.

 

[JimFox]

Very nice Michael! I know Alan will be excited to see this as he lives just across the river from these.

Yeah, the green up there can almost overwhelm the senses it can be so vibrant. What was your shutter speed for this? Did you pick the shutter speed specifically for the look of the falling water?

 

[John Holbrook]

Nice image—like the framing.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Beautiful

 

[AlanLichty]

Very nice take on these falls. This is about 40 minutes from my house in Vancouver and is where I often go to try out new photography toys and techniques.

 

[ProCaliberTraveler]

Very nice Michael! I know Alan will be excited to see this as he lives just across the river from these.

Yeah, the green up there can almost overwhelm the senses it can be so vibrant. What was your shutter speed for this? Did you pick the shutter speed specifically for the look of the falling water?

the shutter speed was 1/30 for this shot. It was purely because the light was a little less intense being under dense trees. The next time I visit the area, I’ll have a tripod and ND filter with me to play around with long exposure.

 

[ProCaliberTraveler]

Very nice take on these falls. This is about 40 minutes from my house in Vancouver and is where I often go to try out new photography toys and techniques.

You live close to paradise! Have you found a way to prevent your lens from getting wet with spray from a waterfall?

 

[AlanLichty]

You live close to paradise! Have you found a way to prevent your lens from getting wet with spray from a waterfall?

Nope - but I carry a linen cloth to wipe it off a lot

Things getting wet up here is a way of life.......

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Neat view of the falls. Nicely framed.

 

[AaronRashid]

This is beautiful man! The framing is wonderful. I haven’t been to the PNW yet but I’m hoping to make it up there soon

 

[JimFox]

the shutter speed was 1/30 for this shot. It was purely because the light was a little less intense being under dense trees. The next time I visit the area, I’ll have a tripod and ND filter with me to play around with long exposure.

Hey Michael it still looks really great even if ideally you would have wanted a slower shutter speed. I think with the water falling so fast, 1/30th did a pretty fair job of it.

I aim for 1/5th of a second for my water shots and sometimes even slower. I have learned that if I can’t get it down to 1/5th, then I will usually just go faster and shoot to close to 1/400th of a second to then stop the action and catch the drops of water if you will.

Or… if I want the look of longer shutter speed and can’t get down slow enough, then I will shoot off a series of 10 to 20 frames in rapid succession. Then in Photoshop you can align them all as layers and then use a Median stack method. 90% of the time it will give you a look like you had used an ND filter. I do that method a lot. I have a tutorial written up on that method in our Article section.

 

[ProCaliberTraveler]

Hey Michael it still looks really great even if ideally you would have wanted a slower shutter speed. I think with the water falling so fast, 1/30th did a pretty fair job of it.

I aim for 1/5th of a second for my water shots and sometimes even slower. I have learned that if I can’t get it down to 1/5th, then I will usually just go faster and shoot to close to 1/400th of a second to then stop the action and catch the drops of water if you will.

Or… if I want the look of longer shutter speed and can’t get down slow enough, then I will shoot off a series of 10 to 20 frames in rapid succession. Then in Photoshop you can align them all as layers and then use a Median stack method. 90% of the time it will give you a look like you had used an ND filter. I do that method a lot. I have a tutorial written up on that method in our Article section.

Yep I’m pretty happy with how the pictures turned out. I like the texture of the water that shutter speed produced. It was a blast running around in that area, and I laughed a lot.