Proxy Falls

Upper Proxy Falls
Shutter Speed: 1/4
Aperture: 8.0
Mode: Manual

Overall, this was a decent day shooting wise. We got to the waterfalls early in the morning around 9 AM, and we were the first ones in the parking lot. First we went to Upper Proxy Falls, and I had forgotten how impressive it is in person, yet frustrating a photographic subject: its thin, difficult to frame, and even in the early morning the contrast issues between brightly lit trees and the dark soil was apparent. This made it difficult for me, but even more difficult for the "auto" feature on the camera. In the few shots I took with it, the lighting was horrible.

Still I managed to get some good shots, and more importantly learned how to use shutter speed and aperture in tandem to get the right lighting and effect.

Proxy Falls Panorama
Shutter Speed: Mixed
Aperture: 5.0
Mode: Landscape

Proxy Falls (or Lower Proxy Falls) was really to brightly lit to get great shots, and I don't really like the view from high up. It really is much more gorgeous in person, and you don't get that even in a panorama like this one. When you get down closer, you can get better shots.....but the problem becomes tiny drops on the lens. They don't show up at 1/100 speed, but they do at 1/4, creating undesired raindrops on the camera lens. Still the area right under the falls is a beautiful series of cascades over a variety of fallen trees, covered in mosses and ferns. I did get some cool shot there like this one:

Cascade Below Proxy Falls
Shutter Speed: 1 sec
Aperture: 8.0
Mode: Manual
Color Filter: Positive Film

As you can gather by the longer shutter speed, it was quite dark, and I actually took shots with even lower speed (2.5 sec) that turned out well. The lowered speed creates the effect that the water is hitting something hard when in fact it's just hitting a (relatively) deep pool.

At any rate, it was well worth it, and by the time we got done with Proxy Falls it was starting to get hot, and starting to get busy. (Including two photographers who had far better equipment and more experience than me. Their advice: master software manipulation of the photos.) I suppose the lesson is go to Proxy Falls when its overcast: it will have better lighting for photos and fewer people out hiking.

Outside of that, I did take a whole series of pictures of all the trail signs, in sepia tone, which I really am falling in love with (probably too much).