Sublime Sunday - Chasing Waterfalls

Pardon me for the shameless reference to an old TLC song, but I went chasing waterfalls this weekend. After my run this morning, I went back out with my Sony A7ii to a trail I haven’t been on for a couple of years. I thought with the historic floods this summer along the Patapsco River and the heavy rains yesterday, there was a good opportunity for some nice long exposure water shots along the Sawmill Branch trail. The creek runs downhill for a mile towards the Patapsco River and has always been a very rocky little tributary. What I didn’t expect was that the severe flooding we experienced this summer had carved out this creek down to bedrock, leaving a number of new cascades and waterfalls. Here are a couple that turned out pretty well.

This one wasn’t the largest, but I like the staircase like cascade of water making its way through the rocks. The branch or root in the water added some visual interest and some rich color to the shot.

This one was a small little cascade coming off the bank of the creek. I originally shot a larger panorama of several shots,but ultimately cropped it down to this detail. The interest of the reddish brown leaves scattered through the shot were the deciding factor for cropping this shot down.

Sometimes when I’m switching back and forth between the settings I use for long exposure and regular shots, I forget which mode I’m in and ending up with a handheld long exposure that is going to be blurry. That was the case with the shot below, but I decided to gradually move the camera up in the scene to see what the blurred picture would look like. There is a technique in photography called ICM or “Intententional Camera Movement” that I’d always wanted to try and this was my result.

What do you think about the result? At the very least, I think it qualifies as a #funkyedits shot.

And the final shot represents the biggest change in this little creek since my last visit. This waterfall did not exist before this summer’s historic flooding carved the creek down to bedrock. I guess you have to look for the sliver lining to every dark cloud.

This is my contribution to @juliank’s #longexposurephotography #photocontest. Below are the daily themes for the photo contests.

Monday: #foodphotography and #animalphotography
Tuesday: #landscapephotography and #cityscapephotography
Wednesday: #architecturalphotography and #vehiclephotography
Thursday: #macrophotography and #colourfulphotography
Friday: #streetphotography and #portraitphotography
Saturday: #sportsphotography and #smartphonephotography
Sunday: #goldenhourphotography and #longexposurephotography