Exploring a Waterfall for Landscape Photography
Show Notes
Yet another grey and wet morning in the glorious Cairngorms National Park. Summer is not working out here this year!
To make use of this grey and dark day I decided to head to a nearby waterfall and explore the different features and compositions that the waterfall had. It’s a great location, as the waterfall is quite large and has a path either side, so there are plenty of images to be had there!
I really enjoyed the morning and I think it comes across in my enthusiasm for the location and the images. Although the loud water tumbling over rocks made it difficult to record the audio, especially as I forgot my handy recorder that morning!
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Onto the Images
This was the first image from that morning. I really like this small cascade as the rocks that it is tumbling over are almost in a perfect straight line and that gives the water a spread out stream, allowing for great water lines.
The other great part for this image, is the way the water snakes around the boulders and river bank, creating a curving leading line to the composition. And the boulder at the front gives the perfect anchor to the image.
Keeping with that feature but a different angle means that in this image you can really see the detail of the cascade and the streaks of water tumbling down.
Again I was using the boulders as an anchor in the foreground and the curving stream creates a nice leading line.
The only annoying part is the roots that are sticking out on the right hand side, but there wasn’t a composition where I could place the camera to move them out of the frame, while keeping all of the other elements.
You can see my tripod placement in the video for this composition. I wanted to get lowdown and close to the waterfall, while keeping the boulders in the foreground as a framing technique.
If I had slowed down the shutter even more but using an ND filter then the streaks in the water would be almost imperceptible and would only appear as a milky line. So thanks to the conditions of the day I could get away with not using an ND filter and get some detail to those streaks.
Now we start to see the accumulating effect of the water as the cascades are getting a lot bigger.
For this image I wanted to keep the theme of using the boulders as a foreground anchor and using the flow of the stream as a leading line to the cascade itself. You can still easily see the streaks of the water but the volume of water is getting stronger.
This image and the next one really show off the scale of the waterfall. To get this perspective I shuffled along a boulder in the middle of the river.
I wanted to feel as if the water was flowing down, through the image and out of the frame. There is some beautiful streaking in the water that adds some texture to the image and the colour dynamics of the orangey boulders and green vegetation is very unique to Scotland.
The last image of the morning, for this one I had to ford across the river to be able to easily get into position. Like the image above I sat on a boulder in the middle of the river and I wanted to create a sense of scale for the waterfall.
I was trying to create the sense that water is about to spill out of the frame and onto the floor, whilst also showing off the surroundings of the waterfall.
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About the Film
Just a little information about the film and how I made it, as well as some links to equipment.
I edited the film using the Free Version of DaVinci Resolve. It’s an incredibly powerful piece of software that I am still trying to understand and will possibly write an article about in the future.
The music in this video is a track that I licensed from Premium Beats by ShutterStock called:
Bon Voyage by Origami Pigeon.
A short Kit List
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Main Vlog Camera is a simple Panasonic G80 with the kit lens, its a great little mirrorless camera that I got for the sole purpose of creating YouTube videos. It’s capable of filming in 4k and seems to do everything that I want it to.
Rode Mic, I got this little microphone to boost the audio quality from the inbuilt microphone.
Action Camera, I use this to film myself when walking. It’s a simple DJI Pocket Osmo camera that has a motorised 3 axis gimbal head, which means that I stay in focus and static while the landscape around me moves. It’s also capable of filming in 4k and the audio quality is quite good.
Voice Recorder, to boost the audio quality when it’s windy or I’m using the action camera I use this handy little voice recorder with a lapellier microphone to record audio.
For a complete Landscape Photography Kit List you can read through what equipment I take with me when I go out here.
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Written by Daniel Long
Daniel Long created DRL Photography as a place to showcase his work as a photographer. Daniel has learnt a lot about photography and wishes to impart this knowledge with you, although the world is an ever changing place and he always says “you can never learn everything.” So as he makes his way, he continues to learn knew techniques, skills and information about photography. He focuses on Landscape and Wildlife photography and Daniel has a special focus on Scotland, his home away from home. As well as writing about photography and taking pictures out in the field, Daniel offers guided photography days so he can share his knowledge and locations in an effort to give his clients the best opportunities possible. Have a browse around this website to see his images, guided experiences and articles about photography. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in contact.
