David Griffin Photography

Nature has given me a chance to do a bit of a personal workshop on the power of water.  In case you didn’t hear, we’ve had a bit of rain here in central Massachusetts the past few days (5 inches in 2 days and a bit more coming).

The Assabet River flows through my backyard and we live by the section which has the most intense rapids pretty much for the entire length of the river.  Normally the river is pretty tranquil, but it has been roaring the past 24 hours as it approaches what may be a crest that puts it in the top 10 for the past 50 years or so.

While I think I do a pretty decent job conveying the river’s beauty when it is quiet, I’ve struggled with finding the right combination of exposure and angle when it is flowing briskly.  Translating this:

into a still image that conveys that power and intensity is difficult.

I only had a couple hours today to work out back, but I’ll have a good chunk of the afternoon tomorrow and most of Sunday to do some exhaustive studies on the river when it is close to bursting at the seams.  I’ll be sharing the results here and hope they will be of interest to folks in a similar situation.   I’m also going to be playing with video as well.

Above:

Canon 5D Mark 2, ISO 100, 70-200mm f/2.8L at 200mm, polarizing filter.

First exposure is 2 seconds at f/14.  Second exposure is 15 seconds at f/14 (additional 3-stop ND filter).

Video: Canon 5D Mark 2 (exposure unrecorded).  No post-processing (other than resizing for blog).

Processed with Lightroom: strong contrast, fair amount of clarity and vibrance.  Creative tweak: fill light and black point both around 45.  A rather cool effect.

Related posts:

1. Exploring the Power of Water 2
2. Exploring the Power of Water will continue
3. Exploring the Power of Water 3
4. Working the high water
5. Here we go again – another roaring river week