A New Take on Metlako Falls

After spending over two months in the Columbia River Gorge I finally

finished the photo projects I have been wanting to accomplish, including

photographing this bad boy from its base. I went into Metlako Falls a

second time, last week, wanting more perspectives than my last shoot.

This was the last composition from that trip, a last moment perspective

that caught my eye just as I was packing up.

I have to say that after spending as much time in the Gorge as I have

this year including going up a variety of exploratory routes, I am only

much more enthralled about the place than ever! We often see so many

of the same locations on the web, but for the adventurist who wants to

find incredible rainforest waterfall oasis's, there are countless in there! In

fact the Oregon side of the Gorge alone might boast a higher

concentration of accessible waterfalls in all of the US or North America

(one stat I found said over 100 waterfalls - not including smaller drops -

within 420 square miles).

Tech stuff:

Canon 5D Mark2 (still waiting for Canon to step up their game if they

ever do)

Canon 16-35L2 at 16mm

100 ISO

16 shot DOF blend at f/5.6 (the sharpest for the lens)

Also a single raw file, double processed, using my innovative "Blend if"

technique for dynamic range/tonal control.

First time ever experimenting with "Camera Neutral" as my base profile

in raw

2 second exposure

Adobe Camera Raw and PS CS6

100 foot waterfall

The tree tilt is really tilted, not lens distortion

Interestingly, I broke three photographer "rules" on this one:

1. Don't shoot in the Gorge after its spring peak.

2. Don't shoot when there are no clouds.

3. Don't shoot anywhere near mid day.

*As always, more accurately viewed using a calibrated monitor, browsing

via Safari, Firefox or Chrome.

You definately should break the rules more often. ;-)

I absolutely love the composition and colors. The C-shaped rock in the foreground gives additional focus to the waterfall. The contrast between sharp areas and blurred water ist also very appealing. Great capture!!

Best regards, Alex

Thanks Alexander! 

Mark,  You are quite the artist here.  This is a spectacular capture.  I think that including the sky and trees framed by the left rock with enough water in the foreground really produces a commentary on both peacefulness and the magnificence of nature.  I have been to the Gorge twice and will be making a short trip there in about a month.  It is obvious that you have many images of many falls and that you recognize that communicating beauty and simplicity in nature is not simple.  It's like a great author who writes in a simple, but guttural style; the result looks easy.  It's not. This is a winner.  Excellent work.   Best to you.  Larry

Beautiful shot! And with the forest at the upper right in full mid-day sunlight and the rest of the scene in shadow, not an easy one to balance the exposures so that it appears realistic. Well done.

I find the rock face on the left with its gentle curve particularly attractive and is key to my enjoyment of this image.  Your processing on this is very good and has resulted in a 'full color tonal  range' - an expression I use to describe the presence of a range of colors that appear dark to those that are quite light.

The conifers in the image have a warm yellow appearance on my monitor and I am wondering if there is a need for a selective color balance application? Just a question!

More important, whether you made that change or not, I still view this as a high quality and beautiful image.

All the best and keep on producing some very fine images.