Waterfalls

It’s been a while since my last post (sounds like a confession). I usually base my entries on the monthly theme of our club ~ Buncrana Camera Club. Last month it was waterfalls. I love waterfalls and one of my Favourites is Glenevin Waterfall. It’s along the road just outside the village of Clonmany on the way to the gorgeous Mamore Gap and the townland of Urrris. It’s all part of the Wild Atlantic Way and definitely worth a visit.

Once again I wanted to have a go at Light Painting the waterfall in the style of Harold Ross.

My wife and I arrived at the waterfall at about 8pm ~ roughly an hour before sunset. I donned my waders and got the camera set up in the river. I wanted a head on view. At 10m high I used my 16-35mm lens in portrait orientation. I also attached my Camranger 2 which allows me to preview the long exposures and control the camera.

After taking the base image we waited for the darkness before lighting it all with a powerful torch, in this case I used a DeWalt DCL 043.

My wife, Philomena, walked around and lit various sections and I used my iPad to determine the length of exposure. It is so useful to be able to review the images on a big screen and have another go if necessary. After about fifty captures we thought that was enough and headed home.

The second stage is combining the best images. I made multiple attempts ~ each one taking about four hours. Thanks to being part of the Harold Ross Light Painting Community I was able to submit one of them to Harold for a critique. He gave a great review and was very complimentary but the bottom line was I hadn’t skimmed the light softly enough.

Taking all his tips onboard I made one last go using his techniques to paint in the light I had . Overall I was pretty pleased with the result and it was yet another useful learning experience.