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February 2011
Photographers Resource -
Monthly
Edition 86 |
Winter
Waterfalls and How to Photograph Water
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In This Issue:-
February is the month of love, not only in the
human world with Valentines Day on the 14th of February, but also within the
animal kingdom when males attract females, couples start to build nests for the
new breeding season and for some like the Great Crested Grebe, in our picture of
the month, mating dances
begin. The Wildlife Photography in February section below gives more details of
others in the animal and plant kingdoms who are exhibiting this month.
Our main feature this month covers Waterfalls and
how to photograph water. Waterfalls this time of year, should be at their most
impressive in the UK, especially after a wet weather spell. So if you can brave
the cold take the opportunity to go out and explore, the other advantage in
going now is that many waterfalls are in wooded areas or gorges and although any
photos captured are not as colourful, they are easier to see as there are no
leaves on the trees to block your view. This month we have taken the opportunity
to update our
Waterfalls
section and make sure all lists and location guides are up to date. We have also
added two galleries of the
Ingleton Waterfalls Trail
 in Yorkshire, which were taken
in January to show you what you can get if you make the effort to make a visit.
So take a look at the feature below for more details.
Keeping a water theme our main Photographic
Feature this month is photographing water, and although we have covered before
Photographing
Waterfalls
and
Photographing Seawater,
which both methods involve having to brave the cold this time of year, we have
taken this opportunity to look specifically at how to go about photographing
water and the techniques in order to get soft water flows, or icicle effects, or
water that shows movement. To go with this we have also detailed a project on
freezing water to help show you what can be achieved. So see the main
photographic feature section below for details and links to the new articles.
The diary for next month, March, has been added
and there is one event taking place that I would like to bring to your attention
now, so that you can get prepared ready for the annual visit to the largest
photo show in the UK this year. Yes it's that time of year for the annual
Focus on
Imaging Show,
at the NEC in Birmingham, this year it is taking place from the 6th to 9th
March. For photographers professional and amateurs alike, it is the only show
that showcases all your photographic needs from image capture through to
editing, output and what you can potentially do with your images, whether it be
book collections, framed artworks and more. Although it doesn't take place until
next month, it is worth visiting their website and try to organise some plan of
what you want to see using their, downloadable floor plan, exhibitors list and
latest press releases of what products are going to be launched etc. You can
also register online and get an e-ticket for entry. Over 200 exhibitors will be
showing you what they have to offer and there are always many opportunities to
not only look at and handle equipment, but also to be able to buy with many show
offers, from the resellers and distributors exhibiting there. There are also
free seminars and workshops available and many of the exhibitors have
demonstrations, including Just Ltd showing to how safely clean your DSLR sensor,
DIY framing giving 15 minute practical demonstrations on mount cutting and
framing, Corel Paintshop Pro 15 minute demos, Bowens live flash demos, the Epson
stand looking at preparing colour prints, and more. With show much on offer it
is worth the forward planning. To get an idea of what sort of things you could
see take a look at our report from last years show in
Focus Show 2010
Report.
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Feature
Waterfalls
Waterfalls are magical places and they can
appear in all sorts of places and in all different shapes and sizes. Some can be really
accessible and small, more like a cascade and these can be found in such places
as roadside
brooks, coming off ponds or lakes in our large country house estates, or even in
caves underground. While others are much larger and are usually created where
river courses make their way through the soft rock bed of mountains or hill
ranges. The sight and sound of a waterfall has a relaxing affect on our senses,
and if you take time to watch, listen and absorb the atmosphere it feels
cleansing.
Waterfalls
and
their effect on us
looks at this aspect in more detail.
| These properties are not only experienced when
actually at the waterfall, but for some the affect can also be felt from a
photograph, moving image or using our imaginations with just the sound. We have
a
Waterfalls
section that contains articles, lists, many location guides and more on this
topic. Our first article,
Waterfalls Defined
discusses the different types of waterfalls from
cascades, spouts and curtains and looks at how they are generally classified and
identified. Although there are many on our own doorstep within the UK, they
appear all over the world and some of the largest and best known of them are
those like the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and Niagara Falls on the USA/Canada
border. Take a look at our
Project -
A Budget Trip
to Photograph Niagara Falls (USA)
to find out how to have a cost effective trip to see this magnificent waterfall,
in this romantic setting.
In the UK our largest waterfalls include two in
North Wales,
Swallow Falls
nr Betws-Y-Coed in Caernarfonshire and
Pistyll
Rhaeadr
in
Powys which is the highest waterfall in Wales dropping some 240ft (73m). Both of
these are open all year and are easily accessible. One of
the tallest in England is
High Force
at Middleton In Teesedale in Durham, this two is easily accessible from the car
park provided and you can not only walk below it, but in the summer months
can also access it from above. While the highest waterfall in the UK is in
the highlands of Scotland dropping 658ft (200m) and this is
Eas a' Chual Aluinn
in Sutherland, this one is not as easily accessible as it is 5 miles from
any road so you need to be prepared to take a good hike to get to it. |
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As well as these, within the mountains and hillsides there will be many more, much
smaller and some of these will only appear when the weather conditions have been
right. Like for instance in the Brecon Beacons in Wales. When driving along the
A470 through this area during the winter months, if there has been a significant
amount of rain there will be small cascading waterfalls coming down the hills.
Your problem will be seeing them as the road is very bendy so take care, and
make use of the many stopping places to pull up and wander to see them close up.
One year when travelling through during the winter months and not only following
some heavy rain, but also that day it had been very cold, there was not only
the rushing water, but also the opportunity to take pictures of very large
icicles that had formed. It was truly magical.
total in two different
connected valleys, following two rivers. From their car park you start off on
the River Twiss, see our gallery,
Ingleton Waterfall Trail - River Twiss
and from the end of this you walk across the hills following a well marked path
and continue the trail along the River Doe, for images of what can be seen on
this part of the route see our
Ingleton Waterfall Trail - River Doe
gallery.
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Photographic Feature
How to Photograph Water
With our main feature this month being Waterfalls,
we have stuck with the same theme in the photographic feature but are looking at
other ways of photographing water.
Our planet would not survive without water, in
fact nor would we so it is an important commodity for all of us. We are also
lucky enough that our atmosphere provides us with quite a bit of water every
year from the clouds weather it be in the form of rain or snow eventually it all
ends up on the ground as water. The UK is lucky enough to get it's fair share of
rain each year and with our glorious countryside around us there are many
reciprocals to take it on board, such as waterfalls, rivers, lakes, ponds,
underwater caves, holes in the road which create puddles and of course the sea.
So we have a wealth of opportunities and different locations in order to get
some good images of water. But what is the best way of recording it, how do we
go about it, and how can we control our cameras in order to be able to get those
images we want.
It is this that we are going to look at here.
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Photographing water in all its forms is
therefore a large field, but we have a variety of articles on some
aspects of this, and with this issue of the magazine we have included
two new articles. One
Photographing
Water
looks principally at how to get different effects when photographing
running water. The other
Water
Frozen In Time
looks in more detail at one of these effects and is a sort of project,
encouraging you to have a go. For both these articles we have not gone
out on location to experiment and produce the images to illustrate the
point, but instead have used the kitchen sink as our source, so you can
to. Because we have used an indoor environment we have been able to use
a set up that is quick to put together and utilises some of the skills
and products that you already have. We used both
Cool-Lite's
and a
Nikon Creative
Lighting
system
for our illustrations. |
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When photographing water we can create many
different effects such as blurring the water to create a romantic effect, or to
show the fluid motion of say the waterfall, or you can freeze the water to
create the illusion of water crushing against rocks, or turbulence in rapids,
and all this can be achieved by using different
shutter speeds
settings on our cameras. The fluid more natural effects are created by using
slower shutter speeds and the freezing of water is achieved by having faster
shutter speeds and using flash.
When photographing water we also need to consider
exposure,
white balance,
depth of field
and perspective when trying to get waterfalls and seascapes. The sea can provide
a whole set of different images, it can vary from being flat on a summer day, to stormy with huge
braking waves in winter and have a variety of modes, colours, and action.
Take a look at
photographing
seawater
for more on this.
Two
other effects of water that can be captured are rainbows, which occur usually
when bright sunshine follows rain and reflections. Rainbows are caused by light
being bent through particles of water. Nearly always seen best when the sun is
behind you and the rainbow in front of you, but you can also get rainbow effects
from mist, waterfalls, fountains, spray bows from sea spray, and moon bows by
moonlight.
Rainbows - How to photograph
explains both the rainbow and how to get great photos of them, as well as
looking at the aspects of photography you need to consider to achieve this.
The best reflections are visible on very sunny days, and in locations such as
the lake at
Stourhead
in Wiltshire,
in the autumn produce some very colourful images.
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The Photographers Diary
The March diary is now in the 'next month' slot
with February moved to in the 'this month'. Both months have a lot of opportunities for
everyone. Some highlights that are of particular interest are:-
We start off the month with the Scottish
Snowdrop Festival detailed in the wildlife photography section below. It is
also the month of World Wetlands Day and National Nest Box week. It is also the
month of love and for humans this is celebrated on the 14th of February,
Valentines Day, for the animal kingdom see the wildlife photography section
below.
Fire festivals
 are still
taking place in some parts of the UK, including in Scotland and the Marsden
Imbolc Fire Festival in Huddersfield, Yorkshire where on the evening of the
5th February where 1,500 people take part in a lantern and torch parade with
fire jugglers, antler wearing drummers, Celtic characters, fire druids and a
12ft Jack Frost. This evening event is then all finished off with a firework
finale.
The 6th of February is when the UK Chinese
communities celebrate this years Chinese New Year with parades and
entertainment taking place in London, Birmingham and Liverpool to mention a few.
During these colourful events Chinese art and entertainment is provided
including food, firecrackers, Chinese Dragon Dances, acrobats and firework
displays. Definitely adds a bit of colour to these still overcast days.
For the sports enthusiast there are a number of
events including marathons, like that of the Brighton Half Marathon on
the 20th. The Big Scuba Show at Olympia in London, on the 19th and 20th
looks at where to go for a good dive, equipment, clothing and also includes the
British Underwater Image Festival for photography and video.
For photographers of people and fashion there is
London Fashion Week in the Natural History Museum, London starting on the
18th and running until the 22nd. And wedding photographers could visit the
National Wedding Show taking place at Olympia in London from the 18th to
20th, taking a look at the catwalk shows and what the 250 exhibitors have to
offer.
For the more unusual activity there are a few this
month including:-
Silver Ball Hurling at St Ives in Cornwall
on the 6th February. This is where the Mayor throws a silver hurling ball into
the crowd on the beach and this is past from one person to another as they run
through the town until one minute to 12noon when it arrives back at the
Guildhall and is handed back to the mayor ready for another year. This is a
traditional sport that is only played in Cornwall. It is only played in a few
places, annual at St Ives and twice annually at St Columb Major around Shrove
Tuesday. For more on Cornish hurling and its origins see the page of
Wikipedia.
Scarecrow Festival at Tatton Park in
Cheshire, which takes place during the school half term holidays starting on the
19th.
Slaithwaite Moonraking Festival, Yorkshire
at the end of the month on the 26th.
An hour long Street
Procession of up to 3000 villagers and visitors, some bearing lanterns made of
willow withy and tissue paper and lit by candles, ending
at
the canal where performers re-enact the moonraking tale. Several men dress as
gnomes, a woman is dressed as the moonraking fairy and two fancy dress policemen
play the bagpipes. They all tow a moon-shaped lantern mounted on a float along
the canal with the women using rakes to guide the lantern as it floats along and
to "rake" it out. The celebrations end with a firework display.
Staying in Yorkshire you also
have the Jorvik Viking Festival during the half term holidays, starting
on the 19th which include battle re-enactments and lots of activities, and the
Wakefield Rhubarb Festival
on the weekend of 25th and 26th where all things rhubarb is celebrated with
cooker demonstrations, themed meals and tours of the forcing sheds where rhubarb
is grown.
There are many activities for those who like to be
outdoors including the Boat and Caravan Show from the 22nd to 27th at the
NEC Birmingham, everything on show to do with camping, caravanning and boats. |
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Wildlife Photography In
February
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February is the month of love in the
animal kingdom with many species of birds particularly starting to get ready
for the coming years new off spring. A walk in the woods or in the
countryside will result in you hearing more vocalisation of the birds as
they try to mark out their territories and attract their mates. In woodlands
you may hear the drumming of the
Greater Spotted Woodpecker
as they knock about on dead trees, and because there are no leaves on the
trees, take a look upwards and you may also be lucky enough to see one.
There are a number of sites on the internet where you can hear different
bird calls, like a
Guide to UK Birdsong
provided by the BBC, so on an evening why not take some time to listen to
some of the different sounds, so that on the weekend you can get out and
about and try to identify what you hear. You can also download some of the
as MP3 files to play on a mobile listening device, which means you could
take them with you when you go out. Getting to know their habitats, calls
and rituals will give you a better chance of tracking them down to
photograph them. On or near ponds and
large water expanses you may come across the Great Crested Grebe, like the
ones in the picture of the month above, doing their mating dance and passing
items to each other as part of their ritual. If you're lucky enough to see
this take time to watch and photograph of course, look out for the heart
shape formed when they synchronise their necks. The
Grey Heron
will also be busy in their heronries this month, these are usually found in
trees/wooded areas near to larger lakes, and can consist of 4-20 large
nests. They nest in trees, and
to see them balance on their long legs on very narrow branches is a
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positions. This will
allow you to generate a pleasant eye view of what you can see before you. If you
decide to take a photo from a standing position, use the trees and other items
to create a pleasing background, and if you can find something near to ground
level that can provide a focal point to draw the viewer to the carpet of
flowers. If you want to get close ups of the individual heads, then you will
need to employ the techniques of
macro photography
also take a look at
macro or micro photography
and
various ways to take closeups
to help you identify what to look out for and what equipment you may need to
take with you.
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During February
some 50+ properties promote themselves through Visit Scotland to provide a
Snowdrop Festival,
where they open their woodlands and grounds so that you can visit and see
their snowdrop displays, some of these venues are not normally open to the
public and do so for this month only. We have a listing,
where to see and photograph Snowdrops,
of
places we have identified throughout England, Wales and Scotland, again some
of which are only open for this occasion, so take a look and see if there is
somewhere near you that can visit. As
well as the snowdrops you may also see the first signs of more colourful
bulb plants such as crocuses and the daffodils towards the end of the month.
Also hanging off Hazel Trees you will see the male Hazel Catkins, or Lamb's
Tails as they are also known. If you see any take a closer look at the
branches nearby as you may also see the female catkin, which is basically a
small bulb coming out of the branch, but its attractive feature is the
little red tentacles which protrude from it, this is where they release
their pollen from. The 2nd February
is also World Wetlands Day, so why not take the opportunity to visit a
wetland centre, such as those operated by the
Wildfowl and Wetland Trust,
who have a
number of locations in different parts of the UK.
The 14th to 21st of February is also National
Next Box week when each year we are encouraged to put up nest boxes to help
our breeding birds, the Blue Tit particularly is out looking for new nest
box sites at this time of year, so get yours out fast. |
For more February wildlife take a look at
Wildlife Photography in February
for more highlights on what you should be looking out for this month. |
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Summary of Articles Included
In This Issue |
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Photographing
Waterfalls
Waterfalls Defined
Waterfalls -
Their effect on us
Planning a
Waterfall Trip
Project -
A Budget Trip
to Photograph Niagara Falls (USA)
Photographing Seawater
Wildlife Photography in February
Photographing
Water
Water
Frozen In Time
Rainbows - How to photograph
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Lists Updated This Issue |
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Waterfalls in England
Waterfalls in Wales
Waterfalls in Scotland
Waterfalls in Ireland
Major Waterfalls Around the World
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Locations Guides Updated This
Issue |
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Aberdulais, Neath, Glamorgan
Aysgarth Falls,
Yorkshire
Baxenghyll Gorge,
Ingleton, Yorkshire
Becky Falls,
Dartmoor, Devon
Beezley Falls,
Ingleton, Yorkshire
Canonteign Falls, Canonteign, Devon
Clampitt Waterfalls,
Canonteign, Devon
Conwy
Falls, Betws-Y-Coed, Caernarfonshire
Dalgoch Falls, Gwynedd
Eas a' Chual Aluinn, Assynt,
Sutherland
Falls
of Clyde Wildlife Reserve, New Lanark, Lanarkshire
Falls of Glomach,
Dorusduain,
Ross-shire
Hardraw
Force, Yorkshire
High Force, Middleton In Teesedale, Durham
Hollybush Spout,
Ingleton, Yorkshire
Ingleton Waterfalls Trail, Ingleton, Yorkshire
 
Lady Exmouth
Falls, Canonteign, Devon
Pecca Falls, Ingleton, Yorkshire
Pistyll
Rhaeadr, Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant,
Powys
Rival Falls,
Ingleton, Yorkshire
Rutter Force
, Appleby,
Cumbria
Snow Falls,
Ingleton, Yorkshire
Swallow Falls, Betws-Y-Coed,
Caernarfonshire
Thornton Force,
Ingleton, Yorkshire
Triple Spout,
Ingleton, Yorkshire
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Galleries Added This Issue |
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Ingleton Waterfall Trail - River Twiss, Yorkshire
Ingleton Waterfall Trail - River Doe, Yorkshire
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