High Force, a photo from Durham, England

Photographer's Note

High Force was formed where the River Tees crosses the Whin Sill – a hard layer of igneous rock (also seen at Hadrian's Wall and other locations). The waterfall itself consists of three different types of rock. The upper band is made up of whinstone, or dolerite, a hard igneous rock which the waterfall takes a lot of time to erode. The lower section is made up of Carboniferous Limestone, a softer rock which is more easily worn away by the waterfall. Between these two layers is a thinner layer of Carboniferous sandstone, which was baked hard when the Whin Sill was molten 295 million years ago. The wearing away of rock means that the waterfall is slowly moving upstream, leaving a narrow, deep gorge in front of it. The length of the gorge is currently about 700 metres. The bedload (rocks that the river is carrying) is mainly composed of large boulders, which are rolled along the river bed. Upstream of the waterfall, the river is narrow; downstream, it widens and meanders
Ihave been in the North eaqst for nearly 5 years and have wanted to photograph these falls since coming up, it was worth the wait.

ikeharel, mirosu, No_One, nels ha contrassegnato questa nota come utile

Critiques | Translate

marabu61 (11587) 2013-03-29 16:46

Hello Chris
This is an amazing composition of an impressing waterfall. Great framing and the 2 second exposure has given the water a nice silky smooth appearance.
Unfortunately, even though you used F/29, the photo is still somewhat overexposed. Best would have been to use a ND filter to break the light down.
I have tried to bring back some of the highlights in a little workshop, I hope you don't mind.
happy easter
Daniel

[workshop] [compare]

mirosu (16313) 2013-04-04 3:31

Hi Chris,
Waterfalls have such an awesome beauty to them that they always compel one to want to capture the power and motion that is contained within them. I like this image for several reasons. The elements of a great visual story are all there. There is motion, power, a vast scope of distance and height, and of course, the icicles around it. Very nice photo.

No_One (4) 2013-04-09 6:47

Hi Chris,
I love this style of shot, the long exposure does such great things to waterfalls. I've never succeeded in creating one well, so its always a pleasure to see these. It looks particularly beautiful against the icy rocks. Great shot, thanks for sharing.
All the best
Noel

mjw364 (1466) 2013-04-23 5:13

Hi Chris

I like this shot because you have tried to be creative here and you have created that unique blur effect that is associated with shots of waterfalls. Its good composition too with the rocks creating the foreground interest. It's an awe inspiring scene and it was well worth the wait.

Daniel is right though that the highlights are blown but I don't think his workshop improves things that much to be honest though he was trying to be helpful. If you get yourself some decent post processing software like Lightroom 4 or Photoshop Elements correcting things like this is easy once you learn your way around the software.

Well done.

Mike

cj66 (0) 2013-05-21 15:33

hi chris,
i like the sense of movement in the water through the waterfall. pity about the over exposure in the fore ground but still a good shot

nels (2623) 2013-12-09 11:43

high force a brilliant place for photos no matter what the season. love the long exposure on the falls against the icy rocks. If it had been my shot I think I would have cropped it a tad to remove the "burnt out sky" bot hey that's only me
regards
adrian