The Face of the Potholes

Photo of the Day

Yesterday I spent the morning in between Attica and Williamsport at the Fall Creek Gorge which is better known as the Potholes. This is a great nature preserve that I have been to one other time. Yesterday though the water was down a bit allowing me to navigate much easier through the area. Of course it was thundering with a heavy rain not too far away so all the tranquility could be washed out very quickly. I moved very quickly to get the pictures that I wanted before getting out of there, and back to higher ground. Just down the road the skies did open up, and I wonder how fast the water was moving once the storm rolled in.

Technical Data

This is where I can have some fun again. I took some bracketed photos in order to make some HDR pictures, but here I just tweaked my RAW file for the metered exposure in Lightroom 5. I used an HDR preset in Lightroom to get the image close to where I like it to be, and then I tweaked the sliders a bit.

One big piece of technical data is the way that I made the water smooth out here. I used a 0.8 ND filter so that I could shoot with much longer shutter speeds. In broad daylight this filter would not really help me too much, but under cloud cover in a canyon it was perfect. It allowed me to blur the water, and let it make its natural pattern apparent. I love the idea, and I need to see about getting a darker filter for my trip to Ocean City.

On Location Video

I thought that I would try something new. Actually I mounted my Go Pro on my camera during the ARCA race a couple of weeks ago, but I have not gotten around to putting the video together yet. This video is a bit rough, but I like the idea of what I can do with the Go Pro mounted on my camera. It really does allow you the reader to follow along with me as I make some images. I plan on doing this more in the future so look for more videos. The video from the ARCA weekend is so big that it will be a massive project that I am not sure I am ready for yet. Maybe I will have it ready in a week or so. When it is I will post it here. You can also subscribe to my YouTube page to be notified when I upload a new video. I would like to try this same approach while photographing roller derby and other sports. I wish that I had this idea during the spring to give you a birds eye view at Purdue. Maybe this fall I can just start fresh during the new year. Enjoy the video that is directly below this paragraph.