As Long As I Need You
I am trying to catch up with a blog that I should have done a good few weeks ago, but for one reason or another did not get round to it, so today I have sat myself down in a quiet corner of a coffee shop...ok pub, to be a full time hipster and try to get some of these images I took on my travels onto my website. so without further procrastination lets get on with it...
I tried to get some walking in while I was away, and boy did I do some walking. I thought it would also be good, and a very clever idea to take my full sized tripod on the walk with me up the ice and snow sided mountain (without walking boots). This as well as having to carry all my camera equipment meant it was no small task to get to the top. I made it (kind of), but I was pretty shattered and decided not to repeat this effort again...like ever.
view from the top looking back at where we had walked up from
After heading back down the mountain, my love affair with waterfalls began, and continued throughout the course of the week.
Below are some of my favorite waterfall images that I took:
switching things up for a black and white image to pick out the snow in the background
I adore using my 10 stop filter at any given moment when it comes to showing water, as you will see in a lot of my other work and blogs respectively, so being greeted with all these waterfalls in various settings and sizes, I was in heaven. I was bitten by the waterfall bug several years ago when I was in Iceland, but sadly I was never allowed the time I would have wanted/needed to get the perfect shots I was wanting to get. Don't get me wrong I managed to get a couple, but my equipment was not as it is now, and my partner of choice for this trip was much more happy to let me take some time to really capture the shots I wanted, than who I was travelling with previously so this also made a massive difference.
Weather was playing a major factor in several of the waterfall images that I was able to take. the two images above were taken on a very wet and miserable day, with poor light and a constant, almost mist like rain coming down and covering my lens with droplets of water. This made taking the images I wanted to take, very difficult to do. Due to the low light, 5 minute exposures were required to get the correct exposure, with a then further 5 minute buffer before I was able to even view the image, and set up again for the next one. This meant I was only really able to capture a couple of images total, so had to get my composition, focus and exposure spot on every time. I was very happy with how the images came out given the circumstances, and I would have stayed there all day given half the chance but there was only so long I could keep my equipment dry.
Keeping to my water in motion theme I seem to have going, we travelled to the coast. I was blown away by the huge waves crashing against the sea wall, and over the lighthouse. I wanted to capture the full force and brutality of what was happening, so went down to the beach with my 400mm lens to try and capture the waves as they were mid break. In total opposite to the waterfall images, I was using the fastest shutter speed I could (1/1000th of a second or higher), to try and capture the waves as they crashed over the lighthouse. I was in luck that light was breaking through the clouds to give me quite good light on the subject, so was careful not to blow out the sky in the background as I waited for the waves to hit.
After our time spent on the coast, we headed back inland and I decided to try my hand at some star photography, so popped my head torch on, grabbed my tripod and 35mm F/1.4 lens, and wandered off to find somewhere dark. Now this was my first go at this so I am aware they are not the best, but I learnt a lot while I was doing it. The first thing I learnt was its really hard to find a place that is actually dark. I walked out into the middle of nowhere, and still couldn't escape light coming from something or other, which meant trudging up a muddy path and into a farmers field. I also learnt that creating a composition in the dark is a nightmare and that having someone with you is probably a good idea as well, so for the next time I try this sort of thing out I will convince someone to come with me and plan my composition in advance. Finally I learnt that I really needed the 24-70mm, as the 35mm was just a bit too zoomed in to capture the sky and some foreground from where I was. I had taken the 35mm because it had the highest aperture available for me, so I could keep the ISO as low as possible. U ended up shooting at about F/4 so this was not really required in the end. All said and done, I enjoyed trying it out, and I guess it kind of worked, I mean you can see the stars right?
After my star gazing test, it was time for some more walking in the mountains, and this time I decided to leave my tripod and other equipment at the B&B because i'm smart like that/learnt my lesson. I did take my 24-70mm F/2.8, my 400mm F/5.6 and my 70-200mm F.4 so I wasn't exactly packing light but im very glad I did take this combination with me on my hike.
The images above show just how quickly the weather can change, with light and cloud moving across the valley as we trekked up and around the lake to the top of a waterfall.
As we travelled back down to the otherside of the waterfall, the cloud cleared and the weather changed again so the tops of the larger peaks became viable.
As quickly as it had cleared, the cloud moved back over again, covering the high peaks.
walking around the lake
As we were climbing, off in the distance I could see several dark shapes moving on the sides of the mountain, as we got closer, we could see that they were small flocks of mountain goats. I took this opportunity to basically stalk the poor things for the next hour or so as we travelled further (and closer) to them.
I basically ended up doing a full study on these guys, as they went about their business in the gorse around the mountain. I loved how wild and hardened they all looked against the ever changing elements around me. I exclusively used my 400mm F/5.6 to try and get as close as possible to the goats as they grazed high up on the mountain sides. Light was not perfect and as the 40mm is difficult at the best of times, hand holding it and keeping the image blur free is a big challenge. I ended up shooting off a lot of shots to get the images here but i just loved the personality of the subject so wanted to get the shots just right. Happily I think I did achieve this even without my tripod and it finally paid off taking my 400mm!!
Finally a big shout out to this show off, who made it all the way to the top. My shoes and the vast amount of equipment I had that day meant this last incline was one step too far for me, but it was nice to see her getting all the way to the top. Thanks for putting up with my constant stopping to take photos, and waiting patiently while I spent ages in the rain setting up my waterfall shots, you are a star!!
FIN
