Waterfall » Traverse Earth

Godafoss, Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel, Waterfall 4 Responses »

Jul 212012

Our first attempt to find this waterfall did not go well. We decided not to use the GPS because it looked really straightforward on the map. Unfortunately, we promptly forgot that we were looking for a turning. When we realized we’d probably gone past it, we got out the gps and discovered we passed the turn about an hour earlier. So, we decided to continue on to Myvatn and visit the waterfall the next day.

Visiting in daytime hours meant that we got to experience the tour bus crew for the first time. To the right of the falls it was very crowded with a number of buses parked up and people rushing around to see the falls and hop back on their buses. On the other side, however, was a small path with very few people on it. I went that way.

In taking this photo I decided not to crop out a tourist taking photos atop the cliff to the right because I thought that would provide a good scaling factor to show the size of these falls. Unfortunately, the tourist is so dwarfed by the falls it’s difficult to notice that he’s there!

Ouzoud Falls, Morocco

Africa, Morocco, Travel, Waterfall 1 Response »

May 262012

I took part in FriFotos on Twitter this week. They set a theme on Monday or Tuesday and on Friday people from all over the place post photos for the theme. This week’s theme was waterfalls so I posted a load of them.I also dug through my archives and found today’s photo of Ouzoud Falls in Morocco.

7 Ladder Gorge Waterfall, Transylvania, Romania

Romania, Travel, Waterfall 4 Responses »

May 232012

Why Romania?

When I told people I was going to Romania the most common reaction was, “Why, Romania?”

Telling them it was just for a vacation wasn’t typically enough to satisfy the question. So, I’d have to launch into the following story.

As soon as I finished my final exams at university I took off to travel across Europe along with my Belgian housemate Greg. We inter-railed from Amsterdam to Athens over a six week period. It was great. Study time gave me a great opportunity to plan everything out. The route was plotted and off we went. Everything went to plan. Except, that is, for our 2 night stop over in Sighisoara, Romania (the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, aka Dracula).

We were in Budapest, along with my friend from Bermuda, John, and had an important decision to make about our 6am departure. It was midnight in the hostel bar, 5 hours until we’d have to be waking up to get on a 10 hour train ride. We decided that just didn’t make any sense. The hostel bar was open all night and it was really lively. It was full of a big group of Australians a couple Belgians and a few others. We’d be much better off staying up all night and then spending the long train journey asleep. This logic was probably based on the fact we were already a few beers in.

You can probably guess where this is going. After we had successfully defused a heated argument between the Australians and Belgians, John wussed out and went to bed with three hours to go. Then, with an hour left, Greg and I decided it was time to go pack – that was another piece of careful planning. The next memory I have is being woken up by these words from Greg, “Uhhhhh, Johnny, I think we missed the train.”

“Why, what time is it?” I replied.

“10:00”

“So what you’re saying is, we definitely missed the train.”

As a result of this blunder, we didn’t go to Romania. We went to Serbia. As a result, I wanted to see what Romania was about, so I made a much more successful attempt to visit a couple of summers ago.

Now I’ve been there, if anyone asks me why I’m going to Romania in the future, I’ll just answer, “Because it’s awesome.”

Today’s Photo: 7 Ladder Gorge Waterfall, Transylvania, Romania

Today’s photo is one of the reasons that Romania is awesome. The country is beautiful. This is taken in Seven Ladder Gorge. When I was there it was officially closed as the metal ladders and walkways through the gorge had been damaged by the winter floods. Our guide told us this and proceeded right along. The walkways were definitely damaged, some had fallen down. I liked it, it made for more of an adventure. There were a lot of picture opportunities along the way. This is one of my favorites.

Again, this is an old photo I had saved as a JPEG but always felt was a bit flat. I’ve given it a sort of faux HDR treatment using Topaz Adjust, which really is an amazing Photoshop plugin.

Niagara Falls

Ontario, Travel, Waterfall 1 Response »

May 202012

If you’re interested in finding this “secret” viewpoint, I provide a few clues as to its location in Niagara Skyline. It’s a pretty cool spot to find, even if you’re not looking to photograph the area. It’s definitely a different view compared to what most visitors to the falls get to see. Once up there I decided I had to try to capture the whole scene. So, I framed up four different shots and bracketed each for HDR. I wasn’t positive at the time how I’d go about stitching them together.

It turned out it was pretty involved. I had a total of 28 photographs to work with. These 28 images could have produced 4 HDR photographs to then stitch together. This approach caused me all sorts of problems with ghosting. Another significant problem was setting the sliders in Photomatix so that they’d be optimized for all four images. I kept ending up with dark areas in the final result. So, I changed my tactic.

In order to get this to work, I wound up grouping the exposures for each image together – meaning that i had seven sets of four images ranging from -3 stops to +3 stops. I stitched each of these together to create 7 huge images that I could then run through Photomatix. Unfortunately, this pushed the limits of my computer’s capabilities and I kept encountering error messages due to insufficient memory. I had been trying to use Photomatix’s deghosting tool to clean up people and vehicles that had moved through the frame. Eventually, I decided I’d have to do this in Photoshop after producing the tone mapped image. This reduced workload appeased my computer, and I had an HDR image to work with!

I went into Photoshop and layered the seven original exposures under the tone mapped image and masked away any ghosting I could find. It was pretty time-consuming and I’ve spent ages trying to figure out how to do it, but I’m happy with the results. I’ll be producing more stitched panoramic images going forward. I’ve got an idea for another shot at the top of Horseshoe Bay using this technique. I’ll give it a try once the weather decides to behave itself again.

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Indian Falls, Bruce County: From Above

Canada, Ontario, Travel, Waterfall 4 Responses »

May 162012

In an earlier post, you saw these falls from below. To get there I’d had to climb down and then carefully hop from rock to rock to get up the river. In that photo you could see that there was still a huge lump of snow/ice at the base. Today’s view is probably more like how normal people experience Indian Falls.

The path is pretty easy. As you approach the falls you can hear them from quite a distance away. Then you reach a cliff edge with a great view. I was surprised to discover a fence there preventing you from getting to the edge, the path there wasn’t exactly developed. I think I’ve mentioned it before but I’ll say it again, I hate fences. It was one of the things that I loved about Victoria Falls, the freedom to roam (after you’d signed in with the AK toting guard at the gate). To get this photo I reached over the fence to place my tripod and camera on the other side and used the LCD screen to frame the shot.

It’s funny when you’re looking for a waterfall and are a bit lost. You always think you can hear it, then it turns out to be small rapids. But then, when you actually hear it you can tell the difference. They’re always so much louder than you expect. I depart for Iceland in less than a month where I’ll have opportunity to seek out lots of waterfalls. On my first night there (baring in mind the 24 hours of light) I’ll be visiting one that is supposed to be particularly loud. It’s called Dynjandi, which means thunderous. It looks like it’s pretty spectacular.

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Victoria Falls and Batoka Gorge

Africa, Travel, Waterfall, Zambia, Zimbabwe 1 Response »

May 122012

My Tripod Search

On my gear page I mention that I’m not fully satisfied with my current tripod and mentioned one set of legs I’m considering. I’m going to be expanding this section soon because the more I look round the more options I find. I’ve got a good idea of what I want. The legs max height needs to be about 5’3″. At this height, the tripod head plus the height of my camera should get the viewfinder to eye level for me. It also needs to be able to set up with the legs spread out flat so I can shoot from ground level. With this in mind I don’t want a center column, as they reduce stability when extended and make getting the camera to ground level difficult. With setup in mind, one thing I like about my Benro Angel is the twist locks on the legs. So, that’s something I’ll definitely be looking for in my replacement. Additionally, I want to go as light as possible so will be looking at buying carbon fiber. These parameters are pretty easy to fulfill, but I also want it to fit in a carry on. This is where things get tricky. Hopefully, I’ll find something suitable soon as I want to bring it to Iceland with me in June.

Today’s Photo: Victoria Falls and Batoka Gorge

After crawling out on a ledge for the photo posted here, I set up in a much safer position on the other side of the tree. I still can’t believe how unrestricted we were at the top of the falls. This day Shannon and I had gone back to the falls without a guide and just walked right along the edge in search of photos. We did have one scary moment though. On the way back to the parking lot, I’m pretty sure we encountered the biggest baboon in the world. It was terrifying and grunting. It definitely did not sound like it was in a good mood. We backed off and hid behind a bush as it crossed the path and disappeared.

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7 Ladder Gorge, Romania

Europe, Romania, Travel, Waterfall 5 Responses »

May 102012

The original plan, when starting this site, was to not include any pre-HDR photos. I’ve changed my mind. My trip to Romania inspired me to invest more in my camera equipment and I like a lot of the pictures I took there. Today’s photo was taken on the way down a mountain headed toward 7 Ladder Gorge with my old Canon Rebel. Topaz Adjust has allowed me to recover some of the details in the shadows and a few extra tweaks (including applying Unsharp Mask, which I never used to use) have allowed me to improve this photo a bit form the original. Going forward, I’ll release a few more of my older pictures every once in a while.

Inglis Falls, Grey County, Ontario

Canada, Ontario, Travel, Waterfall No Responses »

May 022012

I arrived at this waterfall shortly after sunset. After parking at the top of the falls I went about looking for a good view. I came across a path but a sign said it was closed. I came across this a lot as I traveled around Ontario in March. They were closed due to the danger of ice, but the conditions could only be described as summery. So, I quickly slipped around the sign and found this vantage point.

Hoggs Falls

Canada, Ontario, Travel, Waterfall No Responses »

Apr 212012

This is the last of the waterfalls I visited on my trip to Ontario. There’s a rope in place to help you down the cliff. Unfortunately, I was low on time so didn’t venture down there.

I’ve decided that I’m going to spend this week going down to Horseshoe Bay for sunrise. I feel like I should have the standard shot from atop the large rock at the West end. Going down for a few mornings should ensure that I get to see a good sunrise.

The Old Gristmill, Walter’s Falls, Ontario

Canada, Ontario, Toronto, Travel, Waterfall 9 Responses »

Apr 192012

If it looks like I’m standing in the water here it’s because I am. Well, not really. My camera was though. I spotted this weir next to this old mill above Walter’s Falls in Ontario. After failing to be satisfied with a shot from the bridge I went clambering down the bank, through branches covered in thorns to get down to the river edge. I landed heavily on a pair of rocks which immediately gave way under me. I looked like I’d be getting wet for sure. Somehow, I managed to back pedal faster than the rocks were falling and build myself a new platform of rocks landing beneath my feet.

From my precarious perch, I lent out as far as I could to place my camera closer to the middle of the river, and fire off 7 exposures, before clambering back up through the bushes. Following this I went down to the bottom of the waterfall to get some shots there. I and my gear got pretty soaked once down there, but that’s a story for another day.

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