Christman Sanctuary

West out Route 20, left turn on Schorharie Turnpike...2miles on the left (over the railroad tracks)

2miles round trip, 10 waterfalls and a picnic area

Easy hike, swimming hole

So I thought I would start out with this place. Really I think it is the best place to start out for water/waterfall work. When the water is low you can take your gear right out and have a ton of room to move around and work on getting the best light and shot. The hike is easy, especially with gear. There is also a swimming hole and 10 waterfalls.

This is one shot I took the last time I was there... my tripod was in over a foot of water. Mind you I do not recommend that you do this, unless you know your limits, your gear and what can happen.

Anyway, I shot this at manual and F22, nice and long exposure... when shooting waterfalls and you want the silk like look and feel to your water.. long exposure is what you are looking for. I came across this totally by mistake one day when shooting.

Although you might get a good shot with a point and shoot camera, they just do not allow you the control that a SLR camera does when shooting waterfalls. This is fairly a easy task to learn when shooting, compared to others that is. I run a Nikon D100, with this shot, the lens was a 70-300mm. The one piece of equipment that is absolutely necessary when shooting waterfalls is a TRIPOD. Because of the longer shutter speeds, there is no way you can physically hold the camera still for 20 or 30 seconds. Generally 1/15 will blur or give you that silky look and feel to your water. Long shutter speeds are also essential if you are photographing in gorges or basins, where, even on the sunniest days, the area around the falls receives little light.

Aperture is just as important as your tripod or exposure when shooting. The norm for waterfalls is anywhere between F8 and F22. The above shot was F22 like I said above. Really it depends on where you are and what is available to you. I want to say its something you have to play with. Just like shutter speed, the trick is not to be afraid to experiment with different settings and what ends up looking the best. Not every place is the same..

Take this note from Northenglandwaterfalls.com: "Apertures of f/16 and f/19, for example, should capture everything in focus, from a boulder 6 feet in front of you to the trees on the side of a waterfall. Many photographers focus on the shutter speed alone; do not forget to take aperture into account when composing pictures. If you are using a high-speed film, you may be tempted to bring the aperture down to f/5.6 to reach a shutter speed of 1/10 second. With an aperture of f/5.6, you are running the risk of having certain areas of the picture come out blurry"

You also need to keep in mind the time of day, location, weather. I know it seems like a lot to take in all at once... and you ask what does location, weather and time of day have to do with anything... well it can mean the difference between the perfect shot and a over exposed one. With Christman, I go out in the mid morning, and it helps if it is a partly cloudy to cloudy day. Otherwise the sun is constantly over exposing your shots...I also find if you go late morning or early afternoon, the sun is just in the wrong spot and you do not get good shots. I remember driving out towards Grafton to this waterfall and it took me a while to actually find and hike down too. By the time I finally got down to it and set up, the sun was setting over the top of the waterfall and any shots that I did manage to get where awful and what one would call over exposed.

Again please feel free to experiment... if you come across something that turned out awesome or have some other tips.. please feel free to post! In my opinion we all learn from each other :)