McKenzie Falls Photo

Photographer’s Note

McKenzie Falls, Grampians-Gariwerd National Park.

We spent a lovely weekend hiking and exploring the Grampains which, inexplicably, I'd never been to before. We found these beautiful falls on our second day. They're the McKenzie Falls, about fifteen minutes outside Halls Gap.

Access was difficult - I'd say at least a hundred metres of descent from the carpark, often on single-walker only steps hewn from the stone of the gorge. It was quite a warm day and I felt every step, lugging my heavy tripod, Cokin P-series filters, camera and lenses!

There were at least a hundred other visitors down in the gorge, enjoying its damp coolness on an unseasonally warm spring day. We were able to scramble above them onto a rocky ledge, and compose this shot. The hike back up to the car - even more difficult! - was rewarded by a huge icecream back at Halls Gap...

Tech Stuff:
1. EOS 350D, EF-S 17-855mm IS USM. f/20, 5 seconds.
2. To get a long exposure around the middle of a bright day: ISO-100, f/20, ND8, circular polarizer.
3. Shot in RAW and opened in the new Adobe Lightroom Beta 4, just to try it out. This is a cyanotype conversion.
4. File resized and a touch of unsharp mask in Photoshop CS2 (I either couldn't find these functions in Lightroom, or they weren't there).

Hope you like it.

Tasmaniac, Paolo, cmoraru, bakes888, g1210, Jaune, linask, gracious, JPlumb, ballaln, Matthew-Watt has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

greenpinkorange (167) 2006-09-25 5:09

Simple yet stunning.
Minimal Colours yet eye catching.
Well composed, good capture and right shutter for the smooth effect of the water.
Very nice. :) Good work on the PP.

Just did a simple workshop, do check it out and let me know what you think.

Stephy

[workshop] [compare] +

drayde (376) 2006-09-25 5:21

Great long-exposure shot! Well done!

Tasmaniac (285) 2006-09-25 5:26

It might not be my place to comment, but Stephanie's framed version looks very nice indeed. However, I'm unsure if the crop is really necessary. I kinda like the harshness of the rock against the velvet water texture.
A couple of artefacts caught my eye and pointing them out might seem like 'splitting hairs'. I was just wondering if they are due to waterdroplets on your lens/filter, or caused by the dreaded sensor dust spots.

[workshop] [compare] +

deblink (2548) 2006-09-25 5:52

Hi Simon,
Yes I remember that walk myself, it was very difficult. Well worth it though as you photo shows. My visit was during the summer so there wasn't as much water, good to see it in full flow. Halls Gap is nice spot too. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
Cheers,
Debbie

Paolo (40755) 2006-09-25 12:29

Hi Simon, amazing shot, with a perfect exposure timing and a beautiful composition, just with rocks and water.
good POV and note.
thanks, ciao

mbasil (2117) 2006-09-25 15:08

Nice soft composition. I like the dimly-lit soft water against the dark hard rock. Nice tight composition, too.
Mike

Phaedra (144) 2006-09-26 6:39

Great shot, Simon. The texture of the rocks and monochromatic finish of the photo are very appealing. Great tones as well. Plenty of other good shots you have here from so many familiar places in Victoria. Great pleasure to visit them again on the screen!!!

cmoraru (557) 2006-09-26 12:59

Hi Simon,
This is a wonderful waterfalls shot, I love the texture of the water against the rocks and the unusual cyan color makes it look more abstract. Thank you for your tech note, I'll try on my waterfall shots. Great work, thanks for sharing!
Catalin

anthonyb (1209) 2006-09-28 2:12

Hi Simon
I tried to photograph this place last year - but the weather was horrible!
This is a beautiful shot. Very well done.
Keep up the great work.
Cheers Anthony

jaja1970 (1286) 2006-09-28 21:57

SO wonderful shot. Lovely bluish color or water.
Well done, TFS.
Best Wishes,

Javad.

bakes888 (18353) 2006-09-30 6:02

Hi Simon. Great photo. the long exposure has worked a treat and the composition is just spot on. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers, Paul.

g1210 (415) 2006-10-11 5:45

Stunning shot - you have made excellent use of the long exposure to great effect. The scene looks magical - great composition.
Neil...

Jaune (321) 2006-10-23 20:40

Hi Simon,

Very Nice Long exposure picture. Well captured.

Thank for the technical tips.

Jaune

gracious (20017) 2006-12-18 22:47

Hi Simon,
perfect captured with this falls,
just beautiful, so clear and peaceful
I loved it so much
thanks for sharing
cheers
Tony

jeanguy (684) 2007-01-13 4:07

Hi Simon, I like this a lot. Colors are almost mettalic. I like the aspect of the stone too. All makes with control. Cheers. Amicalement Jean-Guillaume.

JPlumb (3153) 2007-01-21 2:15

Hi Simon, this is an amazing shot of these falls. Your composition is very good but what really gets me is the detail you've captured on that rock face. The exposure is spot on, (and on black rock yet), either that or you're a genius with PP to bring out the exact contrast to accentuate the rock. Very nice.

Thanks, John

ballaln (400) 2007-02-04 8:53

Simon - another great one. I have taken a similar one myself and yet to post it, but did not have my DSLR at that time and no tripod! HOwever, I have a similar one of Russel falls (tassie) and Horshoe falls (tassie). TFS.

MariosCYP (770) 2007-02-28 5:53

Great picture Simon. I love the way you played with the time and teh movement of the water. I am a lover of your country. And I still have much to show from Australia.

Best regards from Cyprus,

Marios

Raticus (43) 2007-03-02 8:11

Love it Simon! I went down to McKenzie Falls when I visited the Grampians a few months back, but didn't have a tripod with me, so couldn't attempt anything like this. The result is spectacular... the water is almost like silken threads on the rock - this is just about the perfect exposure time it would seem.
Cheers,
Graham

Matthew-Watt (4467) 2008-02-05 15:06

Hello Simon,

Great photo, this cool and refreshing waterfall must certainly be an oasis in the bush. The aperture and shutter speed settings seem to be optimum to catch the falling water in that silky way. As for my Snapper Rocks photo, it would not work as well, with the movement of the people as you said, but here the longer exposure is perfection. It is interesting to see no other colours to distract here, only the silky white on the slate grey for simplicity and purity. TFS.

Matt