Spearfish Falls, a photo from South Dakota, Midwest

Photographer's Note

Spearfish Falls

Spearfish Canyon
The Black Hills
South Dakota.

When photographing waterfalls it is always a great idea to bring along an axe or chain saw to cut down any obstructing trees or foliage ...
(no no just teasing .. they were already like this .. I swear) ...

My two favorite "natural" places in the Black Hills are Custer State Park in the South and Spearfish Canyon in the North.

There are three very nice waterfalls in the canyon .. the one I didn't get to this trip is the roadside one .. at least I saved the easy one for another time.

The parking lot of the Latchstring Inn is the best place to get at Spearfish and Roughlock Falls from. Roughlock is about a mile to the West and accessed by a trail or road. Spearfish Falls is a quick 3/4 mile loop trail from the Inn.

We did an evening walk to both falls and then had dinner at the Inn.

kmarscher, gildasjan, veve, huahoa, Angelillo, asajernigan, gunbud, jhm, lgir, saylan-cb, vinu, fserajian, Charo, darrasin has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

chpp (4283) 2007-08-21 7:50

hi,
very nice picture. I like the effect of the water. The fall looks really nice, beautiful colours and nice POV
cheers
christian

kmarscher (2887) 2007-08-21 7:55

Ha;)

You managed the lighting quite well. I would think that the area to the left of the falls would be darker, so my question--did you bring up the dark levels in PP?

Very, very well done with nice foreground interest and compo.

Regards,
Kathy

gildasjan (43826) 2007-08-21 8:02

Bonjour John
Très belle composition.Une belle réussite sur le plan technique avec cette vitesse lente.L'effet est superbe.
Bravo et bonne journée.
Amicalement
Gildas

veve (4189) 2007-08-21 9:55

Hi John,
Wonderful scenery!
I like the motion effect of the waterfall and the point of view too!
Really nice image!
Best regards,
Veronica

AROBN54 (11475) 2007-08-21 10:07

Oh, this is a pretty shot, John. I love the filtering light and all the sharp detail around the smooth flow of the falls. The colors are perfect. What a beautiful spot. Great capture.
Warm regards,
Shelly

huahoa (3698) 2007-08-21 14:22

Hi John,
I recognize your style with long exposure in order to give a special effect to water, I like it and will try to photograph a cascade near my home with the same adjustment.
Well done !
Thanks for sharing
Hoa

Angelillo (9374) 2007-08-21 14:50

Hi John,

Magical and impressive waterfall. I like in this one the foreground: the cut branches and the light over them, it's really beautiful! And for this interesting point, the waterfall is a perfect background! Great composition!

Greetings,
Angel.

asajernigan (21427) 2007-08-21 18:06

John,
This is an excellent capture of these fantastic falls. The long exposure has created a nice silky effect to the moving water. The sharpness and DOF here are outstanding with all elements of the photo in crisp focus. Your light management is great yielding nice soft colors through out the photo.
TFS,
Asa

gunbud (34066) 2007-08-21 18:10

Hi John,
Excellent light management on this lovely slow exposure image. I love the inclusion of the jagged birch stumps to this dreamy image.
Regards, Tom

jhm (201755) 2007-08-22 1:28

Hello John,

This is a very beautiful image.
I like the way you've captured the falling water.
Beautiful natural colours, good light, sharpness, POV and composition.
My compliments. Thanks for sharing.

Have a nice day,
John.

vincz (19113) 2007-08-22 1:30

Great light on the trees in the foreground and great speed choice to get this marvelous texture in the falls. A very pleasant shot.

UnTrained (0) 2007-08-22 2:17

Hi John,
this is a very well thought composition with the blunt and the waterfall behind. The light through some leaves with spots everywhere are wonderful and create a quiet mood. Well shown water movement and a very lovely place.
Lieben Gruss, Ulf

lgir (7363) 2007-08-22 4:03

Hello John,

Very beautiful light and attractive effects on this waterfall. An excellent composition.
Thanks for sharing

Laurent

ben4321 (9875) 2007-08-22 8:39

Your framing works well here John - I like how you included the tree stumps on the right instead of going for a closer view of the waterfall.
I think using a faster shutter speed to reduce the amount of blur in the water would have worked well, but that's more of a personal preference and not really a criticism as such. Personally I prefer less blur and a bit more definition to the water in these kinds of shots.
I like it though, good work.

Cheers,
Ben

evanrizo (462) 2007-08-22 14:02

Woooo I see a silk curtain here!
Hi John, what a nice work , what a nice effect it comes from the 2 seconds exposure, great done.
All the lightness is superb.
The perspective and the depth are very good.
Cheers
Evan

bracasha75 (24591) 2007-08-22 14:20

Hello John
Beautifull ,John, without anything wrong here...
Thanks
Cheers,Braca

vinu (129) 2007-08-22 16:19

Beautifull shot, John.
I have seen such pictures from you in this gallery. And now have a lovely feel, watching this too. LOVELY..
Best Regards,
vinushka

cdmonson (5272) 2007-08-22 16:28

Hi John:

I like your lighting on this one. It seems a tad underexposed, but otherwise fantastic. The inclusion of the tree stumps in the foreground makes for a nice composition.

Clark

izmirli (3989) 2007-08-22 17:18

merhaba dear john
wonderful nature and magnificent spearfish falls.beautiful landscape.well done.
best regards.
gürkan akçakır.

fserajian (2299) 2007-08-22 23:21

Hi John,

What a capture, the water fall movement is well captured with excellent detail. The use of broken tree as your foreground as added interest to the shot. Love it :-)
Regards

Fara

saylan-cb (12738) 2007-08-23 2:43

Hi John
Very nice effect of the water.Great colours and nice POV here...
Excellent work.
TFS/Kind regards

dlevy23 (2018) 2007-08-23 7:58

Hi John, great photo. Nice effect with the water. Good composition including the tree in the foreground.
Good job.

Daniel

jaywalker (16105) 2007-08-23 11:51

Hi John, Beautiful falls, beautifully photographed, wonderful variation of light, the exposure is perfect, lovely effect of the water, it looks like hair from some giant blond lady hanging it over the rock face, very well composed indeed, & a great POV with the wood stumps in the foreground, TFS, kind regards Wilson.

paura (25802) 2007-08-23 16:19

John,
Excellent photo here. Very nice the settings option (f/14.0 - 2 seconds).

(To my favorite gallery)

Paulo

feather (51130) 2007-08-24 2:11

Not an easy shot to take I should imagine. The lack of light on the falls themselves is a blessing as that would have caused the worst problem and I can imagine the specks of light you did have filtering through the trees caused you a bit of a headache. I think you really pulled it off. I love the slow shutter effect on falls. You composed the image well too by including the sawn-off tree branches which poit to the falls. It sounds like you had a pleasant evening.
Kath

Charo (51290) 2007-08-24 3:03

Hola John,
Me encanta esta foto con el agua de la cascada que parece humo y esos troncos en primer plano que le da mucha profundidad.
Excelente encuadre y colores.
Felicitaciones
Cordialmente
Charo

ahmetgedikli (25609) 2007-08-24 12:41

Hi John,
Very good capture and composition. Great colors, sharpness and good POV. Well done.
Have a nice weekend.
Ahmet

EOSF1 (1944) 2007-08-25 6:25

Hello John, I really love those long exposure shots and yours is pretty good. Good choice of subject, great composition with those elements at the right front of the picture. Good technique too. Thanks,

Mario

testmaniac (13508) 2007-09-09 23:12

Hi John,
Wonderful composition and perfect shot! With long exposure you give all beauty of water. Good place!

TFS

Philip

darrasin (2860) 2007-09-14 22:56

Hello John! Your long exposure here makes a beautiful scene an amazing one. The veil effect on the waterfall is majestic and alos well-placed in the scene. The interesting zebra like tree stumps on the right seem somewhat 3-dimensional to me.

Well done!
Doug

douglascraig (260) 2007-09-23 3:49

Hi John,

Nicely done with the foreground interest and lead in to the frame. Seems good and sharp from foreground to background, I see you keep from putting the f stop too high which can help sharpness. I love waterfall shots, well done!

Best wishes,

Douglas