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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty: Expressing the force and beauty of moisture in motion > Lee Vining Falls, Lee Vining, California, 2006
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20-OCT-2006

Lee Vining Falls, Lee Vining, California, 2006

Many of the photographers who were shooting alongside of me when I made this image, preferred to use tripods, filters, and very slow shutter speeds to blur this flow of water, make it silky smooth, creating peaceful, ethereal, almost silent images. I do exactly the opposite here – I take the same waterfall and make it roar with power and energy. I hand hold the camera and use a very fast shutter speed (1/800th of a second) to stop the action of the falls, letting the thunderous flow hang forever in an explosion of frozen threads of water. The image is largely monochromatic, except for the rich golden brown color of the central rock at left. I want to add the hard edge of realism to this image, so I did not convert it to black and white as I did with another waterfall image which you can see by clicking on the link below.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50
1/800s f/8.0 at 23.2mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis31-Oct-2006 17:57
By freezing the action, instead of bluring it, I give the water an almost brutal force. It is the trace of color left in this image that gives it its reality, Jenene -- that is why I did not convert it to black and white. The brownish rocks makes all that white water seem all the more real here.
JSWaters31-Oct-2006 16:20
Such an awesome display of power. The churning water explodes around the rocks and slithers across their slick surface. The monochromatic nature of the image is realistic and warns that this is not water to be trifled with.
Jenene
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