The rain this Spring and melting snow from winter made for some spectacular waterfalls in numerous Southern Utah locations this year. I am still editing images but this is one of my favorites.

Feature Image Details

• EOS R5 Mirrorless Camera
• Canon 16-35MM F4 L Lens at 17 MM
• 1.5 Seconds, F16, ISO 100

Discussion

This image is from March 17.

In bright sunshine, 1.5 seconds is a very long time. I achieved that with a polarizer plus a neutral density filter, most likely a 6-stop ND filter. Each stop doubles or halves the exposure.

For example, if the normal exposure was 1/32 of a second, six stops would be 1/16th, 1/8th second, 1/4th, 1/2, 1 second, 2 seconds.

This shot was at 17 mm on a full frame sensor. 24mm is just not wide enough.

Spray was a very big problem. I took a hundred images, wiping off the filter after every shot and got a grand total of 1 usable image. Water was everywhere.

Despite the semi-backlighting the dynamic range of the R5 was able to capture the shadows without blowing out the highlights.

The clouds visible through the waterfall were an added bonus. Just moments after I made this shot the sun moved behind the cliffs and there was no sunshine on any of the water.

Normally I like to shoot waterfalls on cloudy days, this was an exception.

Equipment

Those interested in my equipment and recommendations can find it here: Mish’s Equipment List.

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Mike “Mish” Shedlock