Bejewelled Waterfalls

Three weekends ago (What? You didn't expect my blog to be up to date did you?) myself and a few friends embarked upon a two day roadtrip to Gretna Service Station. At first glance this fairly typical refueling stop seems to offer little to the nature photographer, but come dusk a wheeling ballet of millions of starlings fills the sky.

At least this is what usually happens. We arrived right on schedule fresh from a day in the Yorkshire dales to find Gretna basking in the last rays of sunshine emanating from a cloudless sky; the perfect conditions. Unfortunately, to our surprise, the starlings were not playing ball. There were certainly plenty around but for no apparent reason for the most part they were content to stay in small darting flocks.

After one or two fairly underwhelming shots the show was over and we retired to our hotel.

The next day we headed back to Nottingham stopping off in the lakes for a dose of landscape photography. Sam Waldron and I stopped at Raise Beck, a stream on Dunmail Raise between Thirlmere and Grasmere.

All the rocks, trees, and anything else within splash-range of the stream were coated in glistening ice creating a treacherous but very beautiful labyrinth. After a short while of attempting to find iceless paths up the gorge I realised the only way to find grip was to stand in the non-frozen parts of the stream, allowing the ice-cold water to flow into my boots.

One particularly dazzling part of the spectacle was a tree leaning over and partially into a waterfall. Every one of its bows was adorned with countless icicles, each two or three foot long. Unfortunately, the base of the tree was unaccessible but I still managed one or two shots looking down at it.

So what tips do I have for shooting frozen waterfalls?

1) Metering; constantly check your histogram! The combination of white ice and water and black rocks provides quite a task for camera sensors. I had to keep checking the histogram to make sure I was neither blowing the highlights or underexposing shadows.

2) Use a polarising filter. This cuts the reflections out of the water allowing you to see through to the rocks below. It also cuts out enough light to allow exposures long enough to blur the water.

3) Take a lens cloth. When shooting low near waterfalls it is almost impossible to prevent splashes hitting the lens. Keep checking the front of the lens for water drops and mop them up as soon as they occur.

4) Make sure your tripod is as steady as possible. Be very careful if the tripod leg is in water; it may appear steady but the water may be buffeting it.

5) Keep warm!