Alluvial Falls. Seeing (Less Of) The Light.
Rocky Mountain National Park - Saturday, 2 Sept 2017, 3:30pm.
After stopping for lunch in Longmont on Saturday we drove up through the town of Estes Park, where we'll be staying tonight and tomorrow, and into Rocky Mountain National Park. The terrible haze and smoke that filled the sky at lower elevation gave way to clearer air as we ascended past 8,000' before entering the park.
We made a brief stop at one of the visitor centers to check conditions and choose hikes for the day. Last night we tentatively planned to do a longer and more challenging hike today, but that was before I stayed up until after 2 this morning and then slept in until almost 10. We'll save that one for tomorrow and hopefully get an early start on it. We'll need an early start, anyway, as the ranger warned us the trailhead parking fills up by 8.
Today we're driving up the Old Fall River Road toward the highest trailheads in the park, at approximately 12,000' (3650 m) elevation. Along the way we'll stop at a couple of waterfalls plus whatever else strikes our fancy.
Our first stop is Alluvial Falls. It's a short walk up from a parking area on the Old Fall River Road.
This rocky cascade was created in 1982 when Lawn Lake far up in the mountains broke through the natural dam that had held it in for thousands of years. A torrent of water rushed down the mountain and carved out a wide gully from what was previously a small stream.
Seeing (Less Of) The Light
Since these falls are only a short trek up from the trailhead I carried my whole camera bag with me. That meant I had handy some accessories I normally don't carry on hikes. One item I bought recently is a neutral density (ND) 1.8 filter. It's a lens attachment that filters out all but 1/64 of the light coming through. It's also known as a 6-stop filter because it blocks 6 stops of light. Each stop is 1/2 as much light, and 1/2 to the 6th power = 1/64.
Blocking out most of the light means that the camera can be set to take a longer picture. There are a number of photographic techniques in which this is desirable. One classic one is to make water- such as in a waterfall- appear like silken sheets instead of a spray of droplets. The picture above was taken normally; the picture below shows the effect of the 6-stop ND filter.
Curiously, it was kind of a random thing that I got this lens filter. I actually wanted 3-stop model, a fairly common type of filter. It would've blocked all but 1/8th of the light, a less extreme amount than 1/64th. But when I was shopping the two stores I visited online didn't have the 3-stop model I wanted at a reasonable price. The choice was either a) pay 2x too much or b) buy a lens of lesser quality. I hate that kind of lose-lose choice so I came up with option c) buy the 6-stop model.
This last minute change of plans was serendipitous. I hadn't considered a 6-stop ND filter previously, thinking it would be too extreme, but the opportunity prompted me to calculate how well it would work- and I found it would work well. On paper, anyway. Today I used it in the field, and it did exactly what my math told me it would do: in this case, allow me to shoot silky water pictures in full daylight.
There's one small "Oops" in this story, though. Reducing the light by 64x increases the shutter time by 64x. In the picture above the shutter was open for just over 0.2 seconds. Camera movement blurs pictures, and at 0.2s it's very difficult to hold the camera still enough free-handed to avoid blur from shaking. To shoot such pictures you need a tripod. I happen to own a tripod; I even packed it with me on the flight from California last night. But then I left it in the trunk of the car when going on this short hike. With free-hand shooting most of my pictures were too blurry to enjoy. I need to get in the habit of carrying the tripod with me more often.
After stopping for lunch in Longmont on Saturday we drove up through the town of Estes Park, where we'll be staying tonight and tomorrow, and into Rocky Mountain National Park. The terrible haze and smoke that filled the sky at lower elevation gave way to clearer air as we ascended past 8,000' before entering the park.
We made a brief stop at one of the visitor centers to check conditions and choose hikes for the day. Last night we tentatively planned to do a longer and more challenging hike today, but that was before I stayed up until after 2 this morning and then slept in until almost 10. We'll save that one for tomorrow and hopefully get an early start on it. We'll need an early start, anyway, as the ranger warned us the trailhead parking fills up by 8.
Today we're driving up the Old Fall River Road toward the highest trailheads in the park, at approximately 12,000' (3650 m) elevation. Along the way we'll stop at a couple of waterfalls plus whatever else strikes our fancy.
Our first stop is Alluvial Falls. It's a short walk up from a parking area on the Old Fall River Road.
This rocky cascade was created in 1982 when Lawn Lake far up in the mountains broke through the natural dam that had held it in for thousands of years. A torrent of water rushed down the mountain and carved out a wide gully from what was previously a small stream.
Seeing (Less Of) The Light
Since these falls are only a short trek up from the trailhead I carried my whole camera bag with me. That meant I had handy some accessories I normally don't carry on hikes. One item I bought recently is a neutral density (ND) 1.8 filter. It's a lens attachment that filters out all but 1/64 of the light coming through. It's also known as a 6-stop filter because it blocks 6 stops of light. Each stop is 1/2 as much light, and 1/2 to the 6th power = 1/64.
Blocking out most of the light means that the camera can be set to take a longer picture. There are a number of photographic techniques in which this is desirable. One classic one is to make water- such as in a waterfall- appear like silken sheets instead of a spray of droplets. The picture above was taken normally; the picture below shows the effect of the 6-stop ND filter.
Curiously, it was kind of a random thing that I got this lens filter. I actually wanted 3-stop model, a fairly common type of filter. It would've blocked all but 1/8th of the light, a less extreme amount than 1/64th. But when I was shopping the two stores I visited online didn't have the 3-stop model I wanted at a reasonable price. The choice was either a) pay 2x too much or b) buy a lens of lesser quality. I hate that kind of lose-lose choice so I came up with option c) buy the 6-stop model.
This last minute change of plans was serendipitous. I hadn't considered a 6-stop ND filter previously, thinking it would be too extreme, but the opportunity prompted me to calculate how well it would work- and I found it would work well. On paper, anyway. Today I used it in the field, and it did exactly what my math told me it would do: in this case, allow me to shoot silky water pictures in full daylight.
There's one small "Oops" in this story, though. Reducing the light by 64x increases the shutter time by 64x. In the picture above the shutter was open for just over 0.2 seconds. Camera movement blurs pictures, and at 0.2s it's very difficult to hold the camera still enough free-handed to avoid blur from shaking. To shoot such pictures you need a tripod. I happen to own a tripod; I even packed it with me on the flight from California last night. But then I left it in the trunk of the car when going on this short hike. With free-hand shooting most of my pictures were too blurry to enjoy. I need to get in the habit of carrying the tripod with me more often.