This week’s photo of the week is a chilly winter image I took just over a week ago while out in the mountains looking for photos. This one is from Numa Falls in Kootenay National Park. I really liked the look of the cool blue water and the way the falls tumbled down between the snow covered rocks. The compositional choices are a little limited here in that the only vantage point of the falls is from the footbridge that crosses over the river. Despite that, I experimented as much as possible and made images that included the trees, stream, and the rest of the scene above the falls as well as more isolated images like this one. In the end I decided on this one because I felt like the falling snow and featureless sky in the wider compositions just didn’t add enough to the image. The obviously interesting draw of the scene is the waterfall so I felt like focusing in on that would make for a more effective photo. The overcast conditions that day were perfect for easily capturing the entire dynamic range of the scene in a single exposure which was great. With the dark rocks, flowing water, and bright white snow this would have been quite a challenging exposure in brighter conditions. I used a polarizing filter to remove the reflections in the water and bring out the colour as well as solid neutral density filter to lengthen my exposure enough (1.3 seconds) to get the effect I was looking for in the water.

Thanks for stopping in, I hope you enjoy this one.