Tag Archives: Morgan Hill

My Top Ten – 6

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My friend, Wesley Chen, challenged me on facebook to present my top ten travel photograph favorites.  Since I am sharing these on facebook, one per day, I decided to share them here as well.  So, here they are, continuing on my top ten, in no particular order.

Number Six.

Waterfall and Fall leaves, Uvas Canyon, Morgan Hill, CA, USA, 2015.  

Some weekends, I drive locally near my home.  This was shot in Morgan Hill, CA.  Uvas Canyon is not a famous destination, but for me, during late fall, it is very pretty and the small waterfalls offer great opportunities to photograph.  Yes, I placed the two foreground fall leaves in this image.

Waterfall and Fall Leaves, Uvas Canyon, Morgan Hill, CA, USA

7 Lessons from a Waterfall Image

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Fall leaves and small waterfall, Uvas Canyon, Morgan Hill, CA, USA

Fall leaves and small waterfall, Uvas Canyon, Morgan Hill, CA, USA

  1. In overcast conditions, look for colorful subjects (flowers, foliage etc) to make intimate landscapes.  Given the time of the year (mid-Nov), photographing fall leaves was a no-brainer for me.
  2. If possible, emphasize something in the foreground, against the background subject.  In this case, I found this colorful leaf for the foreground to anchor the shot of a background waterfall and more leaves.
  3. Photograph extensive depth images with a wide angle lens.  I used my 17-35mm f2.8.
  4. Use f22, if there is a foreground object very close to the lens, along with background that is far away.  This ensured front to back sharpness due to extensive depth of field.  My lens was about 9 inches away from the foreground leaf.
  5. Use your camera’s native ISO to keep the noise to the minimum.  I used ISO 200, native to my Nikon D300.
  6. Use a tripod.  The shutter speed for this shot was 30 s.  I could not have done it hand-held.  I used my light GK1580TQR5 tripod, coupled with my Kirk BH-1 Ball head.  This tripod is light enough and small enough to actually fit inside my camera backpack.  At the same time, I was not impressed by the ball-head that came standard with this tripod.  I therefore took it out and fitted my Kirk BH-1 ball-head to it.  I now have a fine light tripod, with an extraordinary ball-head.  This tripod provides the stability to shoot long exposures.  This ball-head provides ability to quickly and easily fine-tune my composition, once the tripod is setup.
  7. Do not trigger with your finger.  Use an electronic cable release.  I used one for this shot, to eliminate any camera shake, resulting in a sharp image.