The Poconos - Bushkill Falls - 1 of ? Just spent a wonderful week in the Delaware Water Gap area of the Poconos, which is a great place to visit this time of year. Of course, the "leaf...

Rolk Loc: South Central PA

Just spent a wonderful week in the Delaware Water Gap area of the Poconos, which is a great place to visit this time of year. Of course, the "leaf peepers" will really love it in a week or two when all the gorgeous trees start showing their fall wardrobe, but we went for the wine, some hiking, exploring and to visit some of the many waterfalls in the area.

We started out with Bushkill Falls, which is privately owned and therefore we had to pay a $14.00 admission fee (senior citizen's discount of $1.00), but it was well worth it.

There are over two miles of trails, most of which are engineered and are very safe, even though a lot of the sections have very steep wooden steps. There are also eight different falls to view, the tallest of which is the main waterfall which drops about 100 feet. We were fortunate in that we came a day after a heavy rain so the water flow was incredible.

Here are just a few from out journey, and I hope you enjoy.
Tim

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The railing is extremely sturdy. I did a lot of captures at 1/4 of a second and braced myself on them quite often.

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Normal view, or how or "eyes" would see it.

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Same scene, but handheld and taken at 1/4 sec.

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RCJets Loc: Virginia

I'm sorry, but water just doesn't look like that.

btbg

RCJets wrote:

I'm sorry, but water just doesn't look like that.

I'm sorry, but whether or not you use motion blur on water or freeze every drop is up to the artist, and not someone who apparently is unwilling or unable to appreciate artistic license. Nice photos.

rlv567 Loc: Baguio City, Philippines

RCJets wrote:

I'm sorry, but water just doesn't look like that.

Was the water muddy???

Loren - at Beautiful Baguio City

Rolk Loc: South Central PA

RCJets wrote:

I'm sorry, but water just doesn't look like that.

And I'm sorry your world is so "black and white." It's about vision,
or taking the time to look at things differently. To each his own, but
if you don't like something, don't say anything. Preferencing it with
"I"m sorry, but..." doesn't cut it.

Rolk Loc: South Central PA

rlv567 wrote:

Was the water muddy???

Loren - at Beautiful Baguio City

Actually, yes it was. We had a tremendous rain
storm the night before and besides running high
and fast, it was extremely muddy.

Rolk Loc: South Central PA

btbg wrote:

I'm sorry, but whether or not you use motion blur on water or freeze every drop is up to the artist, and not someone who apparently is unwilling or unable to appreciate artistic license. Nice photos.

Thank you very much, btbg! I appreciate you kind words.

It always amazes me how some people think it's perfectly
alright to slam someone else's work. This isn't the critique
section, but apparently, his rules are the only ones that matter.

deanfl Loc: Georgia

Rolk wrote:

Just spent a wonderful week in the Delaware Water ... (show quote)

I enjoyed seeing your photos. I visited there a few years ago. The brown color in the water is from tannin and tannic acid. These are a natural product of oak, hemlock, white pine and other trees.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

btbg wrote:

I'm sorry, but whether or not you use motion blur on water or freeze every drop is up to the artist, and not someone who apparently is unwilling or unable to appreciate artistic license. Nice photos.

Artist...artistic license??? I thought this was about taking pictures.

btbg

traderjohn wrote:

Artist...artistic license??? I thought this was about taking pictures.

It is about taking photos. One of the tings about taking photos that should be easy to understand, but does not seem to be for some people is that taking photos includes choices about fstop, shutter speed and ISO. Good photography is about using the three portions of the exposure triangle to create a photo that accurately describes your vision of the scene. That could mean using a higher ISO and a higher shutter speed and completely freezing all motion, or that could mean using a lower ISO, a slower shutter speed and allowing motion blur, or it could mean using a higher or lower fstop to keep the entire scene in focus, or to have only a small portion of the image in focus.

The only area of photography that requires shooting exactly what is there is photojournalism, and even in that selective focus is accepted. I am a photojournalist. In my job I need to make sure that what I photograph is accurate and describes the scene. Still, even with that it is acceptable to take cars in an auto race and pan to blur the background to show the impression of speed.

Photography is about the photographers vision of the scene, not necessarily about what is actually at the scene. If you want to take snap shots, that is your privilege, but photography is also an artistic endeavor. For example, an awful lot of snapshots have a white sky. That is not because the sky is actually white, but because the camera's sensor can not see the same dynamic range as the human eye and the photographer chose to shoot on fully automatic while exposing only for the center of interest.

If that is how you choose to do photography that is your choice, but to be critical of someone else's work because they choose to take a different path makes no sense. That is one of the beautiful things about photography. 10 different people can shoot the same scene at the same time from the same location, yet each will have unique images based on their choices of lens, fstop, shutter speed, ISO, and composition. That is something that should be celebrated, not something that should be criticized.

rdgreenwood Loc: Kennett Square, Pennsylvania

RCJets wrote:

I'm sorry, but water just doesn't look like that.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU... I was thinking the same thing. The "smokey-water effect" is an ill-conceived fad that too many have latched onto. IMHO.

William Kemp Loc: Letts, Iowa

I'm not a pro and I don't sell my pictures but I thought one of the things a photographer does is to take something regular or normal and turn it into something beautiful and that is exactly what happened with these photos. They ae breath takingly stunning!

Rolk Loc: South Central PA

deanfl wrote:

I enjoyed seeing your photos. I visited there a few years ago. The brown color in the water is from tannin and tannic acid. These are a natural product of oak, hemlock, white pine and other trees.

Thanks so much for taking the time to view my images, Dean, and especially elaborating on why the water had such a brown cast to it. Because it did rain quite heavily the day before, I just automatically blamed it on additional sediment, but I believe you are absolutely correct about the tannins being the cause.

Thank you again.
Tim

Rolk Loc: South Central PA

btbg wrote:

It is about taking photos. One of the tings about taking photos that should be easy to understand, but does not seem to be for some people is that taking photos includes choices about fstop, shutter speed and ISO. Good photography is about using the three portions of the exposure triangle to create a photo that accurately describes your vision of the scene. That could mean using a higher ISO and a higher shutter speed and completely freezing all motion, or that could mean using a lower ISO, a slower shutter speed and allowing motion blur, or it could mean using a higher or lower fstop to keep the entire scene in focus, or to have only a small portion of the image in focus.

The only area of photography that requires shooting exactly what is there is photojournalism, and even in that selective focus is accepted. I am a photojournalist. In my job I need to make sure that what I photograph is accurate and describes the scene. Still, even with that it is acceptable to take cars in an auto race and pan to blur the background to show the impression of speed.

Photography is about the photographers vision of the scene, not necessarily about what is actually at the scene. If you want to take snap shots, that is your privilege, but photography is also an artistic endeavor. For example, an awful lot of snapshots have a white sky. That is not because the sky is actually white, but because the camera's sensor can not see the same dynamic range as the human eye and the photographer chose to shoot on fully automatic while exposing only for the center of interest.

If that is how you choose to do photography that is your choice, but to be critical of someone else's work because they choose to take a different path makes no sense. That is one of the beautiful things about photography. 10 different people can shoot the same scene at the same time from the same location, yet each will have unique images based on their choices of lens, fstop, shutter speed, ISO, and composition. That is something that should be celebrated, not something that should be criticized.

It is about taking photos. One of the tings about ... (show quote)

Excellent commentary and insight into the world of photography, and thank you for sharing!
Tim

Rolk Loc: South Central PA

rdgreenwood wrote:

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU... I was thinking the same thing. The "smokey-water effect" is an ill-conceived fad that too many have latched onto. IMHO.

Opinions....everybody has some, but sometimes it's just rude to share your honest opinion. Please keep in mind this IS NOT the photo critique section, and if you don't like what you see, perhaps a more charitable think to do is just move on...

Wait...just because you want to voice your opinion, I'm going to express mine too...with more images
of what you call the "smokey-water effect." Oh, BTW, it's not spelled "smokey," it's spelled "smoky."

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You can really see the tannins in this one.

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This one is for the so-called "purists" who have to have everything their way.

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