Just before the forest turned to green and changed the nature of the reflections in the water of Smokies streams, I played in Greenbrier just above the rapids in the lower section of Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon River. The sky was clouds-and-blue, and last winter’s leaf litter was still golden along the edges of the stream. What caught my eye very quickly was the gold showing on the more slowly moving flat water and the blue stirred up as the water broke over a submerged rock shelf, creating a small standing wave and a ripple turning back on itself as the water moved on. Gold and blue will capture me every time. I wanted to isolate the dimple in the river, so I used a focal length of 450mm to severely narrow the angle of view. I wanted to slow the motion of the water quite a bit, so I used an aperture of f/11, which gave me a shutter speed of 1/15th second at ISO 200, which allowed me to accomplish the result I wanted and still have an area of sharpness to draw the eye in along the diagonal created by the changing color and texture.
Very rich! It looks like liquid gold and sapphire. Beautiful reversed C curves and slightly diagonal lines crossing over them creating a tie between them and mixing their colors. Overall a very happy image. Thanks for sharing.
Awesome. The composition, lighting and presentation are all spot- on. Congratulations.
Hi Nancy T. and Jessyca; thank you both for joining me for this conversation. Nancy T., I love your description of this Image; and Jessyca, I very much appreciate your kind words. Happy, indeed, was the feeling that overcame me as I worked with this spot. The colors seemed so bright and cheerful and the gurgling water just amplified the feeling. The interface between the calmer and more quickly moving waters was such an interesting place that I wanted to watch it for quite a while; and the little standing wave that kept rolling back on itself was a visual delight.All of the shades of color created by the surface tension as the waters compressed and extended were creating such interesting lines that there were times when I almost forgot to release the shutter. Water always makes me happy, and I appreciate your sharing your thoughts and observations with me. Be well.