/// Wild Tracks - Landscape Photography by Eduardo Gallo

WILD TRACKS

Passion for Landscape Photography

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Great Otway National Park, VIC, Austalia

April 2012

Great Otway National Park, VIC, Austalia

Canon 5D MkII & EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM, 2s f/13 ISO400 @24mm

Google Earth for this photo
FALL

Photographing waterfalls is quite straightforward. First, you need to get there on a cloudy day when there is no sun burning through the image. Second, employ a polarizer filter to get rid of the reflections that would otherwise emanate from the wet rock or vegetation around the falls. Third, be ready to do some scrambling to get down to water level, and willing to get your feet wet as the best perspective is often from inside the creek. The rest of your body will sometimes also get soaked by the falls spray, which has the added benefit of encouraging moss growth, which in turn also increases your chances of ending up with your butt in the water. If the waterfall is located in a forest, as most are, you need to add an extra condition: lack of wind. Otherwise, the slow shutter speeds required to get that milky water that I like so much will result in fuzzy vegetation.

The above image is the result of following each of the above rules. Beauchamp Falls is just one of the many beautiful cascades in the Otways Range, just a couple of hours from Melbourne, where I was spending a few months. I waited for a weekend with the right weather conditions and drove there willing to hike from waterfall to waterfall. This particular one required quite a steep descent inside the muddy gorge (the creek below the falls is caged within a narrow gorge), and then walking inside the extremely slippery creek to align the log and the falling water. It is then time to unfold the tripod, place it in the proper location, and somehow take the camera from the backpack, screw the filter, lock it onto the tripod, and take the photo, while being very very careful of not sliding or droping anything into the water.

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