a waterfall...well, sort of

Back to the country park at Penllergaer for this week's image, and it's a shot of the waterfall that drains from the lake in last week's photo.

There's just one problem with it.  It's not natural, but it's man made.

The park has been reclaimed from the grounds of an old, long gone stately home once owned by the über rich Dillwyn Llewellyn family.  John Dillwyn Llewellyn was an acclaimed botanist and early proponent of glass plate photography.

It's obvious from the shape and form of the waterfall that he had a good eye, as it looks perfectly natural in its surroundings.

To get this shot, I had to wade into the river which luckily for me is not that deep, and for once the water didn't encroach over the top of my wellington boots (which incidentally were still damp inside from their New Year's Eve soaking!).

I used a 3-stop neutral density filter to slow the shutter speed sufficiently, a 3-stop graduated neutral density filter to hold in the exposure on the waterfall and a polariser to cut through any reflections on the water giving a nice view of the rocks on the riverbed.

Then in post processing I added a dark vignette to concentrate the eye on the centre of the image.

Fujifilm GFX100, Fujinon GF 32-64mm f4 @ 38mm
4 seconds @ f16, ISO 100
tripod, self-timed release
Kood 3-stop neutral density filter, Lee, 3-stop graduated ND filter, Haida 105mm circular polarising filter

If you're interested in the gear I use to capture this and other images, or if your life is so empty you'd find it interesting anyway, then this week's video is a must watch!

Or if you've only got 30 seconds to spare, watch this instead: