easy waterfall photography

Near where I live lies Waterfall Country; an area of the southern Brecon Beacons famed for its waterfalls (no way!), cascades and deep-sided gorges.

When I was fit and able I could be found exploring this are most weekends throughout that autumn and winter, always looking for different and unique vantage points to capture images of the falls.  Some are relatively accessible, some more difficult, but they all require a hike of some length to reach.

But there is a cascade just outside Aberdulais that is situated right by the roadside, and within yards of a car parking spot.  And after a recent night of heavy rain, I figured it would make for a nice image,, so I set off to see.

I wasn't disappointed!

Fujifilm X-H2, Fujinon 10-24mm f4 @ 24mm
1/3rd of a second at f8, ISO 64
Kase Wolverine circular polarising filter
Tripod, remote shutter release

The image posed a couple of problems.  Firstly, there is no access to the foot of the cascade, so I had to shoot it from the (thankfully quiet) road and had to rest one leg of my tripod on a bridge wall.  

Secondly, I was troubled by the exposure time.  I wanted a shutter of around 1/3rd to 1/2 of a second.  Any longer and with the speed of the cascade the water would have just been rendered as white "mush"!  But I wanted to show some movement while retaining enough detail.

A 3-stop filter was too much, so I used the stopping power (around 1 stop) of my polarising filter along with setting the camera's ISO to a non-native lower ISO of 64 and this gave me the ideal shutter drag.

I also filmed one of those YouTube "shorts" while I was there, and you can see that below: