Spring Rain, Hudson Valley

Spring is here, and with the warmer weather comes rain which transforms many parts of small creeks and streams into waterfalls. I find photographing waterfalls particularly challenging because it is such a popular subject, and light is difficult to work in this limited setting.

Here I tried to capture the essence of the waterfall, which to me is the sound of the water as it makes its way over the rocks. Of course the water has to come in contact with something before it can make a sound, so the bare  rock in the foreground provides something for the imagination, as well as visual weight to anchor the image away from the brightest area in the top left. The diagonals are all working here from lower left to upper right, as well as the background rocks pulling in the opposite direction – again visual tension and interest. Narrowing my focal length to this small section left the the rest to the imagination again, wondering where the water is coming from and where it is going…if it even matters.

These are all compositional ideas that came into my mind at the time I made the image, but mostly they were felt rather than analyzed. The thinking comes afterwards as I try to explain to all of you why I did what I did. I hope this helps in your attempts at photographing common elements in nature.

Feedback and questions are always welcome!

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