Winter Shooting Part II

Blackwater Falls State Park in West Virginia is a popular location for photographers from late spring into late fall. But it can be especially rewarding in winter, if you are willing to endure a little discomfort and occasionally challenging hiking conditions.

The park is named for a large waterfall on the Blackwater River (see image above) where the Blackwater River departs the relatively flat Canaan Valley, suddenly dropping 62 feet to begin a turbulent journey through an eight-mile canyon. The river’s name alludes to the brown colors caused by tannic acid from fallen hemlock and red spruce needles.

In late January, three of us packed our gear and headed off for a two-day shoot, hoping that the conditions would be worthwhile. One member of our trio had been there before and therefore knew the best locations and how to get to each of them. In hindsight, such knowledge is pretty important when you are wandering around in a snowstorm with a low probability of seeing anyone else. We stayed at the park lodge, which is the closest facility to all of the shooting locations and also has reasonable rates.

We arrived in late afternoon and, after checking in, headed immediately to Elakala Falls, a small waterfall just a few hundred yards from the lodge. A footbridge crosses the stream just above the falls which is a good spot for close-up shots looking upstream. See, for example, the color image immediately below.

However, the best vantage point on that day was just below the falls but the steep slope, combined with the ice and snow made the way down fairly tricky to negotiate. Nevertheless, the descent was well worth the effort. We had choices of some tightly cropped compositions as well as a nice overall view of the waterfall and the cascades below. (See next two images below) These images were photographed with a Nikon D-200 and 18-200mm zoom lens and the ISO set at 400. Exposures were slow (between 1/8th and 1/3rd second), giving a sense of flow to the water. The light level was quite low, due to the late hour and the heavy cloud cover. We decided to come back for another session the next day.





On the following morning, we drove over to the trailhead for Blackwater Falls. The parking lot was deserted and the trail down to falls had clearly not been used for several days. We stopped briefly at the overlook halfway down (see next image below) and then continued to pick our way down the icy steps to an overlook at the base of the falls. Unfortunately, the swirling winds, snow, and mist from the water combined with the flat light limited our options. Neverthless, a few images were possible (see second image below).

In the early afternoon, we drove to the opposite side of the river and took a short flat trail to an overlook above the falls. The sun was out, giving much better definition to the scene. Here I used a Nikon D-700 with a 24-70 mm zoom lens and a Singh Ray variable density filter. Shooting at ISO 200 and the filter set at maximum density, I made a 1 second exposure at f/16. The result is the image at the beginning of this post.

Next, we returned to Elakala Falls and I stayed with the Nikon D-700, 24-70 lens, and Sing Ray filter. I again selected the maximum density (minus 8 stops) enabling me to expose for 3 seconds at f/16. The small aperture maximized the depth of field and the long exposure conveyed a sense of motion with the flowing water. The lens was not wide enough to cover the entire scene so I took two images and after returning home, combined them with photomerge in Adobe Photoshop CS4. (See final image below)