Experimenting with Composition at Lesmurdie Falls

With cloud rolling in from the south, I decided mid afternoon to take a quick trip up to Lesmurdie to see if there was still water running at Lesmurdie Falls and also see if I could capture an image with the afternoon light. The Lesmurdie National Park is a popular location for families, hikers and, as I discovered, dog walkers. There has been times that I’ve been to the Falls the place has been packed but this time I pretty much had the place to myself.

It’s only a thirty minute drive from the centre of Perth. Once parked, it’s just a short 150m walk to the foot of the Falls. It was encouraging to see the water still flowing down Lesmurdie Brook as it was a good indication that waterfall was still flowing. When I reached the falls, I wasn’t disappointed. I took my time to explore the place first before finally setting up my camera in a location where the water was flowing over the rocks towards the camera, creating leading lines that would guide the viewers eye to the focal point of the image, the Falls themselves.

Finding a satisfying composition was challenging as the water flowed from the Falls in an usual direction, to the right, around a large granite rock. It was difficult to find a position that allow me to capture the entire scene. Eventually, I moved further down the brook, away from the Falls and focussed in a rows of smaller waterfalls for my foreground interest. I was then able to capture the rest of the water flowing over the rocks as the mid-ground portion of the image, while still including the Falls in the top of the image. I then improved the composition once again by getting lower to the ground, or in this case the water, which made the water trickling of the shelf of rocks in the foreground even more interesting.

I finished off the day with a final image even further back on small mound of dirt that provide a slight vantage point to the scene. As the light was changing through out the late afternoon, I used a combination of polarizers to take the glare of the wet rocks, the graduated ND filter to reduce the light in the highlights of the image and my Lee Little Stopper to reduce the light across the whole image so I could extend the exposure, which in turn softened the water.

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