Description — This is Muddy Creek Falls, located in Swallow Falls State Park in western Maryland. The photo was taken on May 13, 2012 in late afternoon.
Camera Nerd Info — Linhof Super Technika V 4×5 view camera, Fujinon-W 180mm f/5.6 lens, Fuji Provia 100F film, exposure 1s @ f/64, no movements.
Commentary — This waterfall is in Garrett County in far western Maryland. Spring rains greatly increased the flow over the waterfall, but you can still see the muddy water at the top of the falls. I stopped down to this lens’s minimum aperture of f/64 in order to get a one-second exposure to show flowing water. It would have been preferable to use a neutral-density filter and a wider aperture to get the same exposure, because the widest and smallest lens aperture settings are frequently not as sharp as those in the middle.
There is usually a slight breeze near waterfalls, especially ones with a large volume of water falling. This makes sense if you think about it: the moving water drags the nearby air along with it. Overhanging branches near the water tend to wave in the breeze, so if you leave the camera’s shutter open long enough to get the effect of flowing water in your photograph, you risk getting blurred branches as well. It is a problem one needs to anticipate when photographing waterfalls. This turned out not to be a problem with Muddy Creek Falls, as there was no vegetation very close to the water.
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