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Streams of Tranquillity

Posted by
Darkelf Photography (Perth, Australia) on 7 February 2023 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.

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Enchanting streams of Hugh's Dale waterfall on Christmas Island. Perfect place to cool down and relax in the falling water, if you do not mind the ten thousand mosquito bites which come with the experience. The Dales is an area on the west side of the island. It consists of seven watercourses (the Dales), which are made of permanent and seasonal streams. The streams have carved their way through the rainforest and limestone to create a series of gorges and natural terraces.

We ventured twice into the Dales. There are two moderately difficult trails. One leads to the waterfall and the other to Anderson's Dale, where in good conditions walkers are able to follow it all the way out to the coast. We were not able to get to the coast, so we concentrated on the waterfall and on enjoying the rainforest scenery around us. There were plenty of crabs going about their daily business as well and I will post some of these photos in the near future. We were lucky to have the waterfall all to ourselves when we visited. That added nicely to the tranquil mood and serenity of this location. I was able to take time to try a few different compositions before other visitors arrived and before we were eaten alive by the mossies.

It was quite a tricky spot to photograph. I went back and forth between wide angle and more zoomed in framing, trying to get a good perspective on the waterfall and surrounding area. For this composition, I really liked the foreground elements - the rocks, different shades of green moss, the colour of the ground under the water. I also loved the way the cascading water was flowing over the rocks. The falls were not in their greatest flow with the wet season still not in full swing but I think that softer gentler thread like streams looked really good here. Scattered golden leaves added another colour element to the foreground which infused a subtle touch of almost autumn kind of feeling. I considered getting lower to the ground to get a more open perspective on the fall itself but then I would sacrifice too much of the foreground. It would just become flatter and a lot less interesting. Furthermore, I would also introduce more open sky which would just look like an overexposed white space and I felt that it would not work well for this image.

Balancing light and exposure required a bit of planning and thinking as well. The light was coming from the top right corner behind the waterfall. This meant that the cliff was entirely in deep shadow and I had to take multiple exposures to cover the entire dynamic range. Another reason for taking multiple exposures was that the leaves nearest to the camera were moving in the wind and I wanted to have a frame where they remained still enough for me to blend in, if they turned out to be too blurred in the base exposure. I often go over my old photos, from when I first started being serious about photography, and if there was only one thing that I could change back then, it would be always taking multiple exposures and learning sooner on how to blend them in post processing.

I feel that I achieved a good balance between light and shadow here and retained enough shadow texture without making the cliff look like it was illuminated with a torch. I had to make a decision in post processing on how much detail to bring back in to keep the scene looking natural. It can often be a very fine line and I find that applying a "less is more" philosophy in post processing usually produces the best results. The mood is exactly how I felt in on the day and looking at this image takes me right back to the waterfall and its tranquil rainforest surroundings.

Canon EOS R5 4 seconds F/8.0 ISO 100 17 mm

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