cascades and bluebells

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in case you have difficulties to find the bluebells: better click on the image and see it large! trying to find the best compromise between sharp water droplets and the impression of fast moving water i did a small series with different exposure times, and 1/100s gave the best result. this was a bit astonishing for me as i had expected the best effect at slower speeds of maybe 1/30s, i guess this is due to the the big amount of water coming down the mountains after the rainfalls.

the raw file was converted with the bibble5 preview 2 version, and despite some flaws, the region tool and selective color tool can give already great results. without it, the bluebells would be almost invisible in the small image size.

this photo on flickr

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vivid waters

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the amount of rainwater we received in the last two weeks changed also the appearance of the small cascades that are tributaries of the 'weissbach', a creek in a canyon not far from home. a canyon walk in the summer is nice as you experience temperature and brightness differences, but at that time of the year the water is low and those cascades are more or less trickling down. now the water is really vivid, and this is what i tried to capture here and afterwards to emphasize in postprocessing.

and not only the waters are vivid, the colors of the leaves are as well. and it was a beautiful different experience from summer's heat and glaring light. even the kids sometimes stood and looked, which doesn't happen too often with 8-years old ones. but the white-throated dipper of course was more interesting for them, only i was too slow to photograph it.

this photo on flickr

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