GRAND ILLUSION

Canon EOS Rebel XS, Promaster 19-35 lens @ 19mm, ISO 400, f/13, 0.5 sec., 4 shot panorama

  VH1 Classic had a Behind the Music - Remastered episode featuring the band Styx this afternoon. They have always been one of my favorite bands. In fact, one of my favorite teenage memories is my twin brother, Jim, and I getting picked up on a weekend by our brother Larry and his wife Lee Ann in Larry's Pontiac LeMans and him playing the Paradise Theater cassette loud and all of us singing to it. I absolutely loved that album and we had a ball jamming and singing along with it.
  After watching the Styx Behind the Music I decided that all of the waterfall images that I took with my buddy Tim Owens this morning would be titled with Styx tunes. May not make much sense as far as the image goes, but it sure makes it easier to just give it a name.
  I chose the Grand Illusion for this shot because it was my favorite image of the day and Grand Illusion was one of Styx's best songs and albums.
  When we arrived at this location at about 6:45am, I took several wide angle shots from farther downstream. I had an idea of an image from on top of some rocks and looking down stream through a shoot of water that empties into a Back Eddy. I worked for about a half hour climbing and wading to get to the position I wanted to take this image only to find out when I got there that there was too much overhanging, dead brush I couldn't achieve the angle I wanted. I was very angry. All that work to get there and couldn't even get my shot. So I climbed back out dejected.
  I then walked down the road where Tim had been and found this spot. I really liked the cascades here and the neat rocks that I have at the bottom of the frame. I started shooting when I noticed the sun creeping over the top of the mountain in the background and shining through the trees. Normally, I try to keep the sun out of my water shots, but when I positioned it at the top of the frame, I fell in love with the sunburst and lens flare it provided to the shot.
  Something else I did that I haven't done in a long time was adjust my ISO settings to keep my shutter speed down to less than 1 second. I ended up with the ISO at 400 and at f/13 this not only allowed for some silky smooth water, but also some stop action, too.
  After I opened and stitched the 4 images together I noticed the little area of blue/green water that was collecting off to the right of the foreground rocks. I didn't notice this when I took the shots. If I had, I would have panned another time or two to get more of that awesome color.