"Father's Rage" - How I got the shot

Background

While shooting my third time-lapse video, REBIRTH, I visited the Trafalgar Falls several times. On this occasion, I arrived later than usual and my shooting was severely hindered by rain. In fact, I didn’t use any time-lapse sequences from that day in the final film.

The rain was light, but constant, making it difficult to capture exactly what I had envisioned.

Confined to the viewing platform (shelter from the rain) and unable to capture a time-lapse sequence as I’d planned, I decided to pursue a different image.

Setting up

It had rained heavily the night before and the water level of both waterfalls was much higher than normal. The ‘father’ waterfall was particularly heavy and created mist as the water hit the rocks at the bottom.

I wanted to capture the mist as well as the heavier-than-usual flow, so I set up my tripod to face the target, ‘father.’ This was no easy task, as visiting tourists came through the platform quite often on that day.

The platform is wooden so their footsteps caused a lot of shaking. I would set up my shot, prepare to shoot a short burst of images and our visitors would choose that exact moment to take a selfie!

The vision

For 95% of my images that feature bodies of water, I use a long shutter speed to smooth out the water. I have found that smooth water conveys a feeling of calm and serenity that I like.

This time around though, I wanted to convey the strength of waterfall. I wanted the viewer to feel that power as they observe the spray rising from the rocks.

Also, typically I would shoot waterfalls vertically (aka portrait orientation), but not this time. I wanted the viewer to see how far the spray spread and I felt that showing the waterfall within the context of its wider surroundings helped to do just that.

This is the final image:

© 2018 Yuri A Jones | Father’s Rage, captured at Trafalgar Falls, Dominica (available as a canvas print here.)