"Middleham River II" - How I got the shot

Background

It was a hot, lazy Saturday, but I was itching to go out shooting. I considered two locations: Syndicate Falls and Laudat, and I decided on the latter, in part because I got into a minor vehicular accident while driving in Roseau.

I was not at fault, but needed to meet with the other party before 2:00 pm. Laudat was much closer and it was an easier investment in time and effort.

After stopping at the epic lookout along the Laudat main road, I began setting up my gear to capture a few timelapse sequences of cloud patterns above Eggleston. One bus stopped. And another. Then another. And they were all filled with eager visitors from the cruise shipped docked Woodbridge Bay.

Damn!

Normally, I don't mind an audience, but vibrations caused by the constant flow of vehicular and foot traffic would render my timelapse useless.

Check out the clouds shrouding the mountain. This scene would have produced a great timelapse sequence!

Freshwater Lake and the Boeri Lake road would have been good candidates for similar scenes, but they too would be overrun with tourists.

So I decided to go to the Middleham River, because it was sure to be less congested. And I was correct.

The Vision

I've done some work at this river before. While shooting my last timelapse film, I captured a few scenes of the river. That Saturday, I just wanted to see how much it had changed, and hoped to get one or two interesting images for my portfolio. 

Getting the shot

I crossed through to the opposite side of the river and set up my camera to face a few large stones that were upriver. The river flowed between and over the rocks, and I figured that I could make the flows look silky smooth using a long exposure technique.

It was absolutely necessary for me to use filters for this shot. First of all, I needed the circular polarizing filter to cut down reflections caused by the wet rocks. I also used a neutral density filter that allowed me to extend my shutter speed to create the smooth effect.

Final thoughts

Shots like this one require quite of a bit of patience, and some trial and error. For example, when I first started shooting, the leaf seen on the left was submerged just beyond the stone it's currently sitting on.

I felt that the leaf would add a fine point of interest in this new position. Furthermore, the leaf's yellow hue contrasted nicely with the dark red tones of the rocks.

© 2019 Yuri A Jones | Middleham River II, captured near Middleham River, Dominica (available as a canvas print here.)