Jim wrote:
Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq. wrote:
Yesterday, my wife and I went to North Georgia to enjoy a quiet
Thanksgiving Day in the mountains.

We visited a beautiful waterfall, Minnehaha Falls, off of the beaten
path. It was about a 5 miles drive on a one lane dirt/gravel road so
it really was quiet and secluded, especially on Thanksgiving.

Of course, I had to screw around with mother nature. Absolutely NONE
of my photos come close to the way it looked in real life.

This is the way it looks in real life:

http://www.fs.fed.us/conf/ne-ga-wate...ha-falls.shtml

This slide show shows how an amateur can screw up perfection:

http://outdoors.webshots.com/slideshow/568959352vWicBu


I loved those pictures, particularly how you worked with the motion.

These Qs will show what a dummy I am.
How did you get the pics so sharp yet blur the motion just right in some
shots and a little too much in others?
Were you using a tripod?
Is there a shutter speed that simulates how we see movement?

I used a heavy tripod and focused on the rock or a patch of leaves, so
that the non movement area was in focus. I had the camera set on
manual. so I could adjust the aperture and shutter speed separately. I
played with the shutter speed and it ranged from 1/15 of a sec, to
probably 4 secs. By adjusting the aperture I could balance the exposure
so I could get the detail on the rocks and leaves, without blowing out
the water. I had the camera set up on Matrix Exposure, and found I
would have to under expose the photo by 2 or 3 stops to compensate for
the white water. If I used the exposure setting the camera told me was
correct, it would completely blow out the water, so the water would just
be white with no detail.