Lessons for Photographing the Columbia River Gorge
Last Tuseday (October 9, 2012), I finally executed on a Christmas present to my Mom: photography lessons in the Columbia River Gorge. While I make absolutely NO claims at being a photography expert, it was very gratifying to give my mom a brief tutorial on using the advanced settings of her SLR camera.
Our first stop for the Photography lesson started at the Women's Forum, where you have an excellent view of the Crown Point Observatory. The Observatory was shrouded in fog,which made for a spectacular image. We were tempted to stay longer to wait for the Crown Point Observatory to fade into view, but static clouds simply did not make for great lesson material.The next stop was at Latourell Falls. For this picture, we were talking about how to use aperture to control Bokeh, and therefore bring the foreground into focus while the background is faded.This a similar picture to what my mom was focusing on. I liked how the spider's silhouette was highlighted by the falls, and how the eeriness of the spider converged with the spiky burrs 🙂I thought this was an interesting picture-- you can almost make out the picture my mom was taking.This was my best picture of Latourell Falls. Our next stop was Shepherds Dell Falls. I've always struggled to find a nice composition that really accentuates the tranquility of this little nook in the gorge, but the fall colors do shine in this picture 🙂This is taken from almost the same position as the Shepherds Dell Falls image. I like the picture a lot, but it still doesn't do justice to the amazing overall perspective of this small Gorge-nook.Since we are on the topic of photography lessons, I thought it would be prudent to identify how much of an effect post processing can have. The 2 pictures in Shepherds dell highlight this very clearly! For both pictures, I adjusted the white point, increased clarity & vibrance, tuned the tone curve by eye, increased sharpness, and decreased noise!Repeat 🙂 : I thought it would be prudent to identify how much of an effect post processing can have. The 2 pictures in Shepherds dell highlight this very clearly! For both pictures, I adjusted the white point, increased clarity & vibrance, tuned the tone curve by eye, increased sharpness, and decreased noise!Our last stop was Multnomah Falls. This was the finale of our lesson, and although I don't have any to show, I can say my mom's pictures turned out excellent! Multnomah falls isn't really my favorite to photograph, because I think it is the most over-hyped & over rated hike in the Gorge, but nonetheless they are always beautiful!!!
