How tall do you think this waterfall is? Is it 20 feet high? 40 feet? Maybe taller?
I photographed this waterfall on Collins Creek, which is located just below Greers Ferry Dam in Heber Springs, Arkansas. Through a partnership between the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the creek, which used to flow intermittently, has been turned into a year-round fishery for brook and rainbow trout. The trout are not artificially stocked; they reproduce naturally in the creek which is created through a buried water line that pumps approximately 40,000 gallons of water every hour. All this water creates a lot of waterfalls to photograph.
So, back to the question. How tall is this waterfall? In reality, it’s only about 2 feet high. I did three things to create the appearance that this waterfall is taller than it really is.
First, I used a very low camera angle that required tilting the camera slightly upward. Of course, placing the camera so close to the ground presented some interesting challenges, such as not being able to frame the shot through the viewfinder. I had to use the camera’s live view feature, which is not something I do often. I also had to be aware of where my legs were at all times. With an air temperature of about 40 degrees, I certainly didn’t want to accidentally stick them in the water.
Second, I completely eliminated anything that could give a sense of scale. By adjusting the lens’ focal length, I was able to keep some background trees out of the frame. I also removed some a small twig that was lying in the water so it couldn’t be used to gauge the waterfall’s height.
Finally, during processing, I kept the shadow areas darker than I normally would. I wanted to give the sense of being in a deep canyon in which the canyon walls were so high that very little sun made it done to my location.
My settings were 135mm, 15 sec, f/32, 100 ISO.