High & Low Force Waterfalls

This weekend I had a change of scenery (literally) as I took a trip down to photograph High and Low Force waterfalls with a friend.  These are on the River Tees in County Durham and, although have been photographed over and over I thought I would give it a go.  The Journey there took us through some picturesque villages and countryside including one spot we came across in the image below, although my attempt at a panoramic of the view doesn’t give it credit.  (click for larger image)

Not just a change of scenery, but a change in camera as I brought along my more pedestrian paced 5D instead of the usual, as it’s full frame and high resolution is ideal for landscapes and for wide angle shots.  I tried different exposures and times, and, although the long exposure is a bit of a cliché, it seemed to work better than shorter shutter speeds for the most part.

While packing my equipment the night before, I decided not to bother taking a long lens, the idea being I would be concentrating on landscapes, already carrying the weight of a tripod and besides, there probably wouldn’t be much opportunity to get close to anything with a full frame camera where I was going.  I did however take my macro lens and was in the process of taking a photograph at the waters edge of a large insect which I didn’t recognise by my feet - just about getting it in manual focus, when it disappeared.  A Robin had flown in, took it from right under my lens, stopped off by a nearby rock looking back at me as if to apologise for the cheek of it, and flew off!

A black and white conversion of High Force further down river

A short trip further down river was the Low Force falls.  I found them a bit more interesting to photograph due to their surroundings and shorter exposures gave some more varying images. Although the falls are not exactly big in comparison to others around the world – just over 21 metres for the High Force – it was still quite an impressive sight and photogenic.