The ‘Waterfall Country’ at Brecon Beacons in Wales has been particularly amazing this season. The conditions looked promising with lots of rain prior and no strong winds to blow the leaves off the trees.
The first waterfall planned was Sychryd only 25 minutes walk from our accommodation passed Dina’s Rock in Pontneddfechan. It was raining and extremely slippery and steep on the trail.
I took the obvious photograph of the small pretty little waterfall with a wooden footbridge. Another composition that appealed to me was this beautiful scene behind me as the Sychryd river cascaded down into a plunge pool. Using the 16-35mm f/4 lens I could include the foreground ledge, the pool and the wonderful autumnal tones of the foliage.
Another point to consider was the inclusion of the river flowing at the bottom right of the frame. The thought process was to check for movement of the leaves, what exposure do I use whether I wanted the water to look smooth or more natural and also can I achieve front to back sharpness with one shot? I fitted a 105mm Lee Landscape Circular Polariser to the lens to remove some of the glare on the wet rocks and shiny leaves.
I was working under an umbrella to keep the equipment dry armed with a couple of dry lens cloths. I was well prepared with full waterproofs and wellies. I took several images exposed for the water and pool, some focused on the foreground and a fast shutter speed for the trees in the background.
The image was edited in Adobe photoshop using two images manually merged together. I think I preferred this composition rather than the waterfall because it showcased the autumn colours and was not a typical composition there.
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Dimitri Vasileiou • Editor