Watkins Glen State Park, in western New York State, features waterfalls in a deep stone gorge. A winding footpath, cut into the sides of the gorge, leads visitors along the waterfalls. The gorge is narrow and deep, and the waterfalls and stream create sinuous lines through it. During autumn, trees above the gorge shed their golden leaves, creating carpets of gold on the sloping sides.
I have visited Watkins Glen State Park several times during the fall, so I was looking forward to photographing this specific location when I returned on an overcast autumn day. The overcast helped bring out the colors in the leaves and mute the contrast in the gorge. I set up my camera and took a series of long exposures, manually bracketing to compensate for the dark stone walls and bright water and leaves. The only challenge was waiting for people to move from the scene and keeping water from dripping on the front ND filter while taking images. For this image, I used a 30-second exposure to help accentuate the white water since the water flow was a little low. This image was my favorite from the series I captured.
