Flowing Water Workshop

Braved some particularly nasty weather Thursday night to head up to Broomfield for a photography workshop on shooting flowing water led by Steve Gandy. I've been in his Photography Walks Meetup group since spring, but never able to join him on an excursion before. Very glad I got the chance -- Steve's a skilled photographer, patient instructor and very nice guy. :)

Of course, I can't actually shoot flowing water like I'm supposed to.  Nope, I've got to take advantage of the light from the setting sun and take shots of the adjacent garden instead.

Steve came by and pointed out that the flowers might look nice in the foreground of a shot of the actual flowing water.  That's why he's the instructor.

There actually isn't a natural waterfall in Broomfield that I'm aware of.  But this man-made feature at the entrance to Anthem Ranch is a great place to practice.

I'm starting to get a better sense of what sort of balance between lacy and crisp I like.  This shot was taken at F8 with a 1/1.6 shutter speed in complete shade.

What I'm not always as good at is picking which of two pretty similar shots is the better.  The portrait and landscape perspectives on this particular spot both appealed to me, so they both make the post. :)

An hour spent taking pictures at a spot like this is better than an hour spent doing just about anything else.  Though we did attract some odd looks from people driving by who probably take this place for granted.

I won't say man can ever really improve on nature.  But I'll just mention that this one water feature offered a wide variety of compositions in a very compact area.

Crop slightly differently and it's a completely different picture, right?

Some nice color came in the clouds late in the session.  It was tough getting the exposure between the still-fairly-bright sky and rather dark foreground to both work out.  Lightroom to the rescue, also known as "faking it" by Danelle.

Well worth the drive and time to work on a very specific technique, with some solid advice from Steve.  I look forward to shooting with him again!