I’ve tried to be more pointed in my photography throughout this year. That is to say, when I go someplace, I try to have a better idea of what I want to shoot, rather than just wandering around aimlessly shooting anything and everything. That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with shooting like that, but with landscape photography, especially when you’re doing long exposures and/or working with a very specific lighting situation, discipline can be crucial to getting a good shot. But, every now and then you’ll see something you just have to shoot, and this was one of those occasions.
I had gone to this location to photograph Ryugaeshi Falls, but as I was headed back down the trail to go home, this scene caught my eye. It was pretty dark at this point, dark enough that I needed a head lamp to make sure I didn’t trip over anything on my way back. In fact, I struggled to get the focus in this shot because of the darkness. What caught my eye in this photo and made it worth the time was the way the lines worked. The path on the right leads the eye up to the bridge, then across the bridge to the path on the left, which leads the eye back down to the stream and subsequently up again across the image. It’s a natural kind of swirl and I really like how it helps give a flow to the scene.
Most of the edits to this were done in Lightroom. I also added some layer adjustments in Photoshop, as well as a slight Orton Effect, controlled by using color range selection.
Camera: Nikon D610
Lens: Nikon 16-35mm
Shot Info: f/9 | 30 seconds | ISO320 | 16mm
