New York Waterfalls in HDR

I took a Waterfall Safari in the southern tier of New York State in October. The weather was not ideal and I thought a new processing technique I had learned recently would make the photos I took better. This technique is called High Dynamic Range, or HDR, photography. Using software, I took three photos of the same scene taken with different exposures and combined them to increase the range of light which can not be captured by today's digital cameras in one image. The Taughannock Falls and Robert H. Terman State Parks I visited are located near Ithaca, New York. They are about a 60 minute drive south of Syracuse and hold some of the most unique and beautiful post-glacial gorges and waterfalls in the world. Well maintained trails with stairs make hiking to grand vistas and waterfalls fairly easy and some are even handicap accessible (see park websites for further information).

I've added links for further research and travel planning. Oh, and the prints are for sale if you take a fancy to any of them. Use the links under the Buy button. (Note: The copyright watermark will not show on the final print(s).) Comments are always welcomed and thank you for visiting!

The gorge trail to the Taughannock Falls viewing area is 3/4 of a mile long and fairly flat and accessible. The trail follows the south gorge wall with the Taughannock Creek just to the north. During late Fall, the creek is low and stays confined to the deepest flow areas. In this photo, you can see the exposed creek bed at low flow. In the Spring and after heavy rainfalls, these are submerged. The High Dynamic Range, or HDR, let me capture the bright sky, shadowed cliff walls and details in the exposed creek bed. If I had taken this without the sky, I think it would not have had the same impact.
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During high water flow, many of the little falls like this one disappear.

The high creek erodes the soil of the forest exposing tree roots. Over the years, these trees fall into the creek and might create natural dams and even stream ponds. Most end up decomposing at the bottom of Cayuga Lake where Taughannock Creek empties into.

If you are viewing a small version of this photo, I urge you to click on it for a bigger one so you can really see the details of this HDR processed image. I used a polarizer filter to cut out the glare off the water.
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Crossing to the north side of the gorge via this pedestrian bridge, you get your first unobstructed view of Taughannock Falls. The gorge walls loom 400 feet above and expose hundreds of years of bedrock, limestone and shale. Saw a few people hunting for fossils around the millions of pieces of small rocks which have accumulated here. Again, the HDR processing saved the shot and brought out the colors and details of the scene. This bridge was first constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) back in the 1930's. A government program to put people back to work and to improve access to many state and federal maintained natural areas. It helped spur the conservation movements of the 50's and 60's as people were able to enjoy the natural wonders and wanted to preserve them.
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Taughannock Falls as seen from the viewing area is 215 feet high which is 33 feet higher than Niagara Falls. It is the highest free-falling waterfall in the northeastern United States, and one of the highest waterfalls of any kind east of the Rocky Mountains. The water hits with such force, the plunge pool at the bottom is 30 feet deep. The gorge walls are made up of soft shale which has allowed the Taughannock Creek to cut a wide, flat delta unlike the other gorges in the area. The morning I took this was very cold, drizzly and cloudy. Using a tripod, a polarizer filter and bracketed long exposures off a tripod. I used Photomatix software to create this HDR image. HDR brought out all the detail of the gorge walls and plunge pool while the polarizer filter cut out all the glare off the water's surface.
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There is always two photos of a scene, one horizontal (landscape) and one vertical (portrait). Especially when you are taking a photo of a tall subject like the Taughannock Falls. Here I used hyperfocus to keep everything in focus from front to back. This is the way sweeping landscapes are shot. I wonder when the tree you see at the bottom of the frame went over the falls? Bet that made an extra big splash!
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There is a very accessible Falls Overlook on the north side of the gorge. Take the Taughannock Park Road to a large parking area and you can walk down some steps and get a grand view of the falls, pedestrian bridge and gorge viewing area. Click on the link for a view of the Overlook. Here's a photo tip for you. For a more natural view, like this one, walk up the North Rim Trail from the parking lot about 200 feet and you'll come to a fence and you'll see the falls framed by trees. Use hyperfocus to get both the foreground trees and falls in focus or, if you'd like, you can purchase this photo. :-)
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A 20 minute drive south of Taughannock Falls, brings you to the Robert H. Treman State Park. I climbed the South Rim Trail to take this photo of Lucifer Falls. A very different waterfall. It doesn't fall straight down but flows down 115 feet of rock and allows mosses to grow on adjacent rocks giving it a greenish tint along the edges. The flow was low and I'll like to come back in the Spring when the flow of water is a lot heavier. The Sun joined me on this day and HDR processing helped to balance out the large contrast where the shadow line cut through the scene. The software didn't do as well here as the sky on the left is a bit washed out.
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After climbing down some very steep stairs the CCC had made down the side of the gorge, I followed the gorge trail on the north side and came upon this profile of Lucifer Falls. I had to use the Ultra Wide Angle Tokina 11-16 zoom lens at it's widest (11mm) to get the whole 115 foot length of the falls. Here you can really see the mosses clinging to the rocks. Some mosses grew even under the water flow. The cliff wall behind the falls shows you how tough life can be. Trees and shrubs have grown on a practically vertical surface of the gorge.
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After exploring the north end of the Robert H. Treman State Park. I drove down to the south end where the campground is located. A short walk from the picnic area, brought me to the Lower Falls. The Lower Falls is a large (over 100 feet high), multi-tiered cascading waterfall.

The area below these falls have been made into a swimming area during the Summer season with lifeguards and a diving board.

HDR coupled with the polarizer lens really saved this for me. Deep shadows at the bottom and beautiful October blue skies above where brought together when I combined the three exposures taken at -2, 0 and +2 EV (see link in the introduction for more information on how to create HDR images).
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