Autumn Waterfall Extremes

Brooks Falls, Almaguin Highlands, Ontario, Canada
Nikon D800, Laowa 12mm f2.8 Zero D Lens
ISO 200
f16 @ 0.5 sec

On Friday October the 13th I awoke at 5:00 a.m. to commence driving into Ontario’s Almaguin Highlands situated just north of the town of Huntsville. I was hoping for stunning autumn colour along the Magnetawan River at Brooks Falls, however, that was not to be as there was already some significant leaf fall in the area. Fall colour in Ontario has been a bit odd this year with some areas having stunning colour while other parts of seen dull colours, and some locales have even seen leaf fall without much colour change at all. Perhaps this has to do with our overly wet, cool summer. Nonetheless, I arrived at Brooks Falls and was pleased to see that the river was full and ragging.

My intention for this day’s outing was to explore several waterfalls with the Laowa 12mm f2.8 Zero Distortion Lens. When using such an extreme wide angle lens getting the camera into the right position is very critical to success of the image. Strong foreground subjects are a must to grab the viewer’s attention. Often my chosen perspective for each image was not much more than about 12 inches from the rushing water, which added complications in having to deal with water spray and droplets of water hitting the front element of the lens. Before each frame that was captured I would give the lens a wipe with a micro fiber cleaning cloth. Patience and perseverance did result in several frames without water droplets being present.

When I had finished photographing Brooks Falls I ventured south to the Skeleton River in Rosseau, Ontario to a couple of waterfalls that I was certain would still have some nice colour due to the sugar maple trees that line the river banks. Below are the images created at both Skeleton Falls, and Hatchery Falls. Skeleton Falls is a little known waterfall that is accessed by hiking down a very step grade within the forest, while the more popular Hatchery Falls is accessed by a well worn foot path through easy terrain.

Skeleton Falls, Rosseau, Ontario
Nikon D800, Laowa 12mm f2.8 Zero D Lens
ISO 100
f16 @ 0.6 sec

What is my most important piece of gear for photographing waterfall imagery? Hip waders. More often than not the best perspective to photograph many waterfalls is from within the river itself. River banks tend be messy environments with distracting elements such as twigs/branches intruding into the scene. By photographing from within the river you can often eliminate or at the very least reduce these distracting elements impact on the scene.

 

Hatchery Falls, Rosseau, Ontario
Nikon D800, Laowa 12mm f2.8 Zero D Lens
ISO 100
f16 @ 0.3 sec

 

Hatchery Falls, Rosseau, Ontario
Nikon D800, Laowa 12mm f2.8 Zero D Lens
ISO 100
f16 @ 1/4 sec

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The Peru Gallery

Small stream in the Cordillera Escalera, Peru
Nikon D800, Laowa 12mm f2.8 Zero D Lens
ISO 100
f16 @ 4 seconds

Over the course of the last few days I have been busy optimizing the image files from my trip to the Cordillera Escalera near Tarapoto, Peru. I created and uploaded of a selection of the imagery into a gallery of its own to my website today. Please click here to view the Peru Gallery. The daily temperatures during the trip were around 34 degrees Celsius with humidity around 80%, which in turn gives us a humidex value of close to 52 degrees Celsius. To say it was hot would be an understatement. In fact, I felt very tired for several days after returning from Peru. Although I drank plenty of water, I believed that my electrolytes might be on the low side, therefore a trip to the pharmacy to buy some electrolytes packets was in order and upon drinking the electrolytes I felt 100% better. On my next trip I will be sure to pack electrolyte packets to replenish what is sweated out during the heat of the day.

Tree Frog (Osteocephalus family) in the Cordillera Escalera, Peru
Nikon D500, Nikon 105mm Micro Lens
ISO 100
f22 @ 1/60 sec
Nikon SB400 Speedlight on a Wimberley F-2 Macro Bracket

Photographically speaking the main subjects I created images of were landscapes and micro fauna. Above is an image of a tree frog from the Osteocephalus family that was encountered during one of our many night-time excursions. Being able to photograph numerous species of frogs within the Amazon rainforest was a fantastic opportunity, especially the Cochran Frog (Rulyrana saxiscandens) an endangered species with a very limited range within Peru’s Cordillera Escalera. I was also fascinated by a large, old growth tree that I discovered during one of the hikes. This tree had another tree that had set root and grabbed hold of it’s massive trunk some time ago, but what really caught my eye was the plethora of orchid roots that covered virtually every inch of the old growth tree.

Root details in the Cordillera Escalera, Peru
Nikon D800, Nikon 24-85mm VR Lens @ 85mm
ISO 100
f16 @ 0.8 sec

Please do remember to click on each of the photos to view the larger, sharper versions and enjoy the new website gallery 🙂

Cochran Frog (Rulyrana saxiscandens),  Cordillera Escalera, Peru
Nikon D500, Nikon 105mm Micro Lens
ISO 100
f22 @ 1/60 sec
Nikon SB400 Speedlight on a Wimberely F-2 Macro Bracket

Cayman Brac 2018 Discounted

The Cayman Brac 2018 Photo Tour has just been discounted by $425 US making the tour of this incredible Caribbean island available for only $1275 US plus condominium rental. Cayman Brac is a premier destination for photographing nesting Brown Booby. During this tour we will also be photographing the rugged landscape of the island, numerous species of herons, the endangered Cayman Brac Parrot, the critically endangered Sister Island Rock Iguana, and a host of other species. Please click here to find out more about this remote, safe, tropical paradise in the Caribbean sea.

Tununtunumba Falls

Tununtunumba Falls in the Cordillera Escalera, Chazuta, Peru
Nikon D800, Nikon 18-35mm lens at 24mm
ISO 64
f18 @ 0.3 sec
Nikon Neutral Polarizing Filter

After a full 24 hours of travel I arrived back home in Ontario at 11:30 am on Saturday, September 23rd. I spent much of today resting, doing laundry, and doing an initial edit of some of the imagery created during my time in Tarapoto, Peru. One of the highlights of the trip was a grueling hike to Tununtunumba Falls deep within the Cordillera Escalera near Chazuta, Peru. The trail into the waterfall was 4 kilometers (8 km round trip) of what I would describe as the most strenuous hiking I have ever undertaken with numerous, very steep inclines as we made are through  the mountains and two river crossings. The temperature on the day of the hike was 34 degrees Celsius, with roughly 80% humidity, making the humidex factor 51 degrees Celsius – it was hot! Nonetheless, it was such an awesome experience to be hiking through this area of the Amazon. Stay tuned for many more images in the coming days 🙂

Please do remember to click on the image to view the larger, sharper version.

Tarapoto, Peru

Ranitomeya flavovittata – captive (Eastern Peru)
Nikon D500, Nikkor 105mm Micro Lens
f22 @ 1/60 sec (ISO 100)
Nikon SB400 Spedlight on a Wimberley F-2 Macro Bracket

Today at 1:00 p.m. my excursion to Tarapoto, Peru begins. I will commute to Toronto, Ontario to board the first flight of two flights required to get to my destination. The first flight lands in Lima, Peru at roughly 2:00 a.m. After a 5 hour lay over we will then board the final plane that flies over the Andes and into Tarapoto. The blog will be quiet while I am away, but I will be posting a few cellphone snaps of the trip on my Instagram page as frequently as wifi availability will allow. To follow my Instagram page look me up at @mclachlanwild.

See you all soon 🙂

 

 

Lake Traverse

Star Trails, Lake Traverse, Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario
Nikon D800, Laowa 12mm f2.8 Zero D Lens
ISO 125
f4 @ 30 minutes

We wrapped up the Lake Traverse program this morning to enable folks plenty of time for their long journeys home. We had a fantastic group of participants and created many superb landscape images. I would also like to extend a very BIG thank-you to Don Johnston for assisting me during the program. Don is a great teacher who’s dedication to helping folks get the most of the experience is greatly appreciated.  In the coming weeks I will share the participant images with you here on the blog. Aside from our regularly planned landscape photography locations we organized two night-scape sessions and were blessed with clear skies on both nights, however the second night was the clearest of all due to the first night having a very light haze in the sky. The northern lights were visible for both nightscape sessions but they were not very pronounced. Tinges of color are present within the star trails image above. After spending a couple of hours creating Milky Way Nightscapes over the Petawawa River and the Algonquin Radio Observatory satellite dish we had three participants that wanted to capture a star trail image. We made our way down to the shore of Lake Traverse, set up our compositions, dialed in the ISO, f-stop, and set the shutter speed to BULB. We then tripped the shutters on our cameras and chatted for a half hour while we created our star trail images. We completed our start trails imagery by approximately 1:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. Just in time to grab a few winks before heading back out for misty sunrises at 6:30 a.m.

I arrived home late this afternoon and immediately unpacked and began packing for my departure tomorrow afternoon to the rainforests of Tarapoto, Peru.

La Palma Glass Frog Edit

 

La Palma Glass Frog (Hyalinobatrachium valerioi)
Nikon D500, Nikkor 105mm Micro Lens
ISO 100, f22 @ 1/60 sec.
Nikon SB400 Speedlight on a Wimberley F-2 Macro Bracket

The La Palma Glass Frog (Hyalinobatrachium valerioi) is a small tree frog (about one inch) endemic to the rainforests of Costa Rica. When view from underneath you can see all of their internal organs, blood vessels, and bones – hence the name glass frog. During each Dart Frogs of the Amazon Rainforest Photographic Workshop we bring this species out as a bonus species. The above image is optimized from a horizontal capture as can be seen in the unedited RAW directly file below. In hindsight this fantastic pose on a Monsterra leaf should have been capture in both horizontal and vertical orientations. Hindsight and Photoshop knowledge is a wonderful thing because with a little tweaking you can have both.

La Palma Glass Frog (Hyalinobatrachium valerioi) RAW FILE
Nikon D500, Nikkor 105mm Micro Lens
ISO 100, f22 @ 1/60 sec.
Nikon SB400 Speedlight on a Wimberley F-2 Macro Bracket

In the screen shot of the Photoshop interface below you can see that I have selected the Crop Tool (I set the Ratio to 3712 X 5568 pixels, the same dimensions as an image from a Nikon D500). I then moved the crop tool and enlarged the ratio until I had the frog positioned exactly where I wanted it to be. As you can see from the screen shot below, the crop tool as been extended well beyond the actual image. This was done deliberatley. Note that I have checked the Content Aware box (please click on the image to view the larger version making it easier to see). All I have to do now is click on the crop tool’s check mark to initiate the cropping and let content aware will fill in the areas beyond the frame. usually there may be a little touch up needed as the content aware may not fill in the spaces perfectly, but in this case it did a wonderful job with no additional touch up required. The final task that was performed was cloning out the flash generated spectral highlights on the frog. I often find that enlarging the image to about 400% simplifies the task of cloning out these highlights, although it can be a time consuming task.

And last but not least is the optimized horizontal orientation of the La Palma Glass Frog. Please do remember to click on the images to view the larger, versions.

La Palma Glass Frog (Hyalinobatrachium valerioi)
Nikon D500, Nikkor 105mm Micro Lens
ISO 100, f22 @ 1/60 sec.
Nikon SB400 Speedlight on a Wimberley F-2 Macro Bracket