JUST ADD WATER

text and photos by Mike Brousseau

If you've reached a point in your photography where your landscapes are in need of a little extra magic, try adding water. It's a simple recipe that can supply depth and life to an image. Recognizing and knowing how to control the unique challenges which arise when you're working around water will help you to produce more satisfying compositions.

My photography had become uneventful and needed a push into new areas. Although my library contains many inspirational works from the great masters such as Adams and Muench, I realized I'd have an opportunity to photograph the great icons of America which their works made famous only on the occasional vacation. To keep my edge and artistic dream alive, I needed to find subjects closer to home. One day, while I was flipping through my state's atlas, I came across a section on waterfalls. Immediately, I decided the problem of having to both reach these locations and record them on film would help renew my creative impulses. However, my early attempts at nature water photography were less than impressive. I learned I'd have to pay attention to far more than mere composition if I hoped to print anything satisfying. After a careful critique of my slides, I began to work on finding the right combination of lighting, film, and filtration to achieve my goals.

Lighting

You come upon a wooded stream on a clear day and take what you feel is going to be a great shot. After bringing your product back from the lab, your first comment to yourself is, "It didn't look that way when I took the picture!". The image is splattered with hot spots created by high-contrast direct lighting. What you saw with your eyes was an image filtered by your mind, which caused you to overlook everything your lens and film recorded. Unlike the human eye, the camera has no way to compensate for nasty hot spots, and film--especially slide film--is unable to handle much latitude. The end result is an image that comes out black in the shadows, washed-out in the highlights, and very harsh in the mid-tone area.

The one element you can't pack in your camera bag is lighting, and once you've found the right subject, lighting needs to be your next consideration. In my small corner of the world, many streams and falls are surrounded by wooded landscape. I've conditioned myself to be sensitive to lighting, especially when working shots in between the cover of clouds. By the way, don't let clouds or early morning fog cancel your outing plans. Such conditions can produce great results. In fact, given the choice, I'd choose an overcast day over a traditional sun-drenched one for the great detail and softness diffused light can provide to an image. Fog--especially--can add a mystical quality and mood to a shot, values you could never achieve under skies of direct light. Open shade can also produce good results with some help from filters and film. I should note, however, that diffused light does create rather flat and uninteresting skylines. I try to exclude or minimize boring skylines in my compositions whenever possible.

Films & Filters

Competition in the film market has benefitted the photographer in that all the major companies now manufacture film that can give you great results. Certain films possess characteristics well suited to overcast, diffused, or open shade conditions. Information you can find in the latest film reviews can help narrow the selection process. I find films with a warm balance work best under these circumstances, often eliminating or at least reducing the degree to which I need to warm an image with filters. Some of the slide films presently on the market that have a warm balance are Fuji Velvia, Agfa RSX 50, and the just released Kodak E100SW.

As much as I would prefer not to add an extra piece of glass on the front of my lens, when I'm working around water there are two filters I never leave home without: a polarizer and a warming filter. The polarizer serves two roles around water and waterfalls. First, it works to control the ever-present glare found bouncing off subjects such as rocks, vegetation, and the water itself. When you start to dial in your polarizer, you'll see the benefits immediately. It will add a rich quality as it darkens the water and saturates the image. Second, a polarizer provides you with greater latitude in your selection of shutter speeds.

Warming filters are especially effective in open shade. Of the three most commonly available--the 81A, 81B, and 81C--I most often choose the 81 B with neutral balance films, and the 81A with warmer films. However, let experimentation and personal preference be your guide in this selection.

Shutter Speed

I've purposely avoided mentioning the use of a tripod until now, but any image you might want to capture involving water in nature would necessarily originate from a camera which was supported. It goes without saying that the more solid and stable your camera is, the better your results will be.

Around water, the shutter is my most creative tool. I use it to evoke feeling, such as the sense of motion conveyed by selecting a slow shutter speed. I consider my lens and shutter to be extensions of my human eye, but with one advantage--the ability to stretch time. Although an image is frozen for only a moment in time, the feeling conveyed by a Brig shutter is that you've somehow stretched that moment into something longer. The result is usually an image with a soft, surreal quality.

Is water best portrayed using a slow or fast shutter speed? The answer to that question depends on the message you want to communicate through your photography. Good examples of different messages are illustrated by photographs of crashing surf. When taken with a fast shutter, the picture captures the raw power of surf. However, a slow shutter speed produces a much more subdued image. There is no right or wrong answer. Your choice of speed is determined by what you want to see in your final print. Because I prefer the softer look in an image, I usually start around 1/4 of second. However, if you're trying to achieve that soft effect, you need to be aware that an exposure kept too long will cause the water to wash out in the picture. While some have attempted to chart and graph the relationship of shutter speed to the velocity of moving water, the best route to take is to try the scene in different ways to create the composition you desire.

Photographing along streams and waterfalls can be a positive challenge for the creative mind, Half the fun can be getting there. The sound of water rushing down a stream or over a fall can be very soothing, almost therapeutic. You can quickly find yourself totally enveloped in your photography as this sound blocks out all outside distractions. Until the time comes when I can venture out to the American icons of the masters, I'll continue my search for inspiration in my own backyard, because when I stand in front of an image taken during one of these treks, I can still recall the moment and almost hear the water.

A Maine native, Mike has combined twenty years of experience as a regional photographer with an avid enthusiasm for the outdoors to produce images taken throughout his home state and North America. From coastal islands such as Machias Seal Island to the Mahoosuc Range of Maine's western mountains, he has focused his camera on remote and out-of-the-way places, recording on film wildlife, nature, and scenic images.

Working exclusively in 35mm format and Existing Light Photography, Mike's images have been displayed in group and solo shows in galleries throughout Maine and New Hampshire. He has also received recognition and awards in local, state, and national competitions, and lectured on Outdoor Existing Light Photography at the Creative Photographic Art Center of Maine. His stock images have appeared in the pages of publications such as MAINE FISH AND WILDLIFE, the calendars of MAINE GEOGRAPHIC and MAINE SCENE, postcards, and several international corporate brochures. Most recently, his work was selected and is presently showcased in NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER's 1997 Annual Review, titled "In Celebration of the Earth," a review of both amateur and professional photographers from throughout North America.

More of Mike Brousseau's photos.