Crammel Linn Photo Shoot
- Full Force Waterfall Photography -
Hey everyone! How's it going?
The penultimate weekend of September saw heavy and sustained rainfall across much of the north of the country which means I had my eye on only one thing - WATERFALLS!
Targeting which one to visit came down to which rivers the environment agency had warnings out for or whose levels were the highest. I was surprised to see there was nothing out for the River Tees so my hoped-for target of High Force and its accompanying waterfalls were out. I’m sure there’ll have been more water than normal flowing over them but not enough I suspect for the shot I really want, which is of High Force in full spate over both channels and the prow in between.
The River Irthing on the other hand, which feeds Northumberland’s biggest waterfall, was well above high with multiple flood warnings in place. I’ve only paid a couple of visits to Crammel Linn in the past and on each occasion, the water levels of the River Irthing were at a bit of a low ebb (see top image) - what I’d assume are just normal levels. I was hopeful then, if unsure of what to expect, as I drove west to Gilsland.
You could hear the falls long before you could see them and when you came to the ridge that overlooked the gorge, the sight was, unsurprisingly, quite remarkable. The water flowing over the falls was far in excess of what I had anticipated. The dual aspect of the falls had completely disappeared as the sheer volume of the water flowing over completely overwhelmed the drop. I couldn’t wait to get down there.
Crammel Linn is a stout, dual channel wall that spans the gorge. Leading down from the ridge above is a tricky, winding, slippery path that leads to a small inlet immediately to the south of the falls. Its around this area of riverside that you can explore 2 or 3 limited vantage points from which to photograph the falls. Because it's such an open space, conveying the sense of scale becomes a little tricky, especially when the water levels have risen so much that they’ve hidden most of the nice foreground.
Those vantage points then became even more limited and scrambling between them even trickier but I managed to pull off a few shots that I’m relatively happy with. Now and then, the sun would come out to play and lend the churning violence an extra dramatic dimension.
I tend not to carry filters with me. In fact, aside from my trusty polarisers, I rarely use filters at all. With that in mind then, I was aware today that I wanted to try a variety of different exposure lengths and techniques to really try and capture the nature of the falls.
As well as closing my aperture right down then to something like f/18 - f/22 so I could at least get a half-second exposure in the bright sunlight, I also opened the aperture right up so I could shoot high speed in order to combine a series of shots into a smart object in Photoshop later. This gives me control over the smoothing effect of the water after the fact which I can adjust at my leisure.
As with most occasions like this, when Mother Nature’s showing off, I tend to be distracted by the spectacle and lose focus on attaining the shot. EVERY photography day is a learning day though and whereas I’m quite happy with this haul, I can’t wait for similar conditions to arise again so I can head back.
Comments are closed.
