adrenaline-fueled fun

Quite often at Great Falls, visitors will see brightly-colored kayaks racing and pausing in and around the many waterfalls. Before I moved here, a climbing buddy of mine who kayaks told me I needed to get a kayak and try my hand at it. After seeing the falls runners' skill and precision, I think I'll need quite a bit of practice and mentoring before I'd even undertake such an awesomely perilous rush.
(ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/20s)

going back

I'm going to head back to Great Falls, for sure. I've been reading up on motion blur techniques beyond my current skill set. Looking at 565 wedding photos taken by an expert tends to inspire creativity. For this one, I'd've loved to be there much later in the afternoon or early morning so I could have a multiple-second exposure to smooth out the ripples in the raging tributary. As Henri Cartier-Bresson said, "Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." I must be getting close to that total by now!

(ISO 100, f/20.0, 1/4s)

just stick to the rivers and lakes that you're used to

A little more detail of yesterday's vantage point. I did have to crop it a bit to get rid of the vignetting from stacked filters.
(ISO 100, f/13.0, 1/3s, 0.6 ND & polarizing filters)

don't go chasing waterfalls

Inspired by fellow photograblogger SCJack, I convinced my better half to go for a walk in the woods at Great Falls last weekend. We'd been to the Virginia side before and hiked around on the Maryland side, but I'd never been satisfied with any photographs I took. This time, I was armed with a tripod that I left in the car and a stacked set of filters to slow down my shutter speed in the bright afternoon sun. As usual, it was a mob scene, but we managed to find a secluded trail before braving the crowds on the overlook boardwalk. I managed a few good ones that I'll post in the coming few days.
(ISO 100, f/13.0, 1/5s, 0.6 ND filter, polarizing filter)