How to Shoot a Waterfall?

People love waterfalls. I can still remember watching Bob Ross paint a waterfall, and thinking to myself, "I can do that". I guess that was the point of The Joy Of Painting, but it turns out that I can't do it. Paint is clearly not my forte. But still, there was something magical about watching moving water come to life, and about trying to capture a still image of something so inherently about movement.

Enter the camera. When I heard there was a waterfall near our campsite, I knew I had to go try and take some pictures. Waterfalls are, of course, moving water. This introduces an interesting, but important choice. A waterfall can't be captured in the same way you would a regular landscape picture. Since the water is moving, shutter speed becomes an important factor. A fast shutter speed will freeze individual droplets of water, a slow shutter speed will blur the water. The end result is markedly different.

I captured two pictures which helped me explore this difference. I wish I'd increased the shutter speed for the one photo more. 1/500 wasn't fast enough to really freeze the water. The light wasn't great, and I should have switched to a 35mm 1.8 lens to give me some more options. Oh well. Live and learn.

 f/4
1/500
55mm

f/16

1/20

55mm