From: Stan Halpin
I only sporadically check into my PESO mail folder and had not seen
your previous two of this subject. Given others' comments on this, I
went back for a comparison.
I prefer this one because:
a. the mill is more clearly the reason for the photo;
b. the stream leads my eye to that main subject;
c. good dynamic range - reasonable sky, good shadow detail, but not
unnatural looking.
d. the water provides a dynamic element in a static picture.
I prefer the previous because:
a. the water here obscures the waterwheel. If I hadn't seen the
previous and hadn't been told that this was a mill, I probably never
would have thought that the shape under the water was a waterwheel.
In all other respects I prefer the angle of this shot, but the
previous did have the advantage that the wheel was recognizable as such.
Why 3 @ 1/10 for your sandwich? To expand the apparent volume of water?
stan
Partly for the water. The cascade behind the wheel, between the wheel
and the sluice, is the second 1/10 exposure. The small cascade in front
of the wheel is the third. By the time the water was cascading over the
front of the wheel, the cascade behind the wheel was almost gone.
You only get good photogenic water action for a few seconds as the wheel
is started. Inertia causes the water to overflow the buckets (?) on the
wheel before it starts turning. After that it appears very efficient
with all the water coming through the sluice riding the wheel and
discharging right at the bottom without much of a splash.
The "first" exposure is of the the walkway & shrubbery at the far right.
It's one I took before the mill was operating. It's covering up a guy in
a pair of fugly Bermuda shorts, loud T-shirt and baseball cap. I still
might have left him in if it hadn't been a Carolina baseball cap.
The mill is a joint project between NC State University and Wake County
Parks Department. It's operated as a historical education site, and the
mill pond itself, along with the accompanying wetlands upstream is
dedicated as an ecological preserve.
The current mill is a reconstruction. I don't know how much of the
original mill they were able to recover when they rebuilt it.
The original mill was restored by NCSU School of Design students back in
the 70s, but in 1996 Hurricane Fran burst a dam upstream and a wall of
water sweeping down destroyed both the dam at Yates Mill Pond and the
mill itself. The original dam was two stacked stone walls with rubble
fill in between. The new dam is reinforced concrete with the original
stacked stone facing restored to the downstream side.
They were supposed to have mill tours yesterday (Sunday Apr 25) starting
at 11:00am. But, when I got out there at 10:30am, the sign at the
entrance said there'd be only one tour at 2:00 pm.
At 2:30 the mill operator came down to talk to me, because no one had
signed up for the tour. We talked a while and he said he didn't like to
operate the mill if there was not going to be anyone to see it.
He came back around at about 3:00pm or so with a couple of docent
trainees, and I asked him if he'd start the mill just once so I could
get my water shots.
He did and I was able to.
Interestingly, the Yates family was having a family reunion at the
education center and they came down to the mill just as I was leaving. I
think they may have gotten the miller to offer them a special tour.
It was a pretty good day. I saw the first green tree snake I've ever
seen in the wild here in North Carolina. I'd seen one before down in
Texas. It was about as big around as a first grader's pencil and maybe 2
- 2-1/2 feet long. Didn't get any good photos, although I tried.
And while I was waiting for my big photographic moment I had plenty of
entertainment from the turtles & northern water snakes ... even some
little fish playing salmon where the water rushes over the rocks at the
foot of the dam.
I wasn't really equipped to get any good shots of the snakes, but I saw
where they are now & where they like to sun themselves, so I'll probably
go back there tomorrow morning with my 300 2.8. That should let me reach
out without having to get so close I disturb them.
On Apr 25, 2010, at 4:58 PM, John Sessoms wrote:
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/jb_sessoms/4551951853/sizes/m/
>
> K20D, Sigma 10-20 @10. Sandwich from four exposures 1/100 & 3x1/10.
>
--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
PDML@pdml.net
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow
the directions.
