Pure Photography
Increased color saturation
©Bert Gildart: For those photographers interested in “Pure Photography,” the type derived without much manipulation from PhotoShop, here’s a suggestion: When the weather is overcast, PARTICULARLY on days when it is rainy, get out your camera.
Certainly that was true yesterday as Janie and I visited Athabasca Falls, a marvelous example of what the power of nature can do in its unbridled form. Here, in a fury of spray the power of water meets mountains formed millions of years ago from the collision of tectonic plates.
Now, these subterranean forces are being tested by the subtle power of freezing and thawing and by the power of a single river trying to insert itself. Water is winning out here, and its legacy is the fluted canyons with the colorfully striated walls–all of which suggests immense passages of time.
PHOTOGRAPHING CONTRASTY SCENES
But how does the photographer capture such power in an area where the sun creates both dense shadows and extreme scintillations on frothy water that film and digital images can not simultaneously record?
You do so by waiting for a day when shadows and the highlights created by harsh sunlight have been reduced.
Film is incapable of registering detail when the scene has more than three stops difference; digital images are about the same. True, there are techniques in PhotoShop you can use that will help unite these extremes, but then you are going outside the realm of Pure Photography, and that’s where photography on overcast days comes in. What’s more, elements in the image change, too, such as the puddles and reflections in the puddles. Look for, instance, at the man in red, and the way in which the puddle just before him has the same color cast.
And how about the group of Japanese people standing on the rim of the canyon with their red umbrellas? Most of these elements are missing on those horrible, horrible days when the sun shines.
Overcast lighting reveals rock details
The only draw back is that you will need to use a slow shutter speed which generally requires a tripod. Of course, that forces you to take more time composing your photograph.
WHERE IS ATHABASCAN FALLS?
So where is Athabasca Falls? The setting is located along the Ice Field Road about 40 miles north of the Columbia Ice Fields with its Athabasca Glacier. In turn, these masses of ice create a reservoir for the Athabasca River, which eventually runs to the Arctic Ocean.
And now, one more suggestion: For those interested in reading a grand adventure story, check out the book Going Inside, a grand narration by Alan S. Kesselheim about one couples two-year-long paddle that began on the Athasbascan River. The couple is from Bozeman, Montana and from time to time they give slide lectures about their adventures for appropriate groups.
With all that said about my preference for Pure Photography, I must admit I do not always follow my suggestion, as some may recall from a grave yard walk in Nova Scotia. There, I added a moon. (See: Grave Yard Walk.)
