Crabtree Falls

Charlotte Vanverdeghem is visiting us from France this week and next. Next week we'll be at the O RO Ranch (expect photos when we return!) but for now, we're hanging out at home and doing stuff in the area. Yesterday, we braved the near 100º temperatures and hiked Crabtree Falls. Here's a photo of the lower portion of the falls. I'd taken my tripod in the car so I could shoot the falls with the neutral density, but some wiseguy told me there wasn't any water. And I believed him, since it was and had been so hot. This is handheld at 1/10 second; still has nice motion blur, even without the multi-second exposures possible with the ND and tripod. No good for pixel peeping, but plenty good at lower resolutions.


Here's another picture of the lower falls, with Charlotte in the foreground. Another handheld 1/10 second exposure - Charlotte held nice and still for me.


At one of our breaks, I caught her taking a picture. She was on top of a rock and I was below her shooting up. Despite the angle, it looks natural, and the angle generated fantastic fore- and background blur. No Photoshopping here - this is straight from the lens (with minor color correction).


It was hot, but there was a decent breeze near the water, which the trail followed pretty closely. So in spite of the heat, we pressed on and made it to the top. There, we had lunch and enjoyed the view before heading back. It was hazy, which was too bad, but the view from the summit was still impressive.


Tracy, however, refused to smile when I took a picture of her and Charlotte.