Anna Ruby Falls

During our vacation to north Georgia, we visited Anna Ruby Falls in the Unicoi State Park. I'm certainly not a landscape photographer but this location was very inspiring. Funny thinking back to what I thought I would do as a photographer when I first began. I imagined National Geographic or something. But as it turns out I have never been able to capture the landscapes that I envision. Maybe just need some more practice.

I was inspired by the weather. It had rained most of the time since we arrived. So it was overcast and damp. I brought my tripod with me to get some pictures of us as a family but then it struck me that there was moving water (I know I'm really quick on my feet). I knew that it would be possible to get some blurred water shots using a slow shutter speed and my tripod. I shot multiples of these at different shutter speeds so that I could choose the level of blur that suited me best. It's necessary to have a very stable tripod so that the still objects in the frame are tack sharp. I used manual focus and the live view setting (just like your point and shoot cameras) so that I can zoom in 10x to the area that I want to focus on. I stopped way down on these. Anywhere from f8 to f22. This allows for a slower shutter speed but also gets the lens out of its soft spots when it is nearly wide open.

I took some of the falls themselves as you see at the top but I was more interested in the details in the creek. The colors were great. Greens of the trees, grays of the rocks, browns of the fallen trees, and then the yellows of these mushrooms. They were being backlit and looked like they were on fire.

My son saw this guy so I got him too. Thankfully he wasn't a fast mover.

Be blessed!