Photographing Water at Jiuzhaigou

Photographing water in nature is never an easy task. There are plenty of gear involved and often requires plenty of patience and trial and error. While some of us take snap shots with our DSLR (aka shots that look like they being taken with a compact camera), there are some who will go the extra mile to achieve their vision.

Here are some shots taken during my recent trip to Jiuzhaigou. I hope you will enjoy looking through them as much as I have had the pleasure in shooting them.

Pearl Shoal 珍珠滩

The waterfall is quite rapid here. In order to maintain the silky streaks of water, I chose a moderately short 1/5 exposure at f/22. A longer exposure would have 'taken away' the hairline streaks - too blurry. A tripod is a must.

There is nothing distinctive about this scene except for it's fast-flowing water. So I had this vision of presenting a shot dominated by silky/creamy water formation. Mount the camera on a tripod, compose, focus, add the LEE Big Stopper 10 and took this 15 seconds shot.

The base of this waterfall was rather rapid, so I shorten the exposure significantly to a mere 0.5 sec. No filter is needed for this shot. It's crucial to maintain the hairline streaks. A longer exposure would've created patches of solid white with much lesser details.

Five Flower Lake 五花海

I used a LEE 105mm Circular Polarizer to eliminate the reflection of the sky on the water surface. It was quite windy, so I increased my shutter speed to 1/125 to freeze the water. At 1/125, the fishes were beautifully 'frozen' too.

This is a more complex shot where I wanted to achieve a see-through silky flowing body of water. Combining the LEE 105mm CPL and LEE Big Stopper 10, I managed to capture this scene in 15 seconds. Luckily the air was pretty stale or I might end up with blurry grass/foliage.

Panda Lake 熊猫海

The weather condition was horrible, cloudy and very windy. So I salvaged the scene by blurring the choppy water completely to match the cloudy sky above, giving the scene a dreamy feel. Combining the LEE 105mm CPL and LEE Big Stopper 10, I managed to achieve my vision in 20 seconds.

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Gear Listing:

Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III

Zeiss Distagon 21mm f/2.8 ZE

LEE Holder System Kit

LEE Adaptor Ring (82mm)

LEE 105mm Circular Polarizer

LEE Big Stopper 10

Canon Timer Remote Controller TC-80N3

Gitzo 6X Carbon Fibre GT1542T

Arcaswiss Monoball P0

Op/Tech USA Camera Strap

SanDisk Extreme CF 32GB