Bend in the River


Donnelly, Idaho

May 26, 2017

I am doing today’s blog post a little differently.  Instead of highlighting one image, I am going to share a handful.  After we visited Goldfork Hot Springs just east of Donnelly, I stopped for quite a while to enjoy the golden light along a small stretch of about a hundred yards where the river bends and opens into a meadow.  I shared an panorama of the bend in my previous post.  With this post, I am sharing a bunch of other images I liked showing different details of the area.

26.6 mm: ISO 200: f/16: 1/4 sec.

The above image was all about the reflections for me.  I love the tall tree on the right and how it reflects perfectly in the calm river.  Reflections are often something I neglect because I love to get low to the ground when I shoot.  With reflections, you want to be a little higher to look down on the reflections.

23.3 mm: ISO 200: f/16: 1/60 sec.

This image shows the meadow downstream from the river bend.  In addition to showing more of the scene, especially the marshes, I wanted to capture the mist from the water, reflections and the spread of golden light hitting the trees in this image.

15 mm: ISO 200: f/9.0: 1/15 sec.

You would think this image is about the two geese, but what really drew me to this scene was the golden reflections in the water.  The golden light was so impressive, but I didn’t feel the normal view of the trees did it justice so I captured it in the reflection where it could really contrast against the rich greens.

52.4 mm: ISO 200: f/9.0: 1/30 sec.

With this image, I wanted to capture the golden light reflecting in the different sections of the river where they could all be seen between bends.  I feel like it adds extra depth to the scene and shows how big this area was.

38.9 mm: ISO 200: f/14: 1/60

Unfortunately, the mountains were not too impressive in the middle of the summer, but I still wanted to get an image of the mountains standing over this scene.

50 mm: ISO 200: 1/125 sec.

With this final image, I wanted to get creative and draw the attention beyond the initial bend in the river to the second bend that was perfectly lined with trees.  To accomplish this, I used my Lensbaby Composer Edge lens to get a nice slice of focus on the part I was trying to emphasize.

Let me know which of the images you like best and why.

Gear Used:
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