Russell Falls, Tasmania

Submitted by: LeRoy Zimmerman at Sun Mar 2 19:03:01 2008 UTC

Here is a shot I took at night of Russell Falls, in Tasmania. I was at the waterfall in total darkness, a quiet fall at the head of a small steam in therainforest. It was so dark in the rainforest you could not see you hand in front of your face, you could only hear the

falls off in the darkness about 40' away. You could see the star like

patterns of the glow worms on the walls of the small gorge. Like looking into the stars.

For the shot, I first turned my flashlight on the falls in order to get a focus point for my camera. Then in total darkness I opened the camera for 30 seconds, and while the camera was open I began to 'paint' the scene with my white LED light, constantly moving the light across the scene, painting the falls, some of the moss covered walls, the nearby tree fern, and some of the foreground rocks. Feeling somewhat like an artist, I realized I was lifting the image from the night.

With the beauty of shooting digital, I could instantly review my shots in the dark, to see what needed either more or less light, and how to build the shot in the camera. I could not see the final 'scene' as I was shooting, I could only see the small spot that was illuminated by my white LED light. It was up to me to decide where to

put the light, and how fast or slow to move move the light, how long to let in linger in certain spots. My flashlight now became my brush,

and it painted the scene to life in the camera. And darkness was necessary for that shot, it could not have been done without the night. Here is how that evening came out.

Photo ©2007 LeRoy Zimmerman

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