B&W Long Exposure Seascapes and a Stunning Sundog

So the reason why I came to this place today is actually not because of the waterfall. If you ever come to Korea, you must, you must visit this place. Colorful tree will dominate about like one third of the bottom side. I advise you, if you're a new landscape photographer, I advise you to... Hello everyone and welcome back to my channel. I'm starting today's video with a narration because there were too many people at the location so I couldn't film the intro there. In this episode, I'll be photographing a stunning waterfall with a turquoise pond framed by the warm colors of autumn. Welcome to my Korean autumn adventure. All right, so I'm sorry about the lousy b-rolls. Now I've got my composition right here, which is the waterfall. And there's a small cascade right there, probably somewhere here. And also it's autumn, so all the trees are yellow to red. So they're on top of the waterfall, which you cannot see right now. But however, I've got it on my screen and probably you can see it here. So these are the trees and the waterfall right here. So what I'm trying to shoot is that with 16mm wide, I'm going to shoot this emerald to turquoise colored water pool. And the waterfall, two waterfalls there in the middle. And the top side will be these colorful trees. So I'm currently using my polarizer and my six stopper. So ISO 100, f11, and 30 seconds, two second timer. And there we go. So of course, you don't have to wait. And this is a warm-up shot, so I'm not really sure if this is going to be a good one. So when the shot's done, here's the shot. The first photo of the day came out all right. Though I have to confess, I made a mistake. Too much light got in at the top of the frame. I should have bracketed, but I didn't. So I ended up cropping the top quite a bit. Even so, I tried to keep the autumn tones and the warm yellow light in the scene. And I think it still turned out quite nice. So the reason why I came to this place today is actually not because of the waterfall. It's actually, there are two cascades that I wanted to shoot. And here's the photo that I made about like 1.5 years ago. So this photo, as you can see, there are two cascades. And that's what I want to recapture with my long lens. Because back then, I didn't really think about shooting them with my long lens. Because at that time, back then, the waterfall, this waterfall was my main subject. But today, I just reviewed my photos from my past years. And I just figured, hey, why don't I shoot this with a long lens? Because it would look absolutely amazing, you know, with all the foliage around it, with water flowing and all that. So let's go up there and shoot that cascades. By the way, guys, this is where we're at. If you ever come to Korea, you must, you must visit this place. It's absolutely beautiful here. So, so far, we were shooting in the gorge. But now we're out of the gorge, and we will look down from this up top viewpoint. And of course, that means we can shoot some beautiful cascades, as I told you before. So let's start. All right, so at first, I thought I'm going to need my 100-400mm lens. But, you know, seeing that waterfall there and two cascades, actually three cascades right now, the numbers have grown. I'm thinking, I think I should use my 24-105mm and shoot the whole scene first. So that's what I'm exactly going to do. So I got my 24-105mm and let's shoot this. All right, so what I have in my mind is to shoot the whole scene first. And for that, I need to lower my tripod just a little bit. Now, there's a big tree right in front of me, about like five meters from me. And that will be my foreground interest. So that colorful tree will dominate about like one third of the bottom side. And the top two thirds will be the cascade and the waterfall. So let's see. Oh, yes. Okay, I'm going to zoom in a little. There we go. So from this shot, you can actually see the waterfall and cascades. And also, this whole scene is framed by these colorful trees, which is absolutely stunning. I love Korean autumn, you know. Man, it's beautiful. All right, I'm going to need my polarizer still. Bear with me. All right, so I'm currently using my polarizer and I have a small dilemma. So as you can see, there is no glare right here because I polarized it. However, the colors of the leaves are not that vivid. But if I just let in a little bit of glare on the water, then the colors of the leaves become more alive. So I don't know what the hell I should do. All right, so the dilemma is gone. Now, I'm just going to make two shots. So first, without the glare on the water, ISO 100, f11, quarter of a second. And then with the glare on the water. But that will give me these beautiful leaf colors on the left top side. So focus on the leaves. There we go. Now, I'm not sure if I should focus there. So let me check the sharpness. I hope it'll be sharp from the foreground to the background. Because f11 and this far usually should do. This should do. Yes, absolutely gorgeous. All right, that worked. That's, oh man, I'm so happy. Because these colors are just surrounding this waterfall and cascade. And it's absolutely gorgeous, you know. Man, all right, here's the shot. This is the scene I wanted to capture when I first visited this location over a year ago. Autumn colors surrounding the beautiful waterfall and cascades. Warm light was coming from above, gently warming up the turquoise water in the gorge. I am really satisfied with how this image turned out. All right, so now I'm going to change my lens to my zoom lens. I mean, all my lenses are zoom lenses. My long lens, I meant. So now I'm going to shoot the cascades zoomed in. So I want to tell you something. Now, as I'm doing right now, I advise you, if you're a new landscape photographer, I advise you to shoot first wide and then use your long lens and find small details in that scene. So, for example, if you use only wide angle lens like many new landscape photographers, then you can, of course, go home with a very, you know, giant grand vista in one shot. Absolutely beautiful, of course. I'm mumbling, sorry. But if you use the long lens after that, then you'll be able to go home with more shots because you can find small details in that grand vista and make your own mini grand vistas, you know. So I advise you use your long lens as well, not just your wide angle lens. It's a small tip. All right, so I've framed up my last shot, I think, of the day. Yeah, this will be probably my last shot of the day. So, of course, I'm going to use my polarizer and cut off all the glares because that just makes your photo look absolutely gorgeous. And since the waterfall, I mean, this cascade is, the water level is very high and the colors are still there. With my polarizer, this will be absolutely vivid. Now, I can't quite find my perfect shutter speed. That's the problem. I'm thinking one second should be enough. All right, so ISO 100, f11 in one second. Two second timer. There we go. Now, the water speed is very fast. The flow is very fast. So I don't really think one second is actually quite... Actually, it's good enough. Yeah, surprisingly okay. All right, let me just try 0.6 seconds because that's usually my sweet spot for this kind of waterfall. So, okay, 0.6 seconds. And I'm going to compare those two and then see what's better. Yeah, 0.6 seconds is actually definitely better because you can see the lines in the water, the motion blur, you know, that power and speed. You can actually see all that. I think I'm going to zoom out a little actually and then shoot one more. So I don't know which shot I'm going to choose, but we'll see. All right, so without further ado, here's my last shot of the day. There you go. The mossy rocks and the gentle light from above really created a beautiful atmosphere in the scene. I love that I chose a shutter speed of 0.6 seconds. It froze the water just enough while keeping a smooth motion blur. I also really like the lighting here. It gives the image a mysterious feeling as if this hidden scene lies quietly at the bottom of the gorge. All right, guys, so that's it for today. I hope you guys enjoyed the photos and the video as well. And don't forget to subscribe, please. And always bring a lens cloth because you never know when you're going to need them. So thank you so much for watching. And if you like this video, please press the like button and please consider subscribing to my channel because I'm really close to 1,000 subscribers. So yeah, please help me out. All right, bye-bye.