Tag Archives: Fall colors along the Gorge

Multnomah Falls, OR

[/caption] Fall foliage is abundant along the Columbia River Gorge which makes for some spectacular photographs when you can include any of the numerous waterfalls. The Fall season arrives early in the Gorge but the Fall colors usually don’t arrive until just before Winter. This can create a great scene since the area is inundated with moister which allows the waterfalls to swell. You can then take advantage of the Autumn colors along with the movement of the creeks and waterfalls. I took this shot early in the morning and the skies were well overcast and there was a light rain coming down. Due to the glare being created by the overcast and overexposed sky as well as from the glare from the waterfall I resorted to attaching my ND8 filter to my Canon 18-55mm lens. I also attached my warming filter in order to capture the warm colors of the foliage. Because I set the Shutter Priority to 10 seconds the aperture was at F-25. I also set the ISO to 200 but the white balance to -1.3. The 100 ISO setting was too low so I ended up having to increase it to 200. However, I was able to reduce the white balance in order to combat the higher ISO. I wanted to get as much of the waterfall in the photo so I stood near the lodge and set the focal length at 24mm. I used my tripod, bubble level and remote switch to ensure there was no camera shake. You can see how much the trees were moving due to the wind being created by the waterfall. You can really get soaked when trying to cross the bridge and this day was no exception. I really wanted to create a long exposure in order to show just how awesome the waterfall is.