Photo of the Week - Meigs Falls During an Autumn Rain

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

This 30-foot waterfall is conveniently located along the Little River Road between Cades Cove and the Sugarlands Visitor Center. No hiking is required! There is a convenient pull-off area, and the waterfall is visible from the side of the road. (Please click the image to see it bigger.)

Shooting in the rain is a challenge. It’s messy too. But when you are on trip with a limited period of time, you frequently have to take your shots when you can. You simply don’t have the luxury of waiting out the weather conditions.

My trip to the Smokies this last fall was a little bit frustrating. The fall colors were some of the most gorgeous displayed in the last 20 years. Yet, it rained, rained, rained. I was grateful for the overcast skies to reduce hot-spot glare on the foliage, water, and rocks. But the constant rain was a nuisance. I got wet, despite wearing raingear. My equipment got wet too, despite protections and many microfiber towels. (The Fuji gear was more weather resistant than me, haha).

However, the biggest obstacle for most of my compositions was the movement of rain on the leaves. To get the silky look of moving water, a long exposure is required. But leaves become a blurry mess if there is rain or wind during a 3 to 4-second exposure.

So how did I adapt? I set up the camera on a tripod, composed a shot, choose the proper exposure settings, and clicked the shutter over and over again, wiping down my lens between each shot. I used a zoom feature on my camera’s back screen to spot-check sharpness of each image at 100%. At this particular location, I took a dozen vertical shots and five horizontal. This one was among the sharpest, and it turned out decent enough to share with you.

When wet weather isn’t my friend during a planned photo shoot, I simply shoot more, check my work for quality frequently, and hope for the best. One of the beautiful features about digital photography is that extra shooting isn’t going to cost me money (like film), only some additional time.