Lone Dakota Photography: Glow With the Flow

Glow With the Flow

I recently saw an article that reminded me of a conversation I had some time back with friend and fellow photographer, Wayne Stacy . We had unsuccessfully attempted to photograph the "Moonbow" at Cumberland Falls due to an uncooperative Mother Nature. On the drive home, we brainstormed about a way to light the falls for a more dramatic and unique night shot. While I was focusing on a way to back light the falls, Wayne wanted to introduce light into the water for long exposure shots.The topic would come up every now and again, but it was this article that really lit a fire under us. It would seem we were not the only nuts out there with this idea and we just knew we could do it. The process would be rather straightforward, or so we thought. Tie similar colored glow sticks together, put them in the water up-stream of the falls and take long exposure shots while they drifted down and over the falls.Even at this stage of planning the logistics of the shoot, we knew we were going to need help and enlisted the aid of Jamie Cummings to serve as Production Assistant.

With a careful eye on the forecast, we chose a clear night with a near-full moon to provide as much light on the water as possible and it was "Go Time". Preparation started a few days before with a trip to the Everything For a Dollar Store for supplies. While in theory our idea should work, reality is much different and we opted not to make a huge investment should it turn out to be a miserable failure. The afternoon of the shoot was spent rigging a few strands up while we could actually see what we were doing. Similar colored glow sticks were fastened to string using zip ties at evenly spaced intervals. The thinking behind this was that while we had a general idea as to the height of the falls, we wanted to be sure to have a long enough strand to get the effect we were looking for. Jamie (upstream) would pull the strands up and down during a long exposure shot to fill in the gaps between the lights.Only two strands were made in advance as this was still all theory and we didn't want to lose all the sticks if this system failed.

Off to the falls we went full of excitement and anticipation of doing something "outside the box". My only concern at this point was if there would be enough flow in the river to provide a nice waterfall. Those concerns were quickly put to rest as soon as we arrived. Rains earlier in the week had provided more than enough flow. In fact, our concern now was that our system was not up to the task. Only one way to tell and that was to use one strand as a sacrificial lamb and see what happens.

Jamie also seems concerned as well as frustrated with the ease of which the lines repeatedly got tangled. Also notice that she is wearing a life vest for safety. Fortunately, the only mishap on the shoot occurred when I dropped her snake stick in the river. Sorry about that Jamie!!!! With the current too strong and an undertow that would not allow the lines to be spread out, we moved to the other side of the river where there was a step falls with a gentler current and shallower water. Time was against us now as the sun was beginning to set. Jamie began rigging the strands above the falls and I arranged them at and below the falls while Wayne continued to string lights together from a "drier location". Darker and darker it grew, so Jamie started helping Wayne string lines while I started to fire off test shots and make minor adjustments to the strands already deployed. With everything in place, it was now time to shoot. Various exposures, f stops and ISO settings were used. The best results seem to have come from relatively low ISO settings, mid to high f stops and long exposures.