Waterfall photography at Coal Creek Falls

The beginning of the Coal Creek Falls walk in Runanga

I don't do a lot of waterfall photography, despite having a beautiful waterfall literally 10 minutes drive (and then a half hour walk) from my front door!

Coal Creek Falls is an impressive waterfall, situated in the small township of Runanga. It's a very easy walk, on a well maintained track, although a couple of sections of the walk are slightly steep - and if it's been raining a lot some sections can be rather muddy. But solid footwear and a little up-hill huffing and puffing will see you right.

The other well-known local waterfalls - Dorothy Falls and Carew Falls - are a little further away. About a 45 minute and an hours drive away respectively. I have photographed all three of them, but Coal Creek Falls happens to be my favourite of the three.

So why don't I shoot waterfalls more often? Well, I think there's two main reasons. First, it requires very overcast conditions to get the best out of an image - and I don't tend to shoot in overcast conditions. And second, to take a really good waterfall image requires some very specific gear. Gear I don't generally have. Namely, a high grade neutral density (ND) filter (more on that later).

Backlit Fern. E-M1 with 12-40mm Pro. 1/50th @ f2.8

Perhaps, if I'm honest, there's possibly one other reason why I have struggled shooting at Coal Creek Falls. I'm scared of it.

Seven years ago (in 2012), while on a photoshoot, I fell into the water at the falls and completely destroyed my Canon 5D and 24-105mm lens (see the post here). I was completely distraught, my home insurance didn't cover the cost of a new camera, and thus began the arduous task (for me) of searching for a new camera system. So Coal Creek Falls and I don't get on all that well. Especially since the best place to photograph them is, once again, out in the creek itself. Trust me when I say, those damn rocks are slippery!

Don't get me wrong, I have taken photos at the Coal Creek Walk often. I've just never really ever taken a good photo of the waterfall itself. But this year, I plan to change all that.

So far this year (just one month into it), I've gotten up early every Saturday morning to go out and take photos. For the first two weekends I've concentrated on medium format film with my Bronica ETRS. But last weekend (as I write this), I decided to shoot with my E-M1 and go to the Falls. A quick check on a weather app suggested that conditions would be favourable (overcast), so I was hopeful of getting my best shots ever from Coal Creek.

Tree Ferns. E-M1 with 12-40mm Pro. 1/50th @ f2.8

As mentioned, it's an easy half-hour walk through native forest to get to the falls, and there's plenty of opportunity to take some great images along the track. At certain times of the year it's a popular spot for fungi photography, as well as offering numerous flora and the occasional friendly bird. I've stopped to photograph something along the way numerous times and been joined by an inquisitive robin who will hop around very close by, unperturbed by human visitors.

Forest areas can be tricky to photograph in, since the interior lighting can be quite low. But if you look for shafts of light, and can isolate subjects and shoot wide open (at f2.8 or thereabouts), then you can get away with still shooting hand-held. Not that using a tripod isn't an option on such an easy walking track. I've set up a tripod many times and there's always plenty of room for other walkers to go around you so that you're not holding up traffic. There are also one or two places along the walk where it's safe to get away from the track and scramble down to the waters edge to take some images from the creek itself.

Macro lenses come into their own in woodland locations, even if the end-goal is a more traditional landscape waterfall shot. Densely wooded areas can feel quite overwhelming, so train yourself to pick out the small details among the vastness. A single fern frond or section of bush can often tell a more compelling story than trying to capture an entire grove of trees. To be honest, I don't actually own a macro lens (I may have to rectify that in the future), but find that I can often get 'close enough' using the 40mm end of my 12-40mm zoom lens.

Leaf Litter. OM-D E-M1 with Zuiko 12-40mm f2.8 Pro. 1/13th sec @ f2.8 (hand held). ISO 100

Zoomed right in at 40mm (80mm equivalent focal length on 35mm), and shooting wide open at f2.8, the shutter speed in the forest was still only 1/13th sec. Yes, I could have bumped up the ISO to 800 or so to increase the shutter speed - especially since I was hand-holding. But I wanted to keep the ISO as low as possible (even to the point of shooting in the extended Low ISO 100 setting on the E-M1), and I was fairly confident that the amazing ibis (in body image stabilization) of the Olympus would still give me an acceptably sharp hand-held shot at these speeds. I took three or four shots of the same image just to be sure, but I needn't of bothered - they were all sharp where I had focused (on the central leaf).

HDR Tree. E-M1 with 12-40mm f2.8. 1/25th @ f4

Another technique I tried out on the E-M1 this time around was the in-camera HDR. This is easy to access with a button press on the top left of the camera, but it's something I have rarely ever used.

Looking through the evf (electronic viewfinder) of the camera at certain scenes, I could tell that the dynamic range (range of light from dark to bright) was too great for the sensor to capture with just one image. In this scenario, taking several images with different exposures and blending them together later on in Photoshop will yield a single image that can capture all light in the scene (hence HDR - high dynamic range - photography). This has become a very popular (if not highly controversial) technique used by landscape photographers who routinely find themselves shooting scenes with a high dynamic range. There are other ways around this (using filters in certain parts of the scene to lower the contrast), but HDR photography has become so popular that it's being built right into the cameras themselves.

Traditionally, to do HDR means setting your camera on a tripod and taking several exposures of the same scene, at various exposures, so that when you 'blend' them together later on in software they all match up seamlessly. This, of course, facilitates using a tripod each and every time, and setting up the camera specifically to shoot several bracketed exposures. Quite a bit of faffing about.

With the in-camera HDR on the E-M1 (and other cameras), you can avoid all of this and hand-hold the camera as it shoots a series of exposures very quickly, and then blends them together in the camera. If you are shooting in RAW, two images will be saved on the card; the first RAW image you took, and the final camera-generated HDR Jpeg. The final result isn't perfect - the tree above still has some blocked-up shadows, and the contrast needs to be tweaked later on the computer. But the result is quite impressive given how dark the shadows were and how bright the highlights when I was capturing the scene. And all hand-held!

Fallen Log. Olympus OM-D E-M1 with Zuiko 12-40mm f2.8 Pro. 1/13th @ f4.5. Polarising filter. ISO 200.

My end-goal on this excursion was to take the best image of the Coal Creek Falls that I had ever taken. To that end, I had worn my waders (gumboots here in NZ) so that I could walk into the creek for the best vantage points. This also meant that along the way, I was confident enough to go off the beaten track and explore some of the edges of the bank. The above image is one that I never would have taken if I had been wearing trainers and had stuck to the track.

Coal Creek Falls. OM-D E-M1 with Zuiko 12-40mm f2.8 Pro. 2.5secs @ f8. ISO 200. Variable ND

The above image is my second favourite image from the day. It's certainly one of the better ones I've taken of Coal Creek Falls, but on shooting it I came to two conclusions. First, it's really an evening location, and not a morning one. I had gone out on this particular morning because it was overcast conditions - ideal for minimising reflections in the water. However, by the time I got to the falls, the weather had brightened considerably, and the sun was up almost right on top of the waterfall. Damn. A polarising filter helped - but the glare from the sun was too much for it - as you can see above.

And second, a variable ND filter is practically useless, and don't buy one! They are a great idea in theory, and are basically two polarising filters sandwiched together. When you rotate them, they gradually decrease the amount of light going through the lens, and therefore lower the exposure. So good so far. But, when they are facing the light (as they were in this case), the more you rotate it the funkier it gets in terms of weird polarising shifts and blacked out areas of the image! When I rotated past around 3 seconds of filtration, the results were unusable. So it's back to the drawing board for ND filters.

Coal Creek Falls 2. OM-D E-M1 with Zuiko 12-40mm f2.8 lens. 6 secs @ f5.6. ISO 200. Variable ND filter

This is my favourite shot of the morning - and yes, my favourite shot I've ever taken of Coal Creek Falls. But it's still not great. I've had to crop in a lot to get rid of those funky polarising effects, and done some fairly major post-processing work to get the image to where I like it. It's OK, but it's not amazing! And I know I can do much better.

Next time I'll go in the evening. Next time I won't use a variable ND filter (I'll use a dedicated slotted filter with my Cokin system instead). And next time I'll be able to shoot with a polarising filter as well, to minimise the reflection on the waters surface even more. I'm close this time - but no cigar.

Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 Pro. The ultimate zoom lens for micro four thirds?

In my last post I waxed lyrical about my recent purchase of the Nikon D200 for tickling my DSLR-shooting fancy. Whenever I purchase any new (second hand) equipment, I get excited about the 'potential' other purchases that could be involved. This generally means lenses. And so I started downloading Nikon lens brochures and going giddy over the prospect of a 24-70mm f2.8 or 70-200mm f2.8 to really make the D200 shine.

Nikon's Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 Pro lens - sexy!

But then, suddenly, I had a rare moment of lucidity (hey, at least I admit it). As nice as the Nikon D200 is, I have an even better system that I really should be focusing my attention on.

I wrote in my last post that my 'main' kit is my Olympus OM-D E-M1. I've built it up into quite a comprehensive system, with zooms, primes, grips, extra batteries and external flashguns. But with my recent surgery, a rather damp winter, and focusing most of my attention on peripheral areas like film and DSLR's, the Olympus hasn't been getting a lot of love.

I'm still totally blown away with how amazingly good the OM-D E-M1 actually is. In many ways, it's more camera than I can handle, with features and controls that I will probably never ever use. As a stills photographer, I'm not really interested in its video capabilities (although I have used it for video), and the Art Filters also don't get used since I prefer to do effects myself later on in post. I've never played with Live Composite (although I would like to one day), or Silent Shutter (which again, might come in handy?). I have it set up very simply - almost like a film camera - and prefer to use single-shot, center focus point and recompose. My one concession to technology is the eye focus tracking when shooting portraits. Watching the focus point follow the subjects face as they move around the frame is just magical, and it's been consistently reliable with focus accuracy.

But.... (yes folks, there's always a but), what I've felt I've always lacked in my kit is a truly stellar lens - something similar to a Nikkor or Canon 24-70mm f2.8 professional lens. Truth be told, I've never owned the Canon or Nikon versions either - but I've always wanted to. I have owned a few Canon 'L' lenses, and without exception they were worth every penny (even second hand). So instead of dreaming about a Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 for my D200, why wasn't I dreaming about the equivalent lens for my Olympus E-M1? Why not indeed....

The title page from Olympus USA for the Zuiko 12-40mm f2.8 Pro lens

The 'ultimate' zoom to use as a walk-around, shoot anything, style of lens has to be the Olympus M. Zuiko 12-40mm f2.8 Pro. It even says so on their website 😉

I've lusted after this lens since moving to micro four thirds. I've even shot with one - briefly - for an afternoon (see post here). That was the shoot that convinced me I wanted an E-M1 (I owned the E-M5 MkII), and of course I was also impressed with the IQ from the 12-40mm f2.8. When I eventually sold my E-M5 to get the E-M1, I didn't have a big enough budget to get the 12-40mm as well - ending up with the 12-50mm EZ f3.5/6.3 instead. And as great as that lens is, it ain't no f2.8 Pro!

The construction of the 12-40mm f2.8 is astonishing. Equipped with a full metal body, the lens is fully sealed against dust and moisture, and is freeze-proof down to -10 degrees. It has one EDA lens, two Asperical lenses, one DSA lens, two ED lenses, two HR lenses and one HD lens (and no, please don't ask me what that all means) for 10 elements in 9 groups. It has a 7 bladed circular aperture ring, goes from f2.8 to f22, has a 62mm front filter thread, an MSC mechanism for smooth video, and Olympus's 'Zero' coating on the front element for extra dust, dirt and fingerprint resistance. This was Olympus's first professional zoom for the micro four thirds system, and as such, they threw everything they had at it!

It was released the same time the OM-D E-M1 was, as the perfect lens to pair with their first professional micro four thirds body. I guess you might even consider it to be the E-M1's 'kit' lens. And yes, that's very tongue-in-cheek, because no matter how you look at it, the 12-40mm f2.8 Pro is no kit lens.

But it is the perfect partner for the E-M1, in the same way that Canon and Nikon's 24-70mm f2.8 lenses are the perfect partner for their flagship DSLR's. At 12-40mm the Olympus has an equivalent focal range of a 24-80mm lens in full frame terms - and of course it has the constant f2.8 aperture.

Yes, we all know by now that all apertures are not created equal when it comes to creating a shallow depth-of-field. The sensor size will dictate a lenses ability to create that creamy background 'bokeh' - and a full-frame sensor is always going to give you the ability to create a shallower depth-of-field. But it's not impossible to create shallow depth of field at f2.8 on micro four thirds - and I'd rather have f2.8 at 40mm than the f5.6 I have at the moment with my other zoom. So I'm getting one - right?

Well actually yes, I am. I've decided to sell all the other lenses I own for micro four thirds - just to get the one lens: the M. Zuiko 12-40mm f2.8 Pro. I've already sold a couple, and have a couple to go. Once they are all sold I'll have enough to buy a brand new 12-40mm lens direct from Hong Kong. It's a bit cheaper doing it that way (around $900NZ as opposed to $1300NZ from a camera store), and although I'd like to buy locally, the saving really can't be ignored. It's how I brought my 12-50mm EZ originally, and I've been very happy with it.

At some point in a photographer's career, when they start getting 'serious' about the hobby, they are told by some wise old sage to invest in glass. Camera bodies come, and camera bodies go (at an alarming rate), but good glass practically lasts forever. And can sometimes even go up in value. No photographer ever regretted buying pro-quality glass for their camera (although their bank balance may disagree).

Most reviews on the Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 Pro lens are positively glowing. Some even call it the best zoom lens they've ever used, on any system, period. That's impressive and exciting praise for perhaps the 'ultimate' lens for micro four thirds. I can't wait.....