Cascades after rain

Well in the Blue Mountains we can't complain. Just about 40mm of rain in the last two days. We could still do with more but we'll take it and be grateful. I figured it might be time to find a local waterfall ... as you knew I would.

In particular I wanted to test out my new Gobi fixed 10 stop ND filter, in the belief I could get sharper pics than I normally get with the old variable filter. Anyway I got all the way down to Katoomba Cascades only to discover that I had brought the wrong filter with me (of course). Buuut having already done the hard yards I thought I might as well continue.

Usually I bring my light tripod but because I wanted the best results possible this time, I had brought my heavy kit. I did learn a few things. The heavy tripod gives visibly sharper results than the light one, quite apart from what the theoretically better filter might have enabled. In addition I wiped the filter more often than I have done in the past which ALSO seems to make for a significant difference in sharpness and contrast - even when droplets aren't obviously present.

I was shooting in constant light drizzle and so I had a big golf umbrella held over the camera. Somehow moisture was still finding its way to the outer element, however. Despite just having wiped the glass, if you look carefully there are smudgy parts of the image which I directly attribute to droplets.