C&C/advice please - waterfall

[Magog]

Good day all,

I've been away from this forum, and indeed photography, for a few months, owing to work and family matters. Anyway, I'm now back taking pictures, struggling to improve, and would welcome some advice.

I took the picture below at Hareshaw Burn, in Northumberland. My objective was to capture the flow of the water on a long-ish exposure, and I'm happy with the overall result.



However, I would welcome help on the composition. I tried a crop to take some of the water on the left out, but I'm not sure if it works. Perhaps the water should stay there to give the waterfall somewhere to "flow" into, if you see what I mean? Any other comments gratefully received.



Technical details: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 17-85mm, f9 0.5s -0.3 exposure adjustment ISO 100.

[shreds]

Nice treatment, John. your timing appears to be just right.

My personal preference is for the second shot, as it takes out some of the ferns in the background at the top of the waterfall, which appear to have moved slightly during the exposure.

[pnodrog]

Well captured - the exposure has not been so long that the movement in the water has been completely lost.

As for cropping I would tend more to a panoramic composition maybe 16:9. The left side I would not crop at all but would tone down the diagonal branches/trunks so they were not so obviously going out of the edge of the photo. I would be interested to see it cropped to the top of the flat rock at the left top, across the bottom to just remove the white on the lower right (a mix of cloning some of the white out and cropping may work better) and about midway between the waterfall and the right hand edge on your first version.

Anyway that is my twopence worth.

[Magog]

Thanks for the input guys; I'll try another crop or two at the weekend, along the lines you suggest.

[bedantabd]

Nicely done John. The exposure is just perfect to capture the silky effect. I like the 2nd crop. How about a vertical crop to include some of the greeneries at the top?