A favorite winter shot of mine is this time exposure of Tahquamenon Falls in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The yellow color is natural tannic acid from decaying leaves upstream. I used a telephoto lens to compress the falls with the icicles in the background, and because it was essential to have both the foreground and the background in focus, I used f/32 which gave me the maximum depth of field I could get in a single exposure. I shot this in 1999 with my old medium format film camera, a Mamiya RZ 67, and a 350mm lens which was equivalent to about a 180mm in the full frame digital format. I remember that my shutter speed was 1/2 second. For landscapes I always used Fujichrome Velvia 50, and I based the exposure on the readings of my handheld meter, the Sekonic L-558. Since I went digital in 2005, I've never used a handheld meter. I arrived in the U.P. after spending several days in Canada where the coldest day (and the coldest I've ever experienced) was minus 57 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 49.4 Celsius). At the waterfall, it was zero degrees Fahrenheit, and that felt like a heat wave. I actually took off my down parka to feel the warmer air!
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