Platypod in the Red Rocks by Bob Coates

Words and Photos by Bob Coates

The idea was to turn this scene into a dramatic image. The “waterfall” you see is about five to six inches tall! To make this wash and red rocks blend together the way I’d wanted, a wide-angle lens placed low in the scene was needed.  In order to get my camera closer to the ground, the Platypod made it easy.

 The nice part about the Platypod, in addition to the low profile, is the light weight. When out on a hike I have often left a tripod behind. Without a stable platform I could not have made this image.

Using the computational ND setting on the Olympus OMD E-M1X I was able to use the equivalent of five stops of neutral density. That was to get the time exposure for the flow of moving water. The camera has to be stable. In addition, I made a set of HDR images that were also blended together for the final rendition. Again, there’s no way to put all those images together without solid support.

 Bob Coates is a Lens Based Artist and commercial photographer based in Sedona, Arizona with his fabulous wife Holly who makes it possible for Bob to do what he does. Check out Coates’ work, coatesart.net – bcphotography.com – successful-photographer.com