A long exposure of a river rapid reworked: Marbled

By Johan Peijnenburg

Last week I visited the Swiss National Park in the canton of Graubünden again. I hiked about 50 kilometres in 3 days and really enjoyed the unspoiled scenery and great weather. Additionally, I saw quite a bit of wildlife. I ran into deer, ibex, chamois and alpine marmots! There are plenty of rocky mountain rivers in the park. As a result, hiking breaks were often spent near an alpine mountain river to combine resting with shooting a long exposure of a river rapid.

The one in this post is an example of such a long exposure. Instead of including the surrounding scenery, I decided to focus on the details of this alpine mountain river a bit more.

Marbled, a gorgeous river rapid in black & white

A fine art long exposure of an alpine mountain river rapid in black & white, featuring white water and dark marbled rocks with white streaks.

I personally really like how the dark marbled rocks contrast with the blurred stream of water in this photograph. I used a 24mm f/1.4 lens combined with a 6-stop ND filter to blur the flowing water.

Click on the photograph to see a larger version or to buy a print or licence.

Cheers, Johan 🙂

123 thoughts on “A long exposure of a river rapid reworked: Marbled”

  2. Anette Mossbacher says:

    Hi Johan, one of my favorite photographs of yours. I always enjoy your waterfall photos. Next time I will come along. 😀

    Ciao Anette

    Reply
    • Johan Peijnenburg says:

      Thanks Anette! I re-processed it in black & white a while back.
      You can come along next time. It’s been a while since I shot in the Swiss National Park. The hiking trail on which this is on is quite nice with a good chance of seeing Ibex at the end of it!

      Reply
  7. Johan Swanepoel says:

    I missed this one and saw it on your featured PS page. Just amazing and it has got a strange attraction which makes it one of my personal favourites. Great work 🙂

    Reply
    • Johan Peijnenburg says:

      That’s a great compliment Johan. Thank you. It is also one of my favourites, not only because of the image but also because of the memory of the location where I shot this!

      Reply
  19. Emilio Savov says:

    Yes I’m in Bulgaria, and it already started snowing in here !!! 🙁 It’s October for cryin out loud 🙁 It’s supposed to be fall, not winter :))))) But I guess there will be some “fall pictures” time 🙂 .. at least I hope so 🙂

    Reply
  24. shane holsclaw says:

    really love how the rocks work with the milky water. beautiful! something silly that just popped in my head… those rocks kinda look like Oreo cookies & the water is milky. : ) I know…I’m goofy. : )

    Reply
      • Emilio Savov says:

        Yup, Johan. I was kinda busy lately, but now I’m back .. and I see some very amazing pictures in here. Thanks for sharing those, this place is amazing. Since now it’s fall already in here, I might as well make a little trip to our mountain and make some shots too 🙂

        Reply
  31. Johan Peijnenburg says:

    @Athena: not sure yet. The blur looks nice and the composition is good as well. I don’t think the stons is as interesting though. And yours?

    Reply
  32. Johan Peijnenburg says:

    @Sarah: it would have been a totally different shot without the blurred water. The blur makes the wet stone stand out I think. Glad you like it!

    Reply
  44. Peter de Rooij says:

    I really like the contrast between hard and contrasty rocks, and soft and mellow water. Very good use of that ND filter!

    Reply
    • Johan says:

      Tnx. I had two captures. This one and one with with limited blur (little light available and fast moving water). I preferred this one because it really made the marbled stone stand out and I like the contrast of the dark stones with the silky blurred water 🙂

      Reply
      • Johan says:

        sorry, misunderstood your question. To blur the water, I needed to extend the exposure time. I decided to use a B+W ND 1.8 filter for that (gives about 6 stops of exposure adjustment). The filter in combination with ISO 100 and an aperture of f/13 gave me an exposure of 6 seconds …. and tadaaa … blurred water 🙂

        Reply
  60. Brian Achille says:

    Great shot. I think the longer exposure works great here. Wonderful detail and good balance in the composition as well.

    Reply
  76. Francois Connetable says:

    Love your work. It is very clean, simple and easy to read, yet quite moving… Thanks for sharing and for the inspiration 🙂

    Reply

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