All but one of the photos in the pair of galleries below were taken November 4, 2001 at the annual Green River Narrows race.  All but the photos in the last row of the second gallery #2 were taken from river right side of Gorilla.  They were shot using a Nikon N-70 camera body with a Nikon 80-200mm 4.5-5.6D zoom lense.

The slowness of my lense, the deepness of the shadows, the need to compensate for all the light reflecting off the water, and the fact that the only slide film I could buy at Wal-Mart at 10pm the night before the race was 100 speed Fuji Sensia conspired to create less than optimal conditions.  My solution was to spot meter off those spectators dressed in paddling gear standing nearest to where I'd be shooting and then manually set both my aperture and speed.  I set the aperture as wide as I could given the length of my lense (never more than 125 mm, the maximum zoom I could use without blurring given the speed at which I was forced to shoot) and then set the speed that would result in a three-stop underexposure.  Generally this resulted in a 1/125 second exposure at f4.5, a much faster speed than I would have been able to use otherwise.

To compensate for the three stop underexposure, I had the film push processed three stops when it was developed (i.e., purposely overdeveloped three stops to make up for the three stop underexposure).  Pushing Fuji Sensia three stops is really getting into never-never land, and I was a little surprised and very pleased with the quality of the results -- push processing increases contrast, reduces latitude (i.e., makes getting the right exposure more important), and increases grain, all of which lead to potential quality problems.  With faster film I would have been able to shoot at a faster speed and capture images with less contrast between the water and the paddler, both of which would have made the water in the images look a lot better.  With a warming filter (81 series) the images wouldn't have had the blue cast apparent in so many of them (blue light is a real problem when shooting in shadows on days with bright blue skies).  Oh well, we'll see next year how much I learned from my experience this year.

The Green was running at a slightly low 100% the these photos were taken.  This corresponds to a little over 200 cfs.  Learn more about the Narrows here:  Green River Narrows.

 

The Crowd Gathers Green River Narrows, NC Copyright Chris Bell	Musical Prelude Green River Narrows, NC Copyright Chris Bell	Penstock Productions in Action Green River Narrows, NC Copyright Chris Bell
The Pencil Sharpener Green River Narrows, NC Copyright Chris Bell	Eli Helbert Headed for the Notch Green River Narrows, NC Copyright Chris Bell	C-Boater Entering the Notch Green River Narrows, NC Copyright Chris Bell
Kayaker in the Notch (note undercut) Green River Narrows, NC Copyright Chris Bell	Kayaker Exiting the Notch Green River Narrows, NC Copyright Chris Bell	Notch Frolics Green River Narrows, NC Copyright Chris Bell
Eli Exiting the Eddy Below the Notch Green River Narrows, NC Copyright Chris Bell	Knowing What Lies 5 Yards Below Make Notch Frolics Extra Special Green River Narrows, NC Copyright Chris Bell	Lip of the Main Drop Green River Narrows, NC Copyright Chris Bell

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