Le Grand Saut

The Story Behind This Photo #

I remember it was a scorching hot summer day and we were visiting the picturesque village in the Correze mountains called Gimel-les-Cascades. The village attraction of course are the waterfalls, which descend into the ravine below the village. To get to see the actual falls, you will have to buy a ticket and descend into ravine via a set of wooden stairs.

“Le Grand Saut”, the big jump is the first one of the three waterfalls and this image represents the top part of the waterfall. At 45 meters tall I found it very difficult to get whole waterfall fit into the frame in any meaningful way, which is why I decided to photograph only the top part of the flow.

Getting the exposure time right is important with waterfall photography, since if the exposure is too long then the water will take on a milky quality which many photographers want. I, however, want my waterfall pictures retain the sense that it is water that is flowing through, so one of the things I tend to do is play with the exposure time to get the effect I want. I think for this image, the feel of the image is spot on.

Some Thoughts on the Use of This Image #

Since this image was taken on my former Nikon D70, it does not have the resolution for massive prints. According to the Picfair calculator, the largest print they recommend making out of this image is 46x31cm or 18x12 inches. Even that is quite a large print, so a canvas print with a black wrap (edges) would be spot on for this image.

Image Details #

If you want to buy a digital copy of this image, it has the default 1.5 form factor. You can easily crop this image even to 16:10 or even 16:9 should you have device whose monitor uses that form factor. Depending on your operating system, you may even be able to use the image as is without cropping it or scaling it down.

Suitable Print Dimensions #

Should you want to buy a printed product of this image, the following sizes fit the image form factor and do not cause cropping. The sizes in centimeters are approximate, since the dimensions of photographic paper is traditionally expressed in inches, such as 8x10 or 18x11.

Availability #

If you want to license this photograph or buy a printed product, please reach out via email or through the contact form on my portfolio site via the button below.