7th Dec 2024
To follow on from a climb of Carrauntoohil towards the end of July, and bridging a two-year gap for uploading content on YouTube, I headed down to Torc Waterfall at the end of August. Torc Waterfall is approximately 7km from Killarney, on the N71 between Killarney and Kenmare. The first time I visited there was in 2012. I then returned in 2018, when I took some more pictures, as well as make a video for YouTube.
During that visit, the only equipment I had was a Nikon D3000, for taking still images, and a Sony handheld camcorder, which I found to be not the best cameras for recording video clips in which I talk to the camera, as it only has a built-in microphone, and doesn’t take an external microphone. I also had a cheap polarising filter, which only fits onto my kit lens. Since then, I got the Nikon D5600, which can record videos as well as still images, and I can connect an external microphone to it. I also got Cokin filters – polarising and ND, and including ring adapters for my wide angle and telephoto lenses. With that, and the Carrauntoohil climb out of the way, I said to myself, I made a video in 2018, why not see if I can make a better one.
There are two car parks near the waterfall. One is on the N71 (GPS 52.005938, -9.506360), and the other is along the old Kenmare Road (GPS 52.001407, -9.504923) (map below this paragraph). I arrived there mid-morning, and by then the car park on the N71 was full, so I went to the car park on the old Kenmare Road, and there were still a few spaces left.
Had the car park on the Kenmare Road been full, I would have ended up parking on the grounds of Muckross House (GPS 52.019255, -9.500896). Parking is free, but the gates close at 6:00pm as far as I know. Also, there is a walk of 15-20 minutes to the car park on the N71 for Torc Waterfall.
With regard to the weather, there were sunny spells for the most part during the day. At least there was no rain. I wasn’t worried about whether or not it was going to be cloudy, because unlike Carrauntoohil, I was not going up to an altitude high enough for cloud cover to be an issue. The fact that the waterfall and Owengarriff river is in woodlands made things a little bit easier, in terms of throttling down the light, so that I can take pictures involving exposures of a few seconds, without the need to use ND filters.
I said to myself, wherever I end up parking, I am going to do the intro – the video clip at the start of the video, at the N71 car park. As I ended up parking in the car park off the old Kenmare Road, I walked down the pathway, down towards the N71 car park, and did the intro, positioning myself on the pathway off the car park, with the sign “Torc Waterfall 200 metres” behind me.
Next, the short walk to the waterfall. There was a considerable crowd around the waterfall, which I suppose, is to be expected near the end of the high season. I picked two spots along the pathway, for me to set up my tripod, and all I could do was wait until the people occupying these spots have finished taking their images / selfies, and move on, before I set up.
As I point out in the video, getting long exposure images of waterfalls and streams is not very complicated – all you need is a DSLR (or mirrorless) camera and tripod, as well as a way to remotely control the opening and closing of the shutter. Neutral density and polarising filters, I would consider to be an optional extra, but you will need the latter if you want to cut out the glare on the water surface. Once you’re all set up, it is just a matter of focussing the lens so that the image is as sharp as it can be, then experimenting with different shutter speeds and aperture settings, to achieve the desired effect. Once I’m happy with the images I’ve got, I move on and let someone else take pictures.
From the Torc Waterfall, it was a short but steep climb for about 60 metres up to a hairpin, where there is a viewpoint, from where you can just about see Lough Leane and Muckross Lake, through a gap in the trees. The path continues uphill, until it starts to level off, before arriving at a junction – going left brings you to the car park on the old Kenmare Road, going right brings you to a bridge over the Owengarriff River. From that bridge, there is another waterfall – smaller than Torc Waterfall, but nonetheless, a waterfall. As well as taking some images, experimenting with different shutter speeds and apertures, I made a video clip demonstrating that when I rotate the polarising filter, it will cut out much of the surface glare on the water.
From there, I continued on upstream along the west bank of the Owengarriff river, getting some images of the river, with the polarising filter, as well as a few video clips, including ones with the GoPro mounted on a selfie stick, held out about 1 to 1.5m over the river, close to the water. This was until I reached another bridge crossing the river.
From there, I went a small distance upstream on the east bank, before turning around, and going back downstream along the east bank.
It was mid-afternoon when I reached the car park on the old Kenmare Road, where I parked. I decided to head back down towards the car park on the N71, to see if I can get some images on the Owengarriff river downstream of Torc Waterfall, before going back up to the bridge upstream of Torc Waterfall, to do the outro section – a recording that will end up towards the end of the video.
By the time I had finished the outro, it was about 5:30pm – an “ideal” time to finish up, and head in to Killarney. It was still near the end of the high season in Killarney, so traffic was quite busy in the evenings then, which meant that by the time I reached the town centre in Killarney, it was nearly 6:30pm, after which time parking is free. Went for a walk around the town centre, before going for some fish and chips, and then making my way home.
When I got home following a photoshoot, the drill is the same – transfer all the images and video files from the cameras onto the computer, pick out the best still images and then start editing the video. Once again, I used Blender – an open-source program for 3D modelling, but also for VFX and video editing – for this process. For this video, I built up a small library of user-defined transitions to apply between video clips. I may make a video of how I did this, in the future. As I said in my post on Carrauntoohil, Blender’s transitions library leaves much to be desired.
On the day I was there, the weather was favourable, with sunny spells and the odd bit of cloud for the most part. Had it been raining, the boulders and rocks, especially those that have any moss on them would have been more slippery, not just near the waterfalls, but also anywhere on the river or river bank.
You will notice that in the video, there are a couple of video clips where the camera appears a few inches above water surface. These shots involve the use of a GoPro mounted on the end of a selfie stick, which I am using to hold the GoPro out over the river, and me on the river bank. And a microfibre cloth, to dry your lens, as well as a rain sleeve won’t go astray because chances are, your camera will get wet when you are near a waterfall.