Urban Waterfall

In my ongoing effort to explore the various urban environs of downtown Seattle, today I spent some time roaming the Jim Ellis Freeway Park. The park was designed to mask the noise emanating from I-5 as it runs through the commercial corridor surrounding the Washington Convention Center. It features numerous waterfalls, fountains, and sculptures and is actually quite nice given the amount of traffic roaring beneath.

This is the largest waterfall and is the focal point of an "urban canyon" that twists and turns through concrete formations up the incline adjacent to Seneca St.

The blur effect was achieved with a .8 sec (not 1/8) shutter speed and by stopping my aperture down to f/25 at ISO 100. I find that a shutter speed between 1/2 second and 1 second works best for blurring water. Anything longer washes out the detail which renders the water into a formless white blob. I also used a polarizing filter to cut down the light which enabled me to get a slow shutter speed during bright daylight.