Ahhh, The Welcomed Rains

Sunday, December 4, 2016

The Softer Side

If you have been following my blog, you will know that here in NC, we have been in one of the worst droughts I can remember since October.  We have finally started to get some rain here recently, and while it is not enough to make up for the weeks without, it is a start.  Looking at the weekend forecast, it appeared that today was going to be cloudy pretty much all day, with passing rain showers in the morning and afternoon.  That pretty much makes for perfect waterfall photography in my books.  Having had some recent rains, I figured that there might actually be some water in the falls for a change.

When the morning arrived, the forecast had even more rain (and actually some snow) in the morning.  It was enough to keep me at home for a few extra hours until it slacked off.  I didn't mind because all the rain that was falling was going to be flowing over the rocks when I needed it to.  At about 10 o'clock or so, I loaded the truck up and headed out to Hanging Rock State Park which is fairly close, and when it comes to waterfall photography, it has the most bang for the buck.

All the way out there, I was getting rained on pretty steady, but it was not enough to keep me from going on with my plans.  I've done a lot of photography in light rain, and that really doesn't scare me at all.  In fact, it is better to have rain with waterfalls because it helps to keep the ground wet to help balance exposure.  The only time it really gets to be a problem is when I am miles away from the truck and a downpour catches me.  I've been through several of those as well.  Toni even got caught in one when we were photographing Roaring Fork Falls about a year ago.

By the time I arrived, the rain had pretty much stopped, so I was able to get working immediately.  I headed out to the Upper Cascades first since that is probably my favorite spot in the park these days.  I wanted to make sure I had time to work that waterfall just in case the rain returned.

Dream Weaver

The hike was simple until I got to the bottom of the stairs to get down to ground level.  Remember when I said that rain was good for waterfall photography?  Well, there are always trade-offs.  In this case the rocks were nice and wet which made for slippery footing.  It took a little doing to get into position without falling.  Fortunately, I was all alone so nobody laughed at me being overly careful with a heavy backpack on my back.  It wasn't long before I had the camera built up, and fitted with my 16-35mm lens for an overall shot of the falls.  I've photographed this waterfall on so many occasions I pretty much know where to put the tripod.  I followed tradition for the first little bit and found my "standard" compositions.  I shot them because I wanted to try some different post processing with them, so I wanted a bit of a different rendition of my favorite shots.  I was really happy with what I was seeing thanks to a polarizer and my ND filter which gave me about 13 seconds of exposure.  

Nature's Movements

While the water was much fuller than I was expecting, there was still ample detail in the flow which caught my attention more than once while I was photographing the "postcard" shot.  Once I was finished working the broad scene, I swapped lenses to be able to use my 70-200mm which is great at pulling out the details of waterfalls.  Since I was wanting as much detail as possible, I ditched the ND filter so that my shutter speed would stay around three to four seconds for the close up shots.  I also shot with B&W in mind since there wasn't really any color present in these isolations.  There were a few different areas that really caught my eye and provided me with some compositions within compositions.

Dream Channel

By this point, the rain was coming back and I found that I was having to wipe down the polarizer after every few shots.  This was one of those times I wished that I didn't have to use a slightly oversized filter preventing me from using a lens hood.  Well, to keep money and weight down, I use a set of 82mm filters which fit my largest lenses, while I use an adapter ring on my long lens which is 77mm in diameter.  Not much difference, but enough that my hood won't work.  Oh well, it wasn't a big problem to dry the filter off occasionally, and I was getting some really good shots at this point.

Simply Complex

Intimate Cascade

Not all of my isolations called for monochrome treatment, however.  When there was color in the frame from the vegetation, I shot it with color in mind.  It is not that I prefer one over the other, but for this particular waterfall, each composition called for something specific which is why you are not seeing a color version as well as a black and white version.  Each is represented the way the scene dictates, and I felt that was enough.

In the hour that I was at the Upper Cascades, I shot some 35 images.  For the most part, each one of them was a specific composition as the lighting was so uniform, I didn't have to change the exposure except for creative reasons.  It is a lot of fun to work in this kind of light because it is a set it and forget it affair.  I get to spend all my energy finding the compositions which really increases my hit rate.

When that hour was up, I had photographed pretty much everything that I wanted to with the Upper Cascades and still had plenty of time to hit the other falls in the park.  The rain wasn't too terrible either.  I made the quick hike back to the parking lot and went to the other side with thoughts of Hidden Falls and Window Falls going through my head.

The next stop on my journey was Hidden Falls, which is...well....hidden on the trail to Window Falls.  I wasn't sure how much water flow this one was going to have since it is a small little cascade under the best conditions.  Well, when I got there, there wasn't really much to the overall waterfall.  In fact, since I have photographed it many times, I didn't even bother with an overall photograph.  What I have is already much better than what I was seeing in front of me.  However, I haven't done much with my 70-200mm lens with this particular waterfall.  Since I was already in the mindset to grab intimate shots of the waterfalls, that was just what I set out to do.

Down the Mossy Steps

There were really only two sections of this waterfall that I found particularly interesting.  There was a segment at the bottom which was visually active, but had too many distractions around the action which detracted from the image, as well as providing too many scale cues.  The section that I found most interesting was part of the primary drop.  The textures of the moss contrasted perfectly with the flow of the water.  The evenly spaced rocky steps gave me that perfect rhythm to the image, and the brown of the rock below balanced the greens along the sides.  This was the story that Hidden Falls was trying to tell today.

Having told the story of Hidden Falls the best that I could, I packed the camera up and made the rest of the hike to the Window Falls.  The hardest part of this hike was the steps that I had to go down...and back up which were wet and slippery.  I was hearing some water, but really wasn't sure the magnitude of what I was hearing.  This one is a real gamble since I've seen it all dried up, and overflowing at completely random times.  There is not usually a middle ground for this one, but I was hearing water at least. 

When I arrived, I saw that there was a slight trickle at least.  It wasn't impressive, but there was water dropping from the ledge.  Typically, I would set up the wide angle and shoot it from either the left or the right.  Not only was the water flow terrible for that, there was so much debris along the base of the falls now.  I wasn't sure I could get a pleasing composition that incorporated the actual waterfall.  I wasn't really all that heartbroken because with the slight trickle of water, the story was not in the waterfall itself...the story was in the details once again.

A Tender Moment

What my eyes were seeing was the faint spray hitting the mossy rocks below.  This was where the action was, and this was my story.  I moved into a position where I could also include the large rock in the background, keeping it positioned above the frothy water.  My 70-200mm lens was the perfect choice for the composition.  The exposure was pretty simple here since the top of the frame was in the shadows, and the light was hitting the water as it dropped.  I just had to be careful with the shutter speed which was kept at 3.2 seconds to keep from losing the detail in the water.

I tried some other compositions as well, but none had quite the visual balance of this one.  Once again, the photograph was actually deep inside of the subject.  That is one of the things that I am enjoying in my current interpretation of photography.  I am trying to go for the different pictures, especially since so many of the subjects I'm shooting have been shot so many times in the past.  My workhorse lens is quickly becoming the 70-200mm which is one that I would rarely use years ago.  I'm finding that narrowing the view is the best way to unlock so many creative doors.

I had wanted to check out the Lower Cascades, but decided against it.  I wanted to get home and start processing the 63 images I shot so that I would be able to have a relaxing evening before going to work tomorrow.  I was very excited to find that I had eight keepers from that batch which is well above my average.  Now I have to figure out which ones will be a part of the gallery which is always a fun task.