Waterfalls

It was photos of waterfalls that inspired my first photos and they continue to be a mesmerizing force for my camera.

Breathless
BreathlessIguazu Falls Iguazu, Argentina In 2009 I spent 10 days traveling around in Argentina. Although we saw some amazing things my absolute favorite part of the trip was the 2 days we spent at Iguazu Falls. At the border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay are a majestic collection of over 300 waterfalls. We spent 3 nights at an amazing hotel run by the nicest and most helpful brother and sister pair. I also ate one of the tastiest meals I've ever eaten: a delicious steak the size of my hand and 2 inches thick, 3 appetizers, 2 bottles of wine, and dessert all for about $20! I spent 2 days exploring the waterfalls. As the water cascades down the Iguazu River there are a number of locations with gigantic waterfalls. Trails along the side of the bank provide viewpoints to watch the momentous amount of water flow past. I even hopped aboard a powerful inflatable boat and took a tour into the waterfalls. This was my favorite photo of the falls. Here you can see the following waterfalls. From left to right: San Martin Island, Salto San Martin, Salto Mbigua, Salto Bernabe Mendez, and on the very bottom right, Salto Bossetti Nikon D80 w/Nikkor 17-80mm f/3.5: 26mm, f/10, ISO 200

Casper's Playground
Spirit Falls Columbia River Gorge, Washington When I set out for the Columbia River Gorge I had one thing on my mind: Wildflowers! I’d been to this area, just outside of Portland, a few times to shoot waterfalls and I was excited to spend my time photographing something different. Unfortunately the flowers had a different plan. They were all dead, dying, wind blown or just ugly. Not a good year for flower photography. :( Willie and I had spent the day shooting waterfalls with some friends but we were determined to make a full day of waterfalls. Neither of us had been to Spirit Falls and we loved the turquoise blue water and decided to make the hike down to this beautiful waterfall. There’s no real trail to get down to Spirit Falls. Follow the well worn path in the shoal rock and eventually you get to the falls. We just missed a few kayakers making the run (which woulda been awesome to watch!) down the falls. It took a bit of searching to figure out how to get the classic view but eventually we found the small waterfall that everyone climbs down and made our way into position. I decided to include some of the leaves, moss, and rock on the left so that they would provide some contrast with the awesomely turquoise water (which was made possible by a nice blue sky day). Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8: 17mm, f/8, 0.4 sec, ISO 100

Mr. Sentinel and his Fiery Falls
Horsetail Falls, Fire Falls, at Night Yosemite National Park, CA I first photographed Yosemite National Park's "Fire Falls" in 2011. Although Galen Rowell might be the first person to photograph this, it was John Harrison's photo that inspired me to go see it myself. I was mesmerized when the clouds parted and the falls lit up as if someone had stuck a match under it. I went home and created a computer program to indicate exactly when it would happen each year and I've been using it to help me (and others) come see the falls ever since. Hordes of people visit Horsetail Falls in February when the setting sun causes the waterfall to glow but most don't know that the moon can do it as well. Willie and I returned a few months later, in April 2011, to photograph the moon lighting up the falls. I ran the computer program through the next 50 years and it became clear ... the moonlit Fire Falls is a rare event. First, the moon has to be in the right portion of the sky and it needs to be low in elevation to cast an orange light; the sun also has to be low enough in the horizon to not wash out the light of the moon. Next, there needs to be a cloudless night. Lastly, there needs to be an actual waterfall flowing from snow melting off the top of El Capitan. While the moon may be in the right part of the sky each year, most often this occurs in May and June when the waterfall has stopped flowing. With all the snow we've had this year I knew it was a possibility that things might line up properly. The May occurrence was ruined by a large snowstorm but it was also a blessing because it created just the extra bit of snow to cause a trickle of water to flow in Horsetail Falls in June. Most photographers take photos of the Fire Falls from 2 locations: either near the El Capitan Picnic grounds or from a spot along the riverbank off Southside Drive. Lately I've seen photos where people scrambled up the south wall of the valley, which provides a beautiful wider view of the scene. Although Sentinel Dome provides a perfect line-up, I've never seen a photo from here since the road to Sentinel is closed in the winter and the snowshoe up to it is grueling. This June occurrence was my chance to do something new! As far as I know, this photo is the first of the Fire Falls taken from Sentinel Dome! (if someone else beat me to it, I'd love to see it) I left work at 3pm and picked up Jeff, who had decided to join me at the last second. We arrived at Glacier Point at 10pm, napped for 2 hours and then hiked to the top of Sentinel Dome. We took photos for 4 hours, slept for another 2, and then drive home. I was back at work by 11am! In 2011 I had learned that photographing this scene is *hard*: focusing in the dark is difficult and with so little light, it pushes the boundaries of the camera and lens. We arrived early knowing we'd want time to setup and get things right. I also brought a lightweight chair and some beer with me so I could sit and enjoy the scene. Sure enough, just as I had predicted, the trickle of a falls lit up beautifully from 2:45am to 3:15am. The view from Sentinel Dome is spectacular and I'm so glad I could share it with someone because it was breathtaking (even with only a trickle of water). It's a much wider scene than the 2 popular locations which allowed me to make the photograph really feel like it was nighttime. From the Dome you can see into the Valley, with Cathedral Peaks on the left, El Capitan towards the middle, Horsetail Falls on the right and the town lights of Coulterville in the background. The warm night brought a haze into the air that created small light rays as the moon set in the sky. From up here we had a perfect view of the moon crossing from left to right as it sunk towards the horizon; we could see the hills it has to stay above in order for Horsetail to glow. The trees below Sentinel Dome created a perfect "frame" at the bottom of the photo. Although I wish there had been more water in the falls, Jeff and I will remember this night for the rest of our lives! Nikon D850 w/Nikkor 24-70mm: 50mm, f/3.5, 20 sec, ISO 800

Choo Choo Train
Choo Choo TrainThe Subway Hike Zion National Park, Utah When I visited Zion National Park in 2011 one of the hikes that I absolutely loved was The Subway. In fact, I went so far as to call it my most favorite hike I've ever done! Willie, Yan, and I had hiked the Narrows the day before and also found it to be equally amazing. Yan, having heard me raving about the Subway insisted that we head here on our second day in the park. I wanted to try something new, specifically hike to Kanarra Creek, but Willie and Yan convinced me that emerald pools and glowing walls would be worth it. The Subway it was! We arrived at the parking lot quite early and were shocked to see so many cars had already arrived! It was decided to see if we could pass *all* of them and we took off almost at a run at times. Other groups came and went in our wake as we flew up the Virgin River towards the Subway. About halfway through the hike I realized that our blistering pace was causing me to not enjoy the hike at all and I forced Willie to slow down so we could take in the scenery. This also gave us a chance to look back and realize that the clear skies we were hoping for were being covered with clouds … not good for glowing walls in the Subway. On the other hand, it was perfect for photographing Archangel Falls located slightly before the Subway. Despite our fast pace to the Subway we were the second group to arrive. We had to wait for them to finish taking their pictures and then waited some more while they got out of ours. Turns out that waiting was well worth it because the clouds that had been blocking the beautiful glow inside the Subway disappeared for about 15 minutes and we frantically snapped photographs. A flash flood 2 months earlier deposited sand inside the Subway and left the emerald pools looking yellow and boring. It took some "special sauce" in post processing to bring back an emerald color to the pools. We brought a bag of leaves with us and were able to get beautiful some beautiful swirling motion in the water, which had eluded me when I photographed this in 2011. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 24mm, f/16, 8 sec, ISO 50 B+W Circular Polarizer

Muddy Reward
Muddy RewardHankapai'ai Falls Kauai, Hawaii Whenever I tell someone that I'm going to the beautiful island of Kauai they usually ask me "Are you hiking the Na Pali coast?!" On my first trip to Kauai I ran out of time and never got to do the hike along the Na Pali coast. Going back a second time, I made sure to do all the things I didn't have time for before, and hiking to Hanakapi'ai Falls was towards the top of the list! The Kalalau Trail starts at the end of the road at Ke'e Beach and goes up-hill and then down hill for 2 miles until you hit Hanakapi'ai Beach. This is the point at which if you want to keep hiking the Na Pali coast you need to get a permit and backpacking is recommended. From the beach it's 2 miles inland to the waterfalls. Once you hit the falls, you turn back and retrace your steps until you get back to Ke'e Beach. Originally we wanted to plan our hike along the Kalalau Trail so that it would coincide with a dry day before, giving enough time for the wet trail to dry out a bit. Unfortunately we packed to much in and had to do the hike on a specific day. We set out early and immediately began wondering what we were getting ourselves into: the very beginning of the hike was already slippery. About a mile into the hike it started to POUR on us. Luckily my ClikElite camera bag had a rain cover or my gear might have been completely soaked/ruined. For a couple minutes we thought about taking cover under some trees but realized quickly it was useless and we kept hiking in the rain. In typical Hawaii fashion the rain stopped about 15 minutes later and eventually we made our way across the river and down to Hanakapi'ai Beach. After a short break we started the 2 mile trek inland. We hadn't gone more than 200 feet when the trail turned from hard packed dirt to wet slushy mud. At one point we gave up trying to find dry land and just started trudging through the mud. The rest of the trail includes crossing a stream another half a dozen times and eventually my friends gave up completely on trying to keep their feet dry and just trudged through everything (I might add that my feet stayed completely dry on this hike!) Tired, wet, cold, and frustrated we finally made it to Hanakapi'ai Falls! And man is it a beauty! The waterfall drops 300 feet down, and bounced off numerous cliff rocks as it falls -- some of which you can see here. I took a few quick photos, took a group shot of us, and then scarfed down some lunch before we hit the trail to return home. Nikon D700 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 70mm, f/20, 0.4 sec, ISO 100 B+W Circular Polarizer

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