Waterfall
June 26th, 2011
Yes, Kentucky, there is a waterfall. And it’s a beautiful one. But, our visit there was not without a few complications.
First, when we finally had made our way down the trail and arrived at the waterfall that was our destination, we found it was not free of other people. In fact, we were pretty sure that was going to be the case since the church summer camp group of 8-year-olds and their teachers had passed us along the trail. They were all over the place enjoying the water and the rocks. Now this is not the most visited waterfall in Kentucky by any means. It’s quite possible we and this class were the only visitors there that day, maybe that week. But, of course, we were there at the same time. So we just made ourselves comfortable and waited. Eventually the kids left and headed back up the trail. Don’t know if they saw the rattlesnake on their way out, but I kind of doubt it since I think we might have heard the screams.
The second problem was the sun. As you can see, this waterfall has quite a deep overhang and that overhang was in deep shadow. For most of the time we were there, and for most of the photos I took, the sun was out and the contrast range between the sunny foreground and the shadows under the cliff was just too much for the camera. I thought about doing some blended exposures and took some bracketed exposures to try that, but I’m just not that happy with those photos anyway. The sun was just too harsh, and the light was still not all that nice, even with the contrast issues dealt with.
But, right before we headed back up the trail for our encounter with the rattlesnake, the sun went behind a cloud for a few minutes and I was able to get this shot. I still had to work on it in photoshop for a while, but the info was there in the file, and the light was pleasant at least for a brief moment. We probably would have worked on some other angles and poses, but the cloud passed and it was getting later than we had planned anyway because of the delay while we waited to have the place to ourselves. So, I guess a return visit to this spot will be on the agenda for the future. Maybe I’ll find a day that isn’t quite 100 degrees too.
Thanks, Ikaros Ex, for a great adventure and shoot. We’ll do it again before too long.
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