I awoke on this morning to the soft trickle of rainwater falling from the vibrant leaves above my tent. It was cold, wet, and a bit windy, but in spite of these conditions, I was eager to get to the falls and begin shooting. I arrived at the falls just as it was light enough to see the perfectly autumnal trees begging to be photographed. I got out of my car and began the very short walk to the falls with the strong feeling it was going to be a great morning of photography. I was convinced I would come away with a couple of great shots, but what I got out of that morning was so much more than just a few photos. I walked away with a feeling of peace and a re-invigorated motivation for photography.

I had visited the falls with a good friend that previous afternoon, scouting a couple of compositions I wanted to shoot in the morning. So I went into the morning with good idea of the compositions I wanted to shoot. I shot the first composition I had in mind (which is to be discussed in a later blog post) and quickly went over to shoot the composition you see above. This scene proved to be a little tricky to capture in a single exposure for how I wanted the photo to look and feel. I knew I wanted to retain some detail in the main cascade of the falls, but also smooth out the motion of the river as it swirled toward me. In addition to this, there was a bit of wind which was making it difficult to get any sharp images of the fall foliage. What I ended up doing was exposure blending three shots together to achieve all of this and overall I think I did a pretty good job. The first exposure was taken to capture sharpness in the trees and detail in the shadows. The wind had died down just long enough for a .5-second exposure to not only capture enough detail in the shadows but also capture sharpness in the leaves. The second exposure was slightly longer and was used to capture the motion in the falls as well as retain some detail in the water. The third and final shot was a 30-second exposure to really smooth out and exaggerate the motion of the flowing river.

All the while I was taking these exposures a light wintry mix of snow and rain fell from the sky. These conditions continued for the next hour or so as I shot this photo. These conditions don’t seem like the most pleasant way to spend time in the outdoors, but I was loving every second of it. I sat alone with my camera, taking in the sights and sounds from a remarkably beautiful place. The slight chill in the air, the slow falling snow and rain, and the harmonious roar from the falls made for an extraordinarily peaceful morning. I hadn’t felt that level of inner peace and tranquility in quite some time. It felt as if time had stood still, and in that moment, I wanted nothing more than to be exactly where I was. On the edge of a river with my camera, capturing a scene straight out of a painting.