354 - Sol Duc Falls
Sol Duc Falls is the hardest to remember name of all time. Not even kidding I've messed up the spelling probably 10+ times.
Luckily, this place has a sick ass legend behind it to make up for that. Sol Docs Falls is located in a valley, where, according to Native American legend, two dragons used to fight for territory. One day they had an epic fight in the highlands, and knocked out all the trees in the upper part of the mountains to form tree-line. They ripped each other's skin off in fury, and it scattered on the rocks to form lichen and moss. Yet after days of fighting, neither dragon could win. In a fit of sadness, they both retreated to their caves and cried hot tears, which fueled the waterfalls and hot springs in the region.
I like to call myself a realist, but then I hear stories like that and say fuck it science is fake.
Like the last adventure at Snug Harbor (AKA Marymere and Madison Falls...), we aimed to arrive about 1.5 hours after sunrise to shoot the scene. If you didn't read the last post, we REALLY didn't want the sun to hit the falls and blow them out, we wanted pure mood. So we had to get there early enough to have light in the forest, but not harsh sunlight.
Except a problem happened. Driving in, the van begins to smell like HEAVY dogfood, and I'm starting to feel nauseous just from the smell. And it gets worse. At one point it felt like there was literal shit up my nose.
So I decide to move the dog food into the bathroom of the van where I can cut off it's smell. And proceed to step in a massive puddle on the floor. I look up, and realize the refrigerator is dripping like crazy. I open the door in horror.
Soy sauce was everywhere. Every. Fucking. Where.
Realizing that that was the smell we were inhaling and not the dog food, I began to clean up what I could, also realizing that time wasn't exactly on our side for these waterfalls.
If you're into landscape photography, there's a very small window to get the kind of shot you want at a particular place. Once that window's gone, it's not until THE NEXT DAY that you can try again. Jump forward about 20 minutes, we've managed to clean what we can, and decide to jump on the trail and clean up the rest later.
We're walking in, but also kind of rushing. I'm watching light rain down everywhere, and it's a .8 mile hike to the falls. I begin to get nervous. Finally we arrive, and I scope out the scene.
I planned to get two shots here- one of the waterfall from on the bridge, and one overlooking the bridge from below. I snag the first shot no problem. No light in the area yet- here's the shot I got in all it's glory:
“Third Base”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 50 ~ 24mm ~ f/11 ~ 1.3s [2x Time Blend]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Banger. Honestly I had to work some Photoshop magic to make that work. I did a TIME BLEND. Fancy, eh? Basically that means I took two shots- one of the waterfalls with a long shutter speed, and one of the leafs with a short shutter speed because the wind was blowing them like crazy. This allowed me to get beautiful, still leaves, and lushuous flowing water. WOO!
But time was running out for the second shot...
I wanted a shot of the bridge from below, near the river, with the waterfall in the shot also. Now, I had only ever seen this shot online, and could not for the life of me figure out how to get down low enough to nail the shot. Both sides of the river had cliffs. There wasn't any service here, so I couldn't reference anything to get the angle proper.
I probably spent 15 minutes looking frantically for a way down to the river, when the light hit.
Oh, and baby, did it hit. Check this out:
“Manta Rays”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 1250 ~ 24mm ~ f/6.3 ~ 1/250s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Nice little Instagram selfie there. Not the shot I came for, but the shot I deserved. Those light rays are 100% all nat-ur-al. HELL YAH.
The biggest thing I learned here is that those kind of light rays NEED some kind of heavy moisture in the air. In this case, the waterfall mist was enough. I presume fog would work also, but it's now cemented in my brain that that type of light is rare. I know for a fact it's relatively easy to create in Photoshop, but there's something special about seeing it in real life.
But I was still curious how the other shot was taken. Obviously there was no way I could GET that other shot now because the harsh light was here, but it would bother me forever if I didn't figure it out. Turns out I was looking on the WRONG SIDE OF THE BRIDGE. You have to stand just above the waterfall and use the water as a foreground with a wide angle, with the bridge above it in the distance. Oh, and you have to hop a fence to get the shot.
Either way. I got two solid bangers in this shoot, so I'm not disappointed at all. On the way back, I saw all these photographers walking in with tripods, and I felt like telling them they missed the light. But I didn't have the heart to. Gotta wake up early, guys. It's almost required in this genre of photography.
Alright bye!
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