371 - Trail of Ten Falls
*Note: This adventure also features an in-field vlog.
Ten waterfalls in eight miles? Yeah, go ahead and sign me up. Silver Falls State Park is considered the "gem" of Oregon, and rightfully so.
Now, we didn't exactly start this hike "on time." Seeing as it takes us about double/triple as long to complete a hike as a normal person, allotting 3 hours for ten waterfalls over eight miles is cutting it a tad close.
But we made do. Oh, and did we MAKE DO. This trail is fucking amazing. Easily one of my favorite things in Oregon so far. You literally get too WALK UNDER 4 waterfalls. It's insane!
In order to keep this write-up short, I'm just going to talk about the waterfalls we DID photograph. So the first one that caught my eye was Lower North Falls. Mainly because of this weird bent log that went over the top of the entire thing. The ripples coming away from it caught my eye as well... So I decided to do an exposure blend.
I'm not sure if I'm doing more complex techniques now that I need to, order if it's just because I know how to. Maybe the high of knowing Photoshop well will wear off one day, but for now I'm amped about it.
So back to what I was saying... I blended a long exposure of the waterfall with a fast shutter of the ripples in the foreground water to get the best of both worlds. Check this baby out:
“Waterfall Icing”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
(ISO 3200 ~ 41mm ~ f/9 ~ 1/320s) + (ISO 80 ~ 41mm ~ f/11 ~ .5s)
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
And once I got that shot I felt solid about the shoot. At least I got ONE solid shot. I had this weird thing in my mind where I was like I HAVE to get at least one good shot today because there's ten waterfalls. If I don't, I officially suck at photography. Yeah, self-esteem is a bitch sometimes. But today I planned on beating it up.
Next up was Middle North Falls, within which I used the rocks to frame the waterfall. It almost looks like I just cut a bit out of it in Photoshop, but that's all taken in camera- which is why I loved this shot so much. It took me a bit of experimenting with the rocks to nail the composition, but it almost looks like that rock was MEANT for the shot. The frame is so perfect.
And for the final waterfall, North Falls, I took a very strange, complex shot. It was from inside a cave, so the lighting was all sorts of fucked up. I wanted the water to be a fast shutter shot, but I also needed to focus stack all the leaves leading up to it. The only way to get the high shutter shot of the water was to use f/2.8 and 1/250 of a second with ISO 3200, which wasn't exactly good for focus stacking (f/2.8 and ISO 3200 was the problem). I ended up snagging that shot, then taking another three shots at f/9 and ISO 320 for the focus stack. Then exposure blended the focus stack with the water. Fuck that was a lot to write. Check this out:
“Green Drip”
(ISO 320 ~ 17mm ~ f/9 ~ .8s) [x3] + (ISO 3200 ~ 17mm ~ f/2.8 ~ 1/250s)
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I'm honestly extremely proud of that shot. One, because it was so technically complex, and two, because it looks fucking beautiful and isn't a standard "waterfall shot."
Overall, the park was great, even for late summer. I was worried a lot of the waterfalls would be dried up, but only two of the nine we saw weren't flowing. The last fall we didn't have time to hit because it was too dark. But still... 9 waterfalls in one day? Fuck man. That's awesome.
Oh, and one more shot. I took this at the very beginning and loved it. Very fun, but a bit off topic from the waterfall theme:
“Edge of Glory”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 160 ~ 70mm ~ f/11 ~ 1/20s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Ok that’s it. Bye.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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