374 - Proxy Falls
*Note: This adventure also features an in-field vlog.
Proxy Falls was insane. There. I said it. Probably the tallest waterfall I've seen in the Pacific Northwest since Wilson Falls.
The trail in is way sicker than your average. It's a 1.2 mile loop through a ancient ass lava bed. Which means all the lava rocks paint a brilliant black canvas for fall colored trees to grow through them. It was seriously magical. Check out that vlog if you wanna see footage of that.
I thought about getting a shot in the area, but didn't see anything right off the bat and I was super excited to see Proxy Falls. So we ran along.
Finally we arrived, and it was even more epic than I imagined. For some reason I had really high expectations for this place, because I've heard it name dropped so many times.
The best thing about Proxy Falls is that you can get right up to it. Like RIGHT up in front of it. The whole place has a church kind of vibe. I know that sounds strange for a waterfall, but it gave me that impression- some type of larger power presenting itself to you.
So obviously the move was to shoot it with a wide angle. I searched around for the leading line of water with the most rapids and set up shop. Here's what I came out with:
Pretty standard shot. I'm happy with it, but lately I've been having an existential crisis as to if I'm overdoing it with Photoshop or not. I'm still relatively new to it, and I don't wanna take the edits TOO FAR. However, I do like the "fantasy" feel of what I've been creating lately, so I think I'm just going to go with it and ride it out. You have to cross the line just to find out where it lays.
Next up, I needed the ole' Instagram selfie:
Basically the same shot as before, except aligned for square crop. Honestly a super sketchy shot to get too... I had to walk across a wet log to stand up there and it was scary as shit. I was literally shaking because it was like 10 feet in the air.
The things I do for goddamn Instagram. Some days I'm tempted to delete all my socials and just post on my website/portfolio so I don't have to worry about crops and comments and algorithms. It's all just fucking annoying.
OK enough ranting. Now for my FAVORITE shot of this shoot. I wanted to get some type of foreground shot that looked "3D." Like it was coming out of the camera and right into your face. So I looked for any type of plant that had a high depth from the ground, and this is what I came up with:
![“4D Drip”Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mmISO 50 ~ 17mm ~ f/11 ~ .6sEdited in Lightroom + Photoshop [Luminosity Masks + Exposure Blend + Focus Stack]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5edc5f893b278d5f164fac7d/1630874635294-GRVSW9FMSSVJ90TWGV00/Proxy+Falls)
I think the general public will like the first shot I got in this shoot better because there's more color, but I really liked the concept idea here. Experimental stuff is what has been capturing my interest lately, not the standard "I know it works" shots. I want challenges and depth.
Overall I had a solid time here. Wide angle heaven, and the skies weren't a problem at all. There so much going on with the waterfall that you didn't have to fit them in the frame to get a complete shot.
Alright I'm gonna go delete all my social media. Bye. JK. Kinda. Fuck this.
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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