377 - Drift Creek Falls
*Note: This adventure also features an in-field vlog.
Alright, alright, alright! We're at Drift Creek Falls today, which is a strange name for a waterfall. I immediately thought of Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift the moment I read it. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Actually... now that I think about it... the road up to the trailhead would be insane to drift. It's full of curves and hills. Maybe that's why they call it that.
Anyway, the catch of this waterfall is this massive suspension bridge floating above it. Did I mention it's a mile and a half in the middle of the Oregon woods? Logistically I wasn't sure how a picture was going to work out, because I assumed the angle would be limited due to the bridge and canyon waterfall. Challenge accepted.
We started our hike in around 90 minutes before sunset, per usual. Honestly a super easy hike in, despite the dozens of reviews on Google Maps calling the trail "strenuous." I have this theory that once trails get popular enough, you get all the normies popping in and complaining. AKA the fat people who don't normally hike, which skews the reviews.
Needless to say, we got to the end of the trail in like 20 minutes. And it was INSANE. I honestly have no fucking idea how they got such a big suspension bridge to the middle of nowhere. Walking across it was vaguely sketchy... The thing swings and is *very* high. Probably my fear of heights just kicking in again. But we survived.
First off, I snagged a shot on the suspension bridge, like so:
Honestly these types of shots are becoming ridiculously easy for me to get. Almost feels like no thought was put into it, and it was just an animatronic robot in me taking a photo I know will look good. I'VE DONE SO MANY OF THESE TYPES OF SHOTS. Basically pull out the greens, center perfectly, add vignette, boom. Formulaic.
So that didn't exactly PEAK my interest. What was calling my name was the challenge of the waterfall... How do I get this strangely small waterfall in frame from all the way up here?
Upon further inspection, it turns out you can walk down a sketchy rope pathway to get down the canyon. Which I did... And it became increasingly obvious to me how busy this place gets by looking at the texture on the rocks. They were slippery even dry, because they were so eroded from the massive amount of traffic flowing through the area.
Luckily we were the only people there right now, because the sun was setting and the normies were off the trail paying 11 bucks for a bowl of clam chowder.
I spent some time trying to find the perfect composition. I wanted something unique- a little different this time. The first thing that stood out to me was this massive rock foreground. My mind thought of the title "Plate Tectonics" before I even lined up the shot, which I knew was a surefire sign I *really* liked the composition.
Normally, I have smaller foregrounds, and this one was MASSIVE... In order to make it work I had to dodge and burn the rock extremely hard to make it look 3D, and like an actual object of interest instead of just dirt. Check this shot out:
I took a long exposure version and a short exposure version. Honestly, I couldn't decide until right now which version I liked better. Haley liked the long exposure, but something in me liked the fast shutter shot.
Ironically enough, it was my dad the other day who said I should do some non-long exposure waterfall shots, which at the time I thought was insane. You're "supposed" to always do long exposure shots of waterfalls! But then I realized why... why am I "supposed" to only do long exposures? So I said fuck it and broke the law.
But in order to break it well, I needed a FAST shutter. One that REALLY froze the water in mid air so it looked intentional. Otherwise I just looked like I didn't know how to use a shutter on a camera. Medium shutters = cell phone snaps.
The difference between long and fast shutter waterfall shots in my mind is this... Longer means more elegance, peacefulness, calmness, surreal... While faster means more chaos, choppiness, randomness, intensity... Which I felt fit well with the broken tectonic plate in front of it.
So there ya have it... My realization of the day. Thanks dad.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
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