434 - Cascadas de Tamasopa
We didn’t even realize it but we showed up to a waterpark today, thinking it was a waterfall nature hike. Mexico’s full of surprises.
I mean, at this point I expect anything and everything to happen when we show up somewhere. It’s never what we think it is. Today’s shoot was at Cascadas de Tamasopo.
Now that we’d left the “desert” regions of Mexico, we’d begun to head up to waterfall country. I didn’t officially realize it until the night before this adventure, where we slept in a random town and I had my windows open at night. I heard this loud screeching sound, and thought it was someone working. Turns out it was just the birds out here. They sound like one of those rainforest soundtracks you hear on a meditation app.
The funny this is that everyone always just wants to SEE new things when they travel. But they forget that you also HEAR, SMELL, TOUCH, AND TASTE new things. Everything is different. It’s a full sensory shock to the system.
But let’s get back to the shoot. We arrived at Cascadas de Tamasopo at 8AM, right when they opened. It was completely empty, and we strolled right into the park. What we saw changed my concept of theme parks forever.
Not only are there MASSIVE waterfalls everywhere (the reason we came,) but there was also rope swings, ledges to jump off, obstacle courses to navigate, and hammocks galore. I don’t know how we missed the memo on Google Maps.
It was a waterpark seamlessly fused with nature.
I got ridiculously excited. I grew up going to waterparks, and I’d argue 20% of my blood is chlorinated water. But my photography brain stepped in all of a sudden. I need to take PHOTOS first… While the lighting good. THEN I can play. This was going to be a test in patience...
It started off a fairly confusing place to shoot, because there was waterpark distractions everywhere. Chairs, stands, signs… It made it difficult to look “natural.” I decided to start small.
First thing I noticed was this water feature:
“The Golden Egg”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 50 ~ 61mm ~ f/14 ~ .4s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
I loved the mini waterfalls surrounding it, and made the one rock look like a golden egg for kicks.
I soon found another “mini” scene, with a twig as the center subject:
“Stick Figure”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 50 ~ 24mm ~ f/10 ~ .6s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Definitly has Landscape Photo of the Year vibes. For some reason contests love these artsy little scenes.
You’re probably wondering why I don’t have any shots of the big waterfalls so far. And that’s because they were completely blown out from the start. Even at 8AM… They faced directly towards the sun, and since they were so large, there wasn’t any tree cover to hide them.
It sucked not seeing them in good light, but we didn’t have a choice to get there any earlier, they were closed. Oh well. That’s how she goes sometimes.
I began to grow impatient. I knew I should get some more shots, but I was too excited to mess around in the water. I could barely focus anymore- I hadn’t been swimming at a park like this in AGES.
Fuck it. We ran to the van and changed, and basically had the time of our lives for the next four hours. Yes, I’m not joking. FOUR hours. There was so much to do there, it was insane. And since it was a Tuesday, we had most of the place to ourselves.
The thing I love about Mexico is that they don’t hold your hand. Half the features of this park were sketchy as fuck, and it was all under a “use at your own risk” veil. This place couldn’t exist in America for one reason alone- they’d be sued within a week.
By the time we were done swimming, the lighting had substantially better on the big waterfalls. The sun wasn’t directly hitting them anymore, and some cloud cover rolled in. Yessssss.
I decided to bust out the 70-200mm lens, and get a cutesy couple shot of us under one of the waterfalls:
Completely different vibe than the other shots. One thing that’s hard for me to do mentally is shoot different styles in one session. I love doing it, but my OCD kicks in and sometimes I feel like I should stick to one “vibe” for an adventure.
For example, this shot screams “instafamous travel couple,” while the other shots calmly declare “intimate fine art landscape photography.” Usually these genres have very different artists and audiences.
But I say fuck that. I’m not going to be put into a box, like so many artists in today’s “branded” world.
I’d say that was my biggest realization this shoot, and it’s a thought that’s been bouncing around in my head a lot lately. I need to continue to fight the urge to fall into one category forever, or I risk losing my originality.
That’s pretty much all for this adventure. I had an absolute blast.
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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