496 - Machine Falls
Today we visited Machine Falls, which might be the most badass name for a waterfall I’ve ever heard.
Seriously. Who comes up with these names? If I had to guess, I would assume it would be the first guy who found it... But then you get sometimes get waterfalls named dumb shit like “West Meade Waterfall.” There’s no way someone decided to name a waterfall something like that. It sounds like something the government would make up.
Anyway.
Today’s adventure was at a waterfall, if you haven’t guessed yet. And this place actually turned out to be epic. To be honest I’ve never heard anything about Tennessee my entire life, besides its infamous country music scene. Even after doing landscape photography for almost 5 years now, I’ve never heard Tennessee mentioned once.
Therefore it was a pretty big shock to my system when I discovered that there’s waterfalls everywhere here. Looking at the map, I realized this place might be like Oregon in terms of its scenery. We decided our first waterfall to be Machine Falls, purely because it was the closest to us.
We showed up mid-day and waited until the sunlight dipped down a bit. The hike was about a mile, maybe even less. Easy stuff.
When we arrived the first thing that I noticed was the trees hanging over the top of the waterfall. I prefer to shoot waterfalls that don’t have the sky right above the top of them, because masking that blown out sky is always a challenge to me.
Therefore my first tip is to look on Google Maps and determine if a waterfall has tree coverage above it… This will make your editing and composition significantly easier upon arrival.
Obviously I wouldn’t entirely rule out waterfalls that don’t have tree coverage above them, but it’s something to keep in mind if you’re trying to decide between a few waterfalls.
The first shot I got was an overview of the entire thing, which is currently the wallpaper on my laptop. So sexy:
“The Washing Machine”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
[ISO 160 ~ 17mm ~ f/13 ~ 0.6s]
(Want a Print? Get it here.)
As you can see, those green trees above provided a nice cover to the sunlight trying to burn through. One thing I do to reduce that harshness of light even more is to create an Orton Effect in that area. By this I mean I basically blur the light (through a luminosity mask) so it looks more glowy.
I think my favorite thing about this waterfall is how the water almost looks like spider webs dripping down.
Notice how I also positioned the main (initial) water drip directly in the center of the shot. Subconscious shit like this makes it feel that more surreal.
Moving on, I wanted to do a shot in portrait mode. Something I don’t do nearly enough that I really should get on the ball with more.
I found the biggest rock that was protruding out and decided I’d pair it next to this large stream of water pouring down. Check this out:
“Extra Cold Cycle”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
[ISO 250 ~ 17mm ~ f/11 ~ 1s]
(Want a Print? Get it here.)
In this shot I was experimenting with the idea of two foreground subjects- the water stream and rock sticking out. Almost like a pyramid shape… Two lower subjects holding up one bigger subject.
I realized the eye is attracted to the photos' brightest points initially, but hey it still looks fantastic in my book. I’m starting to think that the whole “lead the eye through ONE pathway” photo rule might not be universal.
In addition, I warped the rock to make it more 3D and in your face. Very subtly in Photoshop. Never underestimate the power of the warp tool to clean up your compositions.
And with that the shoot closed out. Felt good to be back in nature again shooting. Stay tuned… More waterfalls on the way.
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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