501 - Fall Creek Falls
Phew, what a day… Haven’t had a proper rainstorm shoot in a loooong time. This one was everything I dreamed it could be and more.
The best part about Tennessee is that it’s so damn hot during the summer that when it rains, it actually feels good. This is a nice change of pace from Colorado (where I grew up,) where the rain is freezing cold.
This is what I had in my mind going into this shoot, as I blindly walked up to a trail knowing damn well it was about to downpour. It was one of those weeks where it rained almost everyday, and the forecast this afternoon was the same.
However, I knew that the best time to shoot would be about an hour before the rain hit, when the clouds were starting to build up and it wasn’t quite wet yet. Take this as a piece of advice for shooting storms.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love a good rain session as much as the next guy, but I can only handle doing long exposure focus stacks in the rain for so long… So I needed at least a few good shots in the bag before I was doing the most technical thing in landscape photography possible.
The destination of choice today was Fall Creeks Falls… Not to be confused with Fall Creek Falls in Oregon, or Falls Creek Falls in Washington. C’mon… whoever’s naming these things needs to get their shit together.
I decided to do the most technical trail first, deemed “The Cable Trail” by locals. It was a steep descent down a cliff using (you guessed it) a steel cable. Being from Colorado, it was a walk in the park to me. But hey, Tennesseeans don’t get out much so the Cable Trail notoriety makes sense.
Once at the bottom, I arrived at a beautiful cliff “bowl” with three different waterfalls, all pouring down into one river. The first thing I noticed was a double set of logs that seemed to point right at the waterfalls. I lined them up in a focus stack and nailed the shot:
“Triple X Falls”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
[ISO 50 ~ 17mm ~ f/20 ~ 1/3s]
(Want a Print? Get it here.)
Notice how we got a nice blue sky in that baby… A rare occurrence for such a big dynamic range. However the sun was being covered by clouds in the opposite direction, so it made it a nice, lighter blue. This is one of the more obvious instances of leading lines that I’ve used, a technique I haven’t mentioned for a minute now. It’s still relevant. But by now it’s so ingrained in my membrane that I incorporate it without even thinking.
Moving along, I decided I’d try my luck with a good old fashioned foreground/background shot. The first thing that stood out to me was these beautiful flowers that almost looked 3D. One thing I’ve been focusing on is trying to find foregrounds that really “pop” in your face. By this, I mean it has up-close leading line components that “pull” you in. For example, in this shot the closest flower acts as that vehicle.
Make sure to focus stack hard on these close-ups… Always take more shots than you think. Or else you’ll get little areas of blur that aren’t in focus when you go to edit.
“Banana Flower Falls”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
[ISO 50 ~ 17mm ~ f/13 ~ 1/6s]
(Want a Print? Get it here.)
At this point, the sky was looking gnarly and I knew it was about to erupt. Welp, I guess I signed up for this. I took in the reality of the situation. I was way down a sketchy steel cable cliff in the middle of a river.
And with that it started pouring. Just absolute buckets of water. And I didn’t even bring a raincoat.
The good thing was that the “bowl” of waterfalls provided some cover, as they had overhanging cliffs. I figured I could stay here for a bit and hope the sky decreased its output.
20 minutes later, and it was the exact same. Fuck.
As a bolt of lightning struck nearby, I had this sudden realization that I’d crossed a mini river to get here that I really didn’t want to start rising. It was already about knee deep on the way in, and I had all my camera gear on my back. If I had to swim across, the gear would be toast.
In my heart I knew it was time. I took my shirt off and started the trek back.
I crossed the river which hadn’t risen at all (there’s my anxious brain at work,) and then climbed up the steel cable cliff slowly but surely. The hill was drenched, but there were enough roots and cables to grip onto. I just prayed the lightning would avoid this giant, gapping steel cable.
A good rule of thumb we always talked about when mountaineering is to have three points of contact at all times on something. Whether this means two hands and a foot or two feet and a hand is up to you. It’ll make your experience exponentially safer if something slips.
I got back to my Prius wet as a salamander and contemplated my life. There still was one more waterfall in this park I wanted to hit, and it was apparently the biggest waterfall in all of Tennessee… I couldn’t miss it. Should I send it now or in the AM?
Fuck it, I thought. Let’s go now. I’m already drenched.
It only took 7 minutes to get there, and the parking lot was .1 miles from the waterfall. I grabbed my gear and 5 minutes later I was looking over the edge of a massive overlook. I’ll let my photo do the explaining:
“Eye of the Forest”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 160 ~ 22mm ~ f/16 ~ 0.5s]
(Want a Print? Get it here.)
What a waterfall… Goddamn. Now, I love this photo for several reasons. For one, it’s so simple. A green forest circle with a waterfall in the middle. Shots like this are just begging for a vignette. I also love the subtle red/green tones in it which were completely natural due to the rock color. I pulled these out slightly in post with a red slider.
Mind you it was raining this whole time, so you can see a bit of a misty cloud on the top. I took another look out to the left, and realized there was a whole canyon next to us. What the…
And there just happened to be a perfect tree hanging off a bluff!
Check this shot out:
“Hanging in There”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 160 ~ 28mm ~ f/10 ~ 1/15s]
(Want a Print? Get it here.)
Honestly that might be one of my favorite photos from this shoot. I had to wait for the misty cloud to line up perfectly behind the tree to give it that nice silhouette. My favorite part is how the mist almost looks like it’s swirling…
Woo! What a sesh.
I ended up walking all the way down to the base of that waterfall in the rain because I knew I wouldn’t be back, however I didn’t get any worthwhile shots. Looking up with a lens in the rain while trying to focus stack just didn’t work out for me. Too much moisture on the lens, it blurred every image I took. An obvious fact… But I didn’t think of it until I was there. Oh well, now I know.
I had an absolute blast shooting in the rain out here. Felt like a giant, warm shower in a beautiful landscape. I got ANOTHER waterfall session in the bag coming up after this, and it might be the most epic one yet. Stay tuned.
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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