Way Of The Water
August 3, 2021
” Don’t go chasing Waterfalls….”
In this case that’s exactly what I did for the last ten days in Northern California and southern Oregon. Water has always compelled me to shoot, something about the clear sometimes chrome nectar that is the basis of life. Seems kinda odd as I am a land lover by nature that just enjoys being close to water, except during my diving days. ( Total different story )
The motion blur of the water gives a soft edge to the hardness of the rocks creating a balance in Nature.
The first part of the family vacation was just that, spending time camping with my son Jake and his family in Southern California. It was a time to rehash days, remember, and make new memories with grandkids hiking the trails of Lake Lopez. It offered great photo ops as well with the exuberance of youth and enthusiastic faces.
Nothing says summer like a Kid with a mouthful of snow-cone.
I have never been able to capture the grandeur of these big guys with a camera.
Many portrait background opportunities along the way headed for the waterfalls, gave a great time to practice new lighting tech with Profoto A1!
Two of my favorite things in the world, my beautiful Bride and the giant Redwoods.
Next stop… the falls. Rogue River Gorge
I Cant’ explain it but there is just something very relaxing about shooting waterfalls for me, it’s so calming like no other photography for me. We were blessed with amazing weather and even though we didn’t have the luxury of time to wait out or revisit at golden hours ( a common problem on vacations ) we did have some amazing light at times. After a long stint of shooting fast paced action and events that we do for a living, this was like a breath of fresh air and allowed us to reset our ” who we are clocks.” This was a super outlet for my creative workout, which allows me to expand into my daily shooting when I return to the stuff that pays the bills.
The Last day before leaving the area, we were blessed with a amazing sunset, they come and go even faster in this part of the world.
Our final stop of the trip was Crescent city before heading up 101 to Portland to return home. It was Bitter sweet, We hated leaving the weather, The views, most of all the giants, but we were excited to see the Furr Brats, Bodie and Sassie!
Final note on traveling partners… I had two amazing friends, My wife ” Lisa,” full of wanderlust a true traveler, always looking around the bend. The other was step-son ” Ray ” who I met for the first time in the woods, after 5 years Together, Ray’s true nature came out, he was so at home in Nature, his excitement and love of the trail was awesome to witness. I find it really helps when you have like-minded partners on your journey, especially photographers, who can get lost in theirselves where time has no meaning in just a single shot.
Tech notes: All images where shot with a Nikon D850, Lenses were Nikon 28-300 3.5-5.6 ( amazing traveling lens for size and cost) Nikon 16mm fish-eye, ( if not overused and it right conditions, makes crazy awesome shots) a Nikon 24-70 F2.8 and a Nikon AFS 70-200 2.8 which if I could have only one lense, this is it. Profoto A1 and air-remote did the trick when I added artificial light. We hauled two Tripods, both Gitzo carbon fiber 6x and 10x with RRS head and plates. Not fun to pack and get to location but essential in shooting waterfalls with motion blur or HDR. My tripod thought, the only thing worse than not having one when you need it is to have one that is small or weak which gives a false sense of security and shot are usually blurry with shutter speeds over 8th of a second.
My Thought process: I try to add to my mental arsenal of tools on every shoot, trying something different, if it works, implement.
Each day I would limit myself to one lense and Lisa would shoot with the other, and I would either shoot tight are wide depending on the lense, I have to admit, there was a couple of times we traded cameras when it was more than we could bare.
Final thought: Yes, I will always go chasing waterfalls, even though as I get older, it may take me a little longer to catch them.
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