Tag Archives: Waterfall

Gorge Serenity – One Year Image of the Week Anniversary

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Gorge Serenity

The Historic Columbia River Highway bridge over Multnomah Creek with Multnomah Falls in the background.

This week marks the one year anniversary of my Image of the Week posts. On March 29th of 2012 Column in Fogwas the first entry in the series. There are a few images that have come to represent my work that have been noticeable in their absence from this series. Gorge Serenity has become one of my signature images that I’ve been saving for a special post; I’m proud to present it as the One Year Anniversary Image of the Week.

Anyone who lives in the Portland area will remember the Arctic Blast of 2008. It was the biggest snow storm to hit our area in 40 years. In the early hours of Saturday, December 20th I decided to catch the Gorge blanketed in the snow that had already arrived before a major new storm hit. It was an adventure!

The big push of the storm was supposed to hit us in the early afternoon on Saturday. After checking the weather and road reports I loaded up at sunrise Saturday morning to visit my favorite place to play photographer, the Columbia River Gorge. The roads were pretty good on the way to the Dodson exit to access the Columbia River Historic Highway. Horsetail Falls was the fist stop where there was about 8 inches of new snow on the ground, it wasn’t as icy as I’ve seen it in the past but the snow really added to the scene. Multnomah (including the capture of Gorge Serenity) and Wahkeena falls were the next stops and were also blanketed in snow with more starting to fall and the wind picking up. My final stop was Latourell Falls where I spent quite a bit of time shooting different angles and trying to keep the mist from freezing on the lens.

It was passing eleven o’clock and time to head back for Portland before the weather got any worse. I headed back to the Escape and after knocking the ice off of the windshield wipers put my coat, gloves, and hat in the passenger seat to dry and my phone on the charger. That’s where the fun began!

Just after getting back on the historic highway I had to stop to knock another chunk of ice off of the driver’s side wiper that was causing a big blind spot. I picked a spot where I would be easily visible to any traffic that might come along and stopped in the road to hop out and knock off the ice. The problem is that I somehow locked the door, I still haven’t figured out how (the electric switch won’t lock the door with the engine running and in park so I somehow managed to hit the actual lock switch way up next to the door handle.) So, there I sat with the truck sitting in the middle of the road idling, doors locked, keys inside, phone inside, coat inside, and me outside. All I had was my light sweatshirt with a blizzard set to hit in the next few hours, in a deserted section of the gorge where the temperature was 19 degrees, and the wind and snow were picking up. Needless to say I was seriously kicking myself, I couldn’t believe I had managed to get myself into such a fix.

I started walking back towards the falls to see if I could find anyone at home in one of the homes down below. As I approached the parking lot I was very fortunate that a vehicle was approaching from the west. It was a Coast Guardsman and his visiting family and they very graciously called AAA for me and allowed me to warm up in their vehicle for a few minutes. While we waited for AAA to call back I saw a vehicle (it also happened to be an Escape) with state license plates approaching from the east and I flagged it down. Apparently my guardian angel was watching over me because the driver was the supervisor for the state parks in and around the Gorge. His name was Kevin and he went far above and beyond the call of duty to help me. After taking his family home he returned with coats for me to wear about the time AAA called back to say it would be at least two to three hours before help would arrive from Gresham. He let me use his phone to call Michelle so she could meet up with Todd who was in Troutdale and he could come rescue me. Kevin took me back to his house, fed me hot tea, and then took me back up to the Escape to wait for Todd. We had some nice conversation while we waited and he truly saved the day for me, before he arrived I was very close to deciding to break a window rather than waiting for AAA. Soon enough Todd arrived and we were back home eating brisket with the wives and kids before the brunt of the storm hit.

The trip produced a memorable story and one of my signature images. Kevin has a couple of framed 8x10s as a small thank you from a very grateful person! I hope you enjoy this series as much as I enjoy creating the images. Thanks for following year number one!

Historic Highway. Horsetail Falls was the fist stop where there was about 8 inches of new snow on the ground, it wasn’t as icy as I’ve seen it in the past but the snow really added to the scene. Multnomah (including the capture of Gorge Serenity) and Wahkeena falls were the next stops and were also blanketed in snow with more starting to fall and the wind picking up. My final stop was Latourell Falls where I spent quite a bit of time shooting different angles and trying to keep the mist from freezing on the lens.

It was passing eleven o’clock and time to head back for Portland before the weather got any worse. I headed back to the Escape and after knocking the ice off of the windshield wipers put my coat, gloves, and hat in the passenger seat to dry and my phone on the charger. That’s where the fun began!

Just after getting back on the historic highway I had to stop to knock another chunk of ice off of the driver’s side wiper that was causing a big blind spot. I picked a spot where I would be easily visible to any traffic that might come along and stopped in the road to hop out and knock off the ice. The problem is that I somehow locked the door, I still haven’t figured out how (the electric switch won’t lock the door with the engine running and in park so I somehow managed to hit the actual lock switch way up next to the door handle.) So, there I sat with the truck sitting in the middle of the road idling, doors locked, keys inside, phone inside, coat inside, and me outside. All I had was my light sweatshirt with a blizzard set to hit in the next few hours, in a deserted section of the gorge where the temperature was 19 degrees, and the wind and snow were picking up. Needless to say I was seriously kicking myself, I couldn’t believe I had managed to get myself into such a fix.

I started walking back towards the falls to see if I could find anyone at home in one of the homes down below. As I approached the parking lot I was very fortunate that a vehicle was approaching from the west. It was a Coast Guardsman and his visiting family and they very graciously called AAA for me and allowed me to warm up in their vehicle for a few minutes. While we waited for AAA to call back I saw a vehicle (it also happened to be an Escape) with state license plates approaching from the east and I flagged it down. Apparently my guardian angel was watching over me because the driver was the supervisor for the state parks in and around the Gorge. His name was Kevin and he went far above and beyond the call of duty to help me. After taking his family home he returned with coats for me to wear about the time AAA called back to say it would be at least two to three hours before help would arrive from Gresham. He let me use his phone to call Michelle so she could meet up with Todd who was in Troutdale and he could come rescue me. Kevin took me back to his house, fed me hot tea, and then took me back up to the Escape to wait for Todd. We had some nice conversation while we waited and he truly saved the day for me, before he arrived I was very close to deciding to break a window rather than waiting for AAA. Soon enough Todd arrived and we were back home eating brisket with the wives and kids before the brunt of the storm hit.

The trip produced a memorable story and one of my signature images. Kevin has a couple of framed 8x10s as a small thank you from a very grateful person! I hope you enjoy this series as much as I enjoy creating the images. Thanks for following year number one!

Technical Specs:

  • RAW image with Nikon D300 @ 200 ISO
  • Tokina AT-X 124 AF PRO DX – AF 12-24mm f/4 @ 12mm
  • 1/15 seconds @ ƒ/16
  • Saturday, December 20, 2008 @ 09:29
  • Multnomah Falls, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA

 

Finding the Path

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Finding the Path

A climber in the western Columbia River Gorge during the December 2009 freeze.

Most of the sports I cover go dark in the winter. On a winter visit to the Columbia River Gorge I stumbled across a very adventurous group of climbers practicing their sport on an icy winter day. Captured about 40 minutes after Green and Icy Multnomah Falls this week’s Image of the Week is Finding the Path.

After finishing at Multnomah Falls I headed west hoping to catch one more waterfall before dark. A short time after passing Wahkeena I saw a few cars and people pulled of to the side of the road and slowed to see what was happening. There were a group of climbers scaling one of the smaller falls that was frozen solid by the continuous days of cold weather.

Darkness was closing in but this climber was still at work. They had obviously been at it for quite some time as their ropes were anchored out of site over the top of the falls. I shot for several minutes and was fortunate enough to capture Finding the Path. It is a sport I know very little about, but it was certainly fun to watch even a few minutes of it.

This image is featured in the Gresham Art Committee‘s Passport to Adventure show that opens on Monday and has an artist’s reception on Tuesday, February 12th. Perhaps I’ll see you there!

Technical Specs:

  • RAW image with Nikon D300 @ 250 ISO
  • AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED Lens @ 145mm
  • 1/8th of a second @ ƒ/5
  • Wednesday, December 9, 2009 @ 17:21
  • West of Multnomah Falls, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA

Green and Icy Multnomah Falls

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Green and Icy Multnomah Falls

Multnomah Falls during the December 2009 freeze.

The cold weather we’ve been having has reminded me of some of the cold trips I’ve taken to the the Columbia River Gorge. One particularly hard freeze in December 2009 produced some very nice scenery captured on a couple of different ventures. This week’s Image of the Week; Green and Icy Multnomah Falls came from one of those drives.

It takes several days of consistent freezing weather to ice over the larger falls. On this day the main flow of Multnomah Falls was still running free, but ice was all around the edges and in the splash pool. It was especially challenging to photograph because any spray or mist would instantly freeze to the lens. There had not been any snow at this point so the ice around the falls offered strong contrast to it’s surroundings.

Winter is one of the most scenic times to visit the waterfalls of the gorge. While it can be a bit on the treacherous side it is worth the effort!

Technical Specs:

  • RAW image with Nikon D300 @ 250 ISO
  • Tokina 12-24mm f/4 AT-X Pro DX Zoom Digital Lens @ 14mm
  • 1/13th of a second @ ƒ/10
  • Wednesday, December 9, 2009 @ 16:43
  • Multnomah Falls, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA

Cathedral of Ice

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Cathederal of Ice

Latourell Falls with mist frozen to everything in sight.

Cold air has started to descend on us and the days are getting progressively shorter. I’m going to the archives to retrieve one of my favorite winter images as this week’s Image of the Week. Cathedral of Ice was captured on a frigid winter day in the Columbia River Gorge.

The Gorge had been under a hard freeze for three days without ever climbing over 32. It was a very treacherous trip down the trail to Latourell. The sloaping asphalt path was iced over in multiple places, only my trusty Yak Trax made the walk possible. I tried to make the trek down to the bridge but the pathway just in front of the lens in this picture was simply impassable without significant risk to life, limb, and lens.

The challenges did not end there. The mist was blowing and literally freezing on contact with the front of the lens. It was very difficult to get it clean as wiping it down would just result in a thin layer of ice over the surface of the lens. It was impossible to keep your hands warm and still be able to control the camera. After the image was captured the the walk back up the pathway was even slower and even a bit scary with multiple small slips along the way.

The scene was truly spectacular. It was not only an opportunity to capture an image that continues to be one of my favorites. It was an experience that will stay with me for a lifetime.

Technical Specs:

  • RAW image with Nikon D80 @ 100 ISO
  • Nikon 20mm f/2.8 AF-D Lens @ 20mm
  • 1/2 of a Second @ ƒ/18
  • Sunday, January 14, 2007 @ 12:03
  • Latourell Falls, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA

Autumn Falls

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Autumn Falls

Autumn leaves framing Horsetail Falls in the Columbia River Gorge.

Last Friday I made my way out to the Columbia River Gorge for the first time in much too long. The past several months have been very busy and I haven’t had the opportunity to visit one of my favorite places. The prime time for fall colors has come and gone, but Horsetail Falls still had a large quantity of leaves on the ground. I’m proud to present Autumn Falls as this week’s Image of the Week.

I spent a few hours touring some of the iconic and easily reached waterfalls along the historic highway. I only had a few hours of light after leaving work in the early afternoon, sunset was at about 4:30 in this first week of standard time. Horestail was my final stop and light was quickly escaping me.

I knew that I wanted bracketed images for an HDR final result, so the tripod was a necessity. One of the few things I’m not fond of in the D7000 is the fact that it only brackets 3 images. That means in order to get I wide bracket set I have to shoot multiple bursts and use exposure compensation to achieve 5 or 7 bracketed images. The D300 has a clear advantage here, but I wanted the higher resolution and better noise containment that the D7000 offers.

I captured several image groups while I was there, but this one was really what I was looking for from the start. I wanted something that had good fall color in the foreground along with the falls in the background. As I captured the first group from the upper level I saw this pile of leaves along the stone wall below and knew it would make a great foreground.

I used a new piece of software for the High Dynamic Range conversion. I recently acquired HDRtist Pro for the Mac. I’ve been quite impressed with it’s output for quick conversions. Photoshop still offers better fine control, but HDRtist Pro is very fast and easy to use and often provides very good results in a fraction of the time. It is also very affordable at less than $30, I highly recommend it for my Mac friends!

Technical Specs:

  • 5 RAW images with Nikon D7000 @ 100 ISO
  • Tokina AT-X 116 PRO DX (AF 11-16mm f/2.8) @ 11mm
  • 2.5, 5, 10, 15, & 30 seconds @ ƒ/20
  • Friday, November 9, 2012 @ 16:51
  • Horsetail Falls, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA

Pitchfork Falls near Skagway, Alaska

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Pitchfork Falls

Pitchfork Falls along the Klondike Highway near Skagway, Alaska

This week I’m going back a ways into the archives for one of my Alaskan images. Waterfalls are one of my favorite subjects and I captured this one during our honeymoon cruise in 2006. I’m happy to present Pitchfork Falls as this week’s Image of the Week.

As mentioned in the previous Image of the Week post Emerald Ice, I was still in the early stages of learning the craft. The Nikon D50 was my first dSLR and my equipment and technique still had a lot of growing to do. We stopped in Skagway which is famous for the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad, but we decided to drive the route in order to visit some of the towns and set our own schedule.

Pitchfork Falls is only a few miles outside of Skagway. It caught my eye and we pulled over to capture it from across the White River Gorge. It is reputed to be the tallest falls in Alaska dropping 2,093 feet in about a mile from Goat Lake into the White River. The railroad crosses over the upper reaches on a wooden trestle but the view is much better from the Klondike Highway.

We were privileged to get such a beautiful day to take in the wild Alaskan scenery.

Technical Specs:

  • RAW image with Nikon D50 @ 200 ISO
  • Tamron AF70-300 LD @ 70mm
  • 1/30th of a second @ ƒ/4
  • Thursday, July 20, 2006 @ 09:53
  • Klondike Highway, Skagway, Alaska, USA

Technicolor Horsetail

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Technicolor Horsetail

Fall color at Horsetail Falls.

Summer is starting to wind down and fall colors will soon be upon us. The Pacific Northwest offers many opportunities to shoot the changing of the season. I’m proud to present Technicolor Horsetail as this this week’s Image of the Week.

The Columbia River Gorge is and will forever be one of my very favorite places to spend time and photograph nature’s majesty. Autumn provides some of the best shooting of the year. Water levels are generally on the low side but the creeks swell in the days following a storm. There are a wide variety trees and bushes that provide a technicolor show. There are terrific macro shots to be found, sometimes a single leaf making it’s way down a rushing stream can be a fantastic subject.

Weekdays are the best for the stops along waterfall alley. Weekends can be overly crowded both on the trails and in the parking. On this particular Monday I shot the falls along the alley all within a short walk of parking. There are an amazing variety of scenes in a very compact area. This shot was captured with a tripod low to the ground to emphasize the foreground colors over the waterfall in the background. I used a small aperture to keep  focus throughout the scene.

Technical Specs:

  • RAW image with Nikon D300 @ 200 ISO
  • Tokina 12-24mm f/4 AT-X Pro DX Zoom Digital Lens @ 12mm
  • 1/8th of a second @ ƒ/13
  • Monday, October 27, 2008 @ 15:48
  • Horsetail Falls, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA

Elowah Spring Runoff

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Elowah Spring Runoff

Elowah Falls roaring with heavy spring run off.

Elowah Falls is one of the most beautiful in the Columbia River Gorge, but it is a bit off of the beaten path so it is not one of the most visited. It is one of my favorite spots to visit during tourist season when it’s more famous cousins are swarming with visitors. I am proud to present Elowah Spring Runoff as the latest entry in the new blog series Image of the Week.

Located just to the East of the ‘waterfall alley’ section of the Gorge Elowah is visually very similar to Latourell Falls. The falls are accessed from a parking lot in John B. Yeon State Park near the town of Dodson. While officially listed at 289 feet tall this includes nearby Upper McCord Creek Falls, the visible plunge is about 220 feet. It is a very pleasant hike of a bit more than half a mile into the base of the falls.

On this spring day the biggest challenge was the spray. The snowmelt runoff had the falls running very heavy and it was very difficult to keep the lens dry. I spent a good deal of the shoot downstream and on the large boulder just to the east of the splash pool to avoid the worst of the spray. Elowah Spring Runoff was captured just above the bridge by wiping the lens between each of the five shots composited into the final HDR image. In post processing I used Adobe Photoshop CS5 to combine the five raw images into the final result.

Elowah is well worth adding to your next Columbia River Gorge intinerary!

Technical Specs:
  • Raw images with Nikon D300 @ 400 ISO
  • Tokina AT-X 116 PRO DX (AF 11-16mm f/2.8) @ 14mm
  • 1/4, 1/6, 1/10, 1/15, 1/25 second @ ƒ/16
  • Thursday, May 19, 2011 @ 18:50
  • Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA

Visiting Crater Lake

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Alarm set for 2:50am, Bags Packed, Route Planned, Cameras Ready. Destination: Sunrise over Crater Lake. Sun rises at 6:40 and full moon sets at 6:51, Google tells me it will take 2:20 from here but trying to leave some time to account for road conditions. There is 10.5 feet of snow and it’s supposed to be partly cloudy with increasing clouds as the day move on. Then stops at Diamond Lake, Several Waterfalls along the N. Umpqua, through Roseburg, and home for Easter. Here’s hoping for photos that make the effort worth while!