Reflexology
Oregon · USA
Even though the walk down takes all of ten minutes (if that), I could easily spend hours in front of this mesmerizing waterfall, a seasonal schizophrenic that presents itself either as a graceful five-stringed musical instrument in drier months as it appears here or as a contiguous roiling sheet of white rage in the rainy season (but a far, FAR more pleasant one than the current nit-Twitter POTUS...). In low flood, the creekbed downstream morphs into a glorified puddle with stepping stones aplenty dotting the alluvium, and navigating them for different vantage points for eye or camera is a sort of meditative exercise in and of itself.
For this image, I actually forsook my tripod altogether--as low as it'll go, it still wasn't as low as I needed it to be for what I was envisioning. So I found a flat rock that was small enough to be moved but *just* broad and deep enough to support the camera mere millimeters above the water, and I positioned it within a placid section of the falls’ outflow. In retrospect I should've selected a slightly broader platform, as the L-bracket and lower extreme of the filter holder did get a little wet. But I kept my hands close by at the ready, having already learned my lesson once (one would hope, at least) about the immiscible combination of water, gravity, and delicate thousand-dollar electronics. Fortunately the merciful fates decided not to test my aging-tortoise reflexes, and the camera’s vitals managed to stay dry throughout.
On this particular day I had the sheer privilege of sharing time and space with my lovely wife Ashley and a delightfully entertaining mix of austral friends old and new with Jason Boneham, Rod Thomas, and Brett Wood. I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing the perspectives they got through both their land- and air-based cameras. But most of all, I'm hoping to replicate the shared experience in the not-too-far future...but perhaps in some farther-flung land from my and Ash’s perspective.
We hear New Zealand's pretty nice... ;)
