#09 | Landscape Photography | Watson Falls, Oregon.
Welcome back to another blog!
It wouldn’t truly be the end of spring ( technically early summer ) if I didn’t share an epic waterfall image with you all, especially with the mounds of rain that we are getting here in Oregon. This blog features an absolutely magnificent waterfall, which stands as the 3rd tallest in Oregon; named Watson Falls. This 294ft monster is located in the Umpqua National Forest, and there was no way I could miss checking it out during peak season!
BLOG #09 | Featured Image
Watson Falls, Oregon.
Watson Falls, Oregon.
We all know that the end of spring / early summer is the ultimate season for waterfalls to be in full beauty with rich greens, and massive water flow. Never, and I mean never did I think I’d be complaining about them having too much water. Pathetic, right? Yeah, I know, we landscape photographers are picky.
My biggest challenge shooting Watson Falls was finding a composition as close to the fall as possible. I wanted an epic wide scene featuring a couple mossy rocks in the foreground with down-flowing water, and the 294ft fall as the meat in the frame. Maybe positioning my camera upward, something that showed a scene of scale. This unfortunately was unattainable. I took 1 step in the direction of the falls about 30 yards out and was hit with intense wind gusts and water spray like I’d never experienced. Watson falls has so much water right now that you can’t get within 40 yards without getting soaked. This shot down my original composition idea, real fast. Landscape photography is all about adapting to the environment. You can plan all you want, but I guarantee you that 90% of the time your original idea won’t be the image you come away with.
The Composition
As I searched for a composition, I slowly walked further and further away from the falls. I attempted to find a small gap downstream to frame up this scene, but unfortunately, there were none. Trees, and not being able to access specific areas caused problems in finding a shot. I walked this stretch a few times, double-checking and making sure I didn’t miss any potential spots; none. At this point, I knew of an area towards the front of the trail where most people shoot from, which of course wasn’t my first choice. I knew I didn’t have another option, so I made the decision to shoot there anyway. Sometimes you don’t always get your way, well most of the time if we are talking about landscape photography.
Don’t get me wrong, it's a brilliant view. Stacked moss-covered boulders, heavy downstream water flow, and freshly bloomed vibrant plant life. It doesn’t feature much of the main falls itself, which is why I was skeptical at first, but I got over it. I mean it’s kind of hard not to after the images I was coming away with. The tricky part about shooting this specific area was positioning and composing the scene in a way where it featured everything. It took me a few attempts to find one I thought worked well. The biggest problem I ran into was Watson Falls in the top of the frame getting interfered with and overlapped by the tree just off to its left. If I couldn’t have the falls any bigger in the image, I certainly wanted the viewer to have a clear view of it. This took a fair amount of tweaking to get just right, but when I got the shot; boy was I stoked. This image was exposure bracketed for the highlights and shadows in the scene, which were then blended together using Photoshop.
Even though there was a fair bit of trial and error in this particular shoot, It was all worth it in the end. I came away with a shot I am beyond excited about, and will certainly be putting in my portfolio.
ISO 100 | 16MM | f/10 | ⅙ SEC
What do you think about this image? Let me know your thoughts down below in the comments!
Thanks for reading,
Alec
Gear used to photograph THIS image:
