Chasing Waterfalls
This morning, while doing online school with the kids, my second grader and kindergartner mentioned that they had never seen a “big” waterfall in person before. I scratched my head about this for a while (Um… hi we kayak and camp A LOT, we’ve driven through Yellowstone and all over the Rockies for crying out loud) before I realized that they were probably right! In fact, my oldest was the only one who had ever been through the Columbia Gorge waterfall area at all, which is less than an hour from our house, and that was when she was still a little baby in a baby backpack. She’s now nearly 13.
*(Disclaimer in case anyone is thinking what I’m thinking, that I’m a terrible Mother haha: this lack of exposure to basic Oregon splendor is because the area has been extremely crowded for several years and then was closed since the Eagle Creek fire in 2017, and before that I was pregnant for like a decade cumulatively, and during that decade, didn’t much feel like hiking around slippery waterfalls with hoards of people).
Anyway, feeling motivated to explore and also knowing that our trademark “Gray Pacific Northwest days” make PRIMO waterfall photography conditions, we closed our books, shut down laptops, packed quick lunches, loaded up the dog & my camera gear, and hopped in the car for an impromptu field trip. I took the back roads from Sandy, Oregon to get to the gorge, which is a beautiful 45 minute drive in itself along the Sandy River and through the countryside. Our first stop was the Vista House at Crown Point where I had them read some informational plaques while took photos because… well, we were on field trip after all.
The Vista House at Crown Point with snow covered hills of Southern Washington to the North and the Columbia River in the background. Usually this place is PACKED with people, I felt so fortunate that we had it to ourselves.
(Camera Info: Canon 5D Miv, Canon 70-200mm L 2.8IS lens at 200mm, 1/400th shutter, ISO 200, f. 5.6)
Looking East down the Gorge at the mighty Columbia River below. The history of this area, its formation during the Missoula Floods and its importance to the exploration and settlement of Oregon. You can read more about that history here: http://www.gorgeconnection.com/how-the-gorge-was-formed.php
Our next stop, and the first waterfall along the highway is Latourell Falls. You can’t see the falls well from the road and have to walk down a little (paved) path to get to it. When it finally came into view, it provided the exact shock and awe reaction I had been hoping for. The kids all let out a collective, “WHOA!!” at the 224 ft torrent of water cascading down off the cliff, causing a cloud of thundering mist at the bottom. Latourell Falls is one of my favorite waterfalls because of the surrounding Evergreen Trees, but also the columnar basalt walls along the cliffside that are covered in striking golden cobblestone lichen.
Normally I love slow water in photos but I wanted to capture the power of the huge sheets of water coming down, so for this one I used:
(Camera Info: Handheld (no tripod) Canon 5D Miv, Canon 16-35iii L 2.8 lens at 27mm, 1/160th shutter, ISO 200, f. 5.6)
(Camera Info: Canon 5D Miv, mounted on a Manfrotto Tripod, Canon 16-35iii L 2.8 lens at 25mm, 2 second shutter (which was too much, this is overexposed), ISO 200, f22)
This was one of my favorites of the day, from the bridge at Latourell Falls.
(Camera Info: Canon 5D Miv, mounted on a Manfrotto Tripod, Canon 16-35iii L 2.8 lens at 25mm, 1/5th shutter, ISO 200, f22)
(Camera Info: Canon 5D Miv, handheld, Canon 16-35iii L 2.8 lens at 16mm, 1/200 second shutter, ISO 200, f3.2)
We were excited to see more waterfalls but ran into some trouble after this stop. A landslide, which is common this time of year, had blocked the historic highway at the next waterfall, Bridal Veil Falls. We had to get on I-84 and backtrack via the interstate, but lost our drive along the Scenic Highway. We decided to head further east to Multnomah Falls and try to figure out the rest of our route from there.
Spoiler alert- we couldn’t get to any other falls because of the active slides so will have to check back later.
Multnomah Falls, Oregon
(Camera Info: Canon 5D Miv, mounted on a Manfrotto Tripod, Canon 16-35iii L 2.8 lens with 6 stop ND Filter, at 16mm, 5 second shutter, ISO 200, f10)
This is Multnomah Falls. At 620 feet, it is the tallest waterfall in Oregon and flows at an impressive 150 ft/second on average, but I think it is probably much much higher than that in the winter. The power you can feel coming off this magnificent waterfall is incredible. I don’t know that I’ve ever appreciated it as fully as I did today. The crystal clear waters, the greens hanging on in the rocks and forest, the huge logs being pushed around in the pool at it’s base like Lincoln Logs; even the occasional battle scars of charred trees from the fire three years ago were all strikingly beautiful.
The upper tier of Multnomah Falls from Benson Bridge.
(Camera Info: Canon 5D Miv, handheld, Canon 16-35iii L 2.8 lens at 16mm, 1/8th shutter, ISO 200, f22)
My biggest challenge, especially when using long shutter speeds was keeping the mist off of my lens. We weren’t very close to the falls at all and I was still having a LOT of mist collect on my lens. I had a lens wipe with me, but the water would collect in the 5 seconds or so that I was taking the photo. Some of the photos I could correct in Photoshop, but honestly I was a little disappointed with most of my images because of the water spots. Next time I will pack an umbrella to hold over my tripod as well, but even that still leaves the problem of exposed glass catching the spray. I did some research and asked around a bit; it sounds like the experts carry a can of compressed air (for electronics) in their packs to both clear off the lens between shots and also to hold open and spray behind the lens to divert the mist away from the glass. GENIUS! I will try that next time.
I do plan to post a Youtube tutorial on the techniques I use for capturing slow water and waterfalls soon, so please be sure to check out and SUBSCRIBE to my channel to be notified when I create new photography education content and in the meantime check out some of the other videos I have up currently.