Tag Archives: waterfalls

Photography trip to Whatcom Falls Park.    

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When most of us that live in British Columbia think of Bellingham Washington it’s usually about the shopping. Bellingham is the closest major US city that we can drive to for better prices on just about everything. Filling up our cars, buying clothing, food and dairy products to name a few items are still less expensive than here in Canada.

Some years ago I stopped overnight on my way back from my annual sojourn to the Anacortes Shipwreck festival and while out to supper I noticed a flyer with the words “Things to do in Bellingham”. Browsing through I noticed it mentioned a place called Whatcom Falls Park.

There are lots of waterfalls in British Columbia so that shouldn’t have been a big deal. However, what grabbed my attention was a picture of a stone bridge with a waterfall behind it. I have always been intrigued with the many stone structures built in the 1930s by the WPA (Work Projects Administration). I remember my father pointing out stone bridges and walls along mountain highways and talking about how the government employed men needing work during the Great Depression.

I have wanted to go back to Bellingham for an overnighter so I could have plenty of time to photograph that wonderful stone bridge and the park’s waterfalls. When I mentioned to my friend Jo that I wanted to go there this summer her excited response “Lets go” was all I needed.

I booked two nights at a hotel that included breakfast and we headed off to cross the border to Bellingham to photograph Whatcom Park and the city’s waterfront.

We had a lazy morning and arrived around 9:30 to an almost empty park and were so excited that we ran down the wide dirt walkway to the bridge. Gosh, what a beautiful place.

The park was only a fifteen-minute drive from our hotel and we were surprised to find that the stone bridge and falls that were only a couple minutes walk from the parking lot.

We photographed from the bridge then climbed down the well-worn trails under the bridge so we could take photographs at the base of the falls.

Creatively photographing waterfalls is pretty easy and the long exposures that are popular with water are no big deal.   All one needs is a good camera, a sturdy tripod, and some ND filters. I shot with my trusty 24-70mm and Jo used both a 28-300mm and 14-24mm.

There were two waterfalls, the large and impressive one near the stone bridge and a smaller more intimate one just up the creek a bit. We photographed both of them trying different exposures and filters.

My favourites are square filters that I hold in front of the lens as I make the time exposure. I prefer to hold the filter and slightly shake it up and down so any marks on them won’t be visible.

We stayed at the park way past noon and sat in my car talking for a while before leaving to check out the coast.

What a fun way to spend a weekend.

The best word I could use to describe how that colourful park seemed is “magical”.

I didn’t want to disturb anything and even though there were sounds of happy people coming from all around, everything became quiet when I looked through my camera.

I found this quote by American photographer Diane Arbus that perfectly describes the way Jo and I felt as we each pushed the shutter.

“Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies.”

Photographing the Chase Falls    

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Chase Falls 1

Chase Falls 2

Chase Falls 3

It is just over a year since I talked about my spring visit to a waterfall about 20 minutes from my home. Photographing the Chase Falls is, as the name infers, the falls just across the Trans Canada highway from the center of the small lakeside town of Chase, British Columbia.

Spring with its warm, snow-melting temperatures sure rolled in very early this year. Gosh, who would have thought we’d experience 30+ Celsius at the beginning of June. With that warm weather I was positive I wouldn’t see high, murky, water rushing over the falls.

I arrived around 11am and took the short walk along the sandy path to the falls. And sure enough, although there was plenty of water coming over Chase falls, the creek level was low enough that I was easily able to scramble among the large rocks along the bank and found many comfortable locations to set up my tripod. Ansel Adams said, “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.”

I guess that’s right when it comes to photographing a waterfall, I leaned against a big bolder and pulled out a couple of neutral density (ND) filters so I could reduce my shutter speed by a few seconds, and slow the water down in my shot. Then began moving my tripod from place to place, in hopes of finding that “good photograph.”

Photographing waterfalls and getting that smooth water that is so popular is really easy to do, and not complicated at all. All one needs is a camera, a sturdy tripod and a neutral density filter.

I put my camera on the tripod, focus, place a ND filter in front of the lens, and release the shutter. I rarely bother with a cable release. I usually just select my camera’s self-timer. I use 4-inch by 4-inch square ND filters that are well worn and a bit marked up.

When I purchased the filters they came with a filter holder to attach to the lens front, but that’s just more stuff to carry and instead I hold them by the edge in front of my camera lens and move them up and down so anything on them won’t show up when I take the picture.

I had a nice time taking pictures and even sat for a while on one of the large, smooth boulders just enjoying the cool air and the sound of the water. I think I might go back next week to try out a fish-eye lens that came into my shop.

 

 

Water as a Photographer’s Subject.

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Arrow lake crossing

Ocean ready

Gig Harbor waterfront

Valley stream

Under the falls

Framed in Green

Water sculpture

What it is about water that has such a magnetic effect on photographers who wander ocean shores, the watersides of lakes and ponds, and river and stream edges in spite of slippery footing, and the occasional splash of water as they search of the perfect mood?

Whether crashing waves or clear reflections, water always adds interest to one’s images, and including a view of a flowing stream in a mountain landscape adds a great feeling of movement and mood.

The other night was one of those times that sleep would not come. I was tired, but thoughts just kept poking into my head and no matter what I tried, sleep evaded me.

I got up, turned on the computer, and manipulated a few images beyond recognition. That’s my usual recipe for putting myself back to sleep. However, this time that wasn’t working and after the fourth of fifth image I was bored, but not sleepy. So I decided I would start going through the list of photographer-bloggers I am connected to on WordPress. There are very few things I enjoy more than looking at other photographers’ work and the diverse circle of bloggers I regularly interact with are, if anything, entertaining and inspiring.

Street scenes, landscapes, cityscapes, wildlife, archaeology, and so many other genres, I read and viewed so many excellent photographs.

As happens to many of us when wandering the seemingly endless galaxy of the internet, I started searching “photographing water”, not so much for information, but to find the Google page that I knew would be filled with creative images of water.

There were photographs of water dropping into water, droplets on plants, or glass, and all sorts of surfaces, and wonderful images of waterfalls, streams, seashores, lakes and much, much more. I viewed page after page of excellent images, read lots of how-to advice and pondered many experienced photographers’ personal thoughts on pretty much everything related to photographing water.

Fall is coming fast here in British Columbia and with that the colours of the landscape will change. This is probably my favorite time to mount my camera on a tripod and wander to the waterside and start creating pictures.

I am really looking forward to doing lots of scenic/landscape photography in the upcoming months, and water will be playing a major part in what we will be photographing, I will be visiting nearby waterfalls and streams. There is the South Thompson River that flows along the valley I live in, and my wife and I are hopeful of a driving trip on the Washington/Oregon coast in October.

Regarding water, I found this quote by American novelist , “All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.”

 

As always I look forward to reader’s opinions. Thanks, John

My website is at www.enmanscamera.com

 

 

Photography in Wells Gray Park

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Helmkin Falls  LLW_6435a BailysShoot(1)  Clearwater falls  Homestead WellsGrey shed WellsGrey Infrared                                                                                                       The very first time I visited Wells Grey Park was back in the early 1970’s. The road wasn’t the wide, smooth, asphalt-surfaced thoroughfare, with lots of easy viewing pullouts that it is now. At that time it was a rough, winding, sort-of maintained, dirt passage with narrow, metal bridges reminiscent of those quickly constructed by military engineers during the Second World War.

I had been traveling across Canada east to west and was told by a fellow traveler that there was a mountain park somewhere in British Columbia that was great for hiking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells Gray Provincial Park.  I had no information at that time about the park, and all I could get out of the few people I asked about the park was that there is a big waterfall there, and I could camp there. So with a map I had purchased at a gas station along the way that first lead me first to the small town of Clearwater, after which I turned at a sign that said Wells Gray Provincial Park.

The first thing I recall about that trip along the dusty route into the park was a blockade across the road. There may have been ten or more women, and although friendly, they had a look that said, “We are serious and you better do as we ask”. We stopped, and were presented with a petition, and asked to sign, to the government to have the road paved.  I guess it worked, because by the time I moved to Kamloops five years later, and started to frequent Wells Gray Park, there was the well-maintained road that park visitors now enjoy.

Our rural home in Pritchard is a two-hour drive from the park. Just after breakfast on Sunday morning, when my wife, Linda, suggested we go to Wells Gray for lunch, I got the cooler out, made some sandwiches, and packed our cameras and tripods in the car.

My excursions into Wells Gray these days are pretty much as a roadside photographer.

I could dig out my back pack and tent and head off on one of the well-used trails up into the lush alpine meadows of the Cariboo Mountains, or I could borrow my son’s comfortable travel trailer and stay at one of the excellent campsites along the fast moving Clearwater river or at Clearwater lake itself.  However, there are lots of places to stop and photograph the park that don’t include the need for hiking attire, and anyway, as I wrote, Wells Gray is perfect for roadside photography.

There is so much to photograph; waterfalls, majestic river views, mountain vistas, old homesteads and, of course, lake panoramas. There is lots of wildlife there, but the park has so many visitors that other than a few birds and chipmunks, most forest inhabitants prefer to hide from view, although I have, on occasion, seen a bear or two, and one snowy winter I saw moose after moose walking along the road.

On Sunday’s lazy excursion we first stopped at a dilapidated, old building with amazing longevity, that I have photographed many times over the years. Each time I visit I expect it to be gone, but it just rests in a grassy meadow alongside the road waiting for another photographer to make a picture. This time I wondered if there was an angle, or season, that I haven’t pointed a camera at that once proud home. I have made pictures of it using every type of film and camera format, as well as infrared. I also expect I am one of those rare visitors that has never ventured inside that old house in the past 30 years. I guess I like to keep some mystery.

Our next stop was for lunch at the Helmcken Falls picnic area. As we sat talking and eating lunch I could overhear people at the nearby tables and along the guardrail speaking different languages. Wells Gray gets tourists from all over the world and I will say that it is a rare park visit that I don’t meet people from other countries.

Linda and I didn’t join the happy picture takers on the viewing platform. It is a nice place to sit, or stand, and enjoy that impressive waterfall, but for me it’s the wrong angle for a good shot. After lunch we picked up our cameras and tripods walked through the windfalls to my favorite spot, although this year there were so many downed trees that it was harder to get to our favourite spot along the canyon edge, Neither of us could use a very wide focal length without including a foreground of dead trees, however we persevered and finally left the Falls after a good half hour of photography, satisfied with what we were able to photograph.  All in all it was a very good day.

Wells Gray Provincial Park is a great place to wander about with a camera and worth the short drive from Kamloops. A summer photo excursion is fun, but my favorite time is the fall and readers can be sure this roadside photographer will be there again in a few short months.

Don’t hesitate to comment – I always appreciate comments. Thanks, John

My website is at www.enmanscamera.com