North Fork Sauk Falls

Yesterday morning, I beat the rain with a morning jaunt to the North Fork Sauk Falls off the Mountain Loop Highway. It's something like 0.2 miles to the falls, so I knew I'd have time to do some photography before the rain hit. I was also looking forward to the overcast lighting.

I may go back - particularly in a different season (e.g. fall, if I can time foliage and water flow well, or early winter), but I'll have to keep in mind that this is a comparatively challenging place to do photography. The falls itself is very scenic, of course, as are other views of the river. The trail, however, is short, rocky, and brushy, limiting vantage points compared to other spots I've visited for waterfall photography (the twin falls at Boulder River, Sol Duc Falls).

First, here's one of the falls and spray. A shutter speed of 1/4 of a second provided the best compromise: I wanted to blur the motion of the water, but I didn't want the spray to be too blurry. Also, an advantage of digital photography: I took 45 exposures of this composition. Since the water and spray were constantly changing, I wanted to have some options. F/13.

Next, a view downstream over the North Fork Sauk. The spray from the falls caused the diffused look of this image, which I'm not sure how I feel about. Otherwise, I like this composition. F/16.