Horror at Pevine Falls........

[Rob]

     After doing some research (thanks Joshua), I decided to try out what I thought I had learned about capturing a decent shot of a water fall. Nothing would do but to try out my new found talent at Pevine Falls.
     Thinking about the rain we received last night (Monday 3/03), I decided to go to Oak Mountain today (Tuesday 3/04). I got up early this morning thinking that it would possibly be the best time to go. It was still drizzling rain when I left home, and after gulping down a little breakfast at McD's, which I usually dislike, I started off to the falls. The weather started to break, and it stopped raining. I thought I had it made.
     Having NEVER been to Pevine before, I was full of anticipation as to what was in store. I arrived at the trail head and was amazed to find a nice little gravel trail to walk on. After walking (actually hobbling) for a some distance it became apparent that things were changing rapidly. The trail suddenly looked as though it would take some effort to continue on to the falls. Here it comes folks........ Stupid is stupid does......... Hopalong decides to not be defeated and to show off his skill to himself ( no-one else was there), so I challenged myself to a rapid descent to the falls. Note to self; The yellow CAUTION tape is there for a reason. Slide, skid, bump, thump and thump a couple of more times and I'm there. Whew that wasn't too bad, camera gear was safe in pack, no bleeding, no-one to see me gracefully approach the falls. Yep I'm one cool dude.
     Feeling quite accomplished, I stood up for the first time in the last hundred feet or so, and there they were, in all their Majesty. The water flow was actually quite heavy, far more than I expected. I spent the next hour exploring the falls, looking for that just right composition, fiddling around with the settings on the camera, and trying to apply the techniques that I had learned. Those tips really worked Josh, I'm far from being accomplished at waterfall photos but now I'm hooked.
     Excited to see the results of my efforts, I turned my attention to going home and reviewing the photo's, and was eager to print some out. I packed the camera gear, lashed the tripod to the bottom of the pack, and turned around to face utter horror. Yep, it was a long way up. Apparently gravity has some sort of affect on coming down an incline that it doesn't have going up. Imagine that, and me without a complete set of climbing gear. It suddenly became apparent to me that I was still just as disabled then as I was just an hour earlier, only facing a new challenge. No other choice now Mr. Man but to get yourself back up to the top, I thought. Being intelligent  and all, I knew this wouldn't be a problem, at least not if there was no mud, rocks, boulders, etc. in the way, oh, and that fourty-five degree incline. Not good for the leg full of newly installed titanium. Draw on your resources I said to myself. So I invented the QUINTAPOD, A device very similar to a tripod, but with two human legs firmly planted next to it. After some ugly words were dispersed from my inner self, and some genuine effort was put forth, I made it to the top. NO, we are not discussing how long that took.
      To make a short story long, I happily returned home to reveal the fruits of my labor. Perhaps there is some sort of reason these photo's look really good, as only my eyes see them, but I would do it again in a heart beat! Well, maybe I'd experiment at the fake falls on Highway 280 first.   Happy Trails.......... Hopalong and his new found friend, Quintapod.   (Will share photo's at a later date, right now the jacuzzi is callin' my name)
     

[lawnmowwer]

 Rob, good story. The ones with happy endings you know. Seriously, be careful Man. Only, I can get away doing not so smart stuff like that. O yea, thats how I broke My right foot two different times (not smart enough to stop at one). Really, I can't say much I have done similar things. Glade you made it Quintapod. Hope to see the photos soon. Happy trails... 

[Lostsheep]

So, do we get to change the trail name then, Mr. Quintapod? That sounds kind of catchy actually.

Glad to hear you made it and had a good time trying. Also, good thing you've been given some waterfall photography pointers. It's tough to shoot and Josh has some great experience doing it. Waterfalls are one thing that's not my specialty and I surely don't pretend about it either. Now, show us some of those photos you worked so hard to get.

When you decide to come to the fake falls on Hwy 280, let me know. I'm across the street

[Joshua Szulecki]

I warned everybody about the caution tape and the bottom of the falls "trail," but did you listen? No.  It is somewhat less dangerous to go down the rock face from the top of the falls (to the left), than to follow the "official trail" down the mudslide. It could have been worse. You could have gotten sick from the McD.

Seriously, be careful. And share those pictures.

[Rob]

    Oh, there was an official trail, I must have missed that.  Just Kidding. I have a natural flare for drama, however it was not necessary to exercise that talent in this account of my journey. LOL Next time I try to go and do something like that on unfamiliar territory I'll do a little more research, and actually pay attention to the details. Happier trails can be found on more even ground, but why forego the excitement and adventure! Possible proof I'm an avid Hiker or perhaps just plain stupid.  Pics are posted in Gallery under General Trail Beauty. Happy to be back on the Trail!

[Joshua Szulecki]

Rob,

The mudslide with the caution tape IS the *official* trail, unfortunately. It isn't a blazed trail like the trail to the top of the falls, but it is the trail that has been marked as the way to the bottom of the falls. I really wish they'd find a better way in.

Pics look good for a first try. I personally would have trended towards a slightly longer exposure time myself (or a vastly shorter one for a different effect), but I think there is merit to the intermediary approach you seem to have take. My personal preference is for large waterfalls to be captured with fast shutter speeds, and smaller waterfalls to be captured with longer exposure times, with the exposure getting longer as the waterfall gets smaller. Vignettes of waterfalls (like the top of DeSoto and Noccalula in my Photo.net portfolio) are fair game for either very fast, or very slow shutter speeds, depending on desired effect. But that is totally subjective and just my opinion. One reason why I don't photograph Peavine is that I find it (and the upper High Falls in Talladega NF) to be very difficult to render not drab in color, due to the rock coloring. One thing your photograph makes me wonder about is how an image would come out if you cropped it to make each of those trees the border of the image. Keep it up, and keep it safe.

[Rob]

Thanks again Joshua, once again I appreciate your informative suggestions and critique. I'm certainly looking forward to improving exposure and composition techniques. I really have to adjust to digital photograpy, It may be just me or because I haven't dabbled in photograpy for a very long time, but there seems to be a great deal of difference from film photography. I know the basic principals are the same but yet somehow it seems to be a challange. Happy Trails        Rob

[Joshua Szulecki]

Rob,

At it's simplest (auto white-balance, jpg with no post-processing), think of digital photography as foregiving slide film, rather than print film. It will tolerate some exposure abuse, more than slide film generally, but less than print film. Otherwise, the difficulty is mostly just the control complexities (cameras get harder to use as they get more complex), and probably also a great deal of new experimentation that many people weren't doing on their film cameras.

[lawnmowwer]

 Nice picture Rob.

I'll vote for Mr. Quintapod too.