Whatcom Creek thundered over the falls in Whatcom Falls and Maritime Heritage Parks on Wednesday morning when I went out in the snow to capture a bit of our fairy wonderland. The creek’s name derives from the Lummi word Xwotʼqom, meaning “noisy water,” and it lived up to its name on this crisp winter morning. Continue reading
It’s not exactly time travel, but you can freeze or expand time in your photos by choosing the right shutter speed. Grab your camera and take it out of its fully automatic mode and choose Shutter Priority instead. Now you can select the shutter speed that will treat moving subjects the way you want, rather than however your camera might randomly do it.
Moving water and sports action are two common subjects that benefit greatly from choosing the right shutter speed. Continue reading
Like a lot of photographers, I’m addicted to waterfalls. I don’t photograph them a lot because I haven’t figured out how to make money from them — too many great photos and not enough buyers. But I was down to Vancouver, Washington at the end of March for the annual Professional Photographers of Washington conference and had a morning free so I headed up the Columbia Gorge for a waterfall fix. Continue reading
A few days ago I had a little time to kill between appointments in Fairhaven so I headed down to the North Chuckanut trailhead for Bellingham’s Interurban Trail to see what I could find. It was a glorious warm and sunny spring day, somewhat uncommon for late March around here. I didn’t have a lot of time so I didn’t hike far with my camera and tripod slung over my shoulder.
I’m a sucker for waterfalls. There’s just something about the patterns of flowing water that draw me in. They’re not a subject that’s been lucrative but I can’t resist photographing them anyway.
This is Chuckanut Falls, on a tributary to Chuckanut Creek in Arroyo Park just south of Bellingham. There’s a new trail, just built in the last year, leading to the falls. The falls trail takes off from the trail heading up from the Interurban Trail toward Lost Lake. The signed junction is just downhill from the top end of California Street. Continue reading
Nooksack Falls is a popular tourist destination along the Mount Baker Highway just a few miles east of the tiny town of Glacier, Washington. The usual vantage point is from the north side of the river and at the top of the falls. There’s a stout fence to keep people from accidentally falling off the cliff and to discourage people from getting too close to the edge.
I’ve photographed the falls several times in the past 20 years and we almost always take out-of-town visitors there when we head to the mountains. It’s the largest waterfall in the county and very accessible.
However, you can’t see the whole falls from the standard observation point. For years, I’ve looked across the river, and across Wells Creek which flows into the Nooksack at the base of the falls. There’s a moss-covered boulder field above the creek and river, drenched in spray from the falls. I’ve thought that there should be a way to get to the south side of the river, and down those mossy boulders to river level. I tried once a few years ago and didn’t make it, probably because I failed to plot a compass bearing to follow through the woods.
Today, pretty much on a whim, I decided to head to the falls again. This time I plotted a bearing on the topo map before heading out. I drove up the road to the Skyline Divide trailhead and parked at the second righthand switchback. From there it’s only a quarter mile, and about 400 feet down, to the base of the falls. Following my compass I headed through the woods, carpeted with a dense layer of stairstep moss and decaying logs.
I came to a vantage point on the canyon rim overlooking the falls and photographed from there. Then I scouted a route down the cliff to the boulder field below. I scrambled down and photographed from several vantage points. The photo here is one of my favorites.
I haven’t processed them yet, but I shot a couple of multi-frame panoramas to stitch together. I’m thinking a big print might be nice. Since I knew how big my subject was, I only carried two lenses, 24-105 and 16-35, and used them both. Scrambling down and up with a tripod in hand was a little dicey, but never really dangerous and well worth the effort.
Now I can cross “see Nooksack Falls from the other side” off my to-do list.
