Happy New Year!
I hope your holidays went well. As I get older, it seems like the holidays get shorter and shorter, even though I took an additional week off of work! We visited friends and family, then had a staycation since the Santa Ana winds were here for 4 days, redecorating our backyard for us and locking us in our house. We’re desperately clinging on to the holidays by binging movies on the Hallmark channel and keeping our decorations up inside the house. Don’t judge!
For the first post of the new year, I wanted to share with you more of our trip to the Pacific Northwest. One of my favorite spots to visit was the iconic Multnomah Falls. The leaves were starting to turn yellow, and the waterfall itself was very majestic, and easily accessible!
Fall Colors at Multnomah Falls
We parked in a lot in between the I-84 freeways. There’s a pedestrian walkway that leads underneath the freeway to the nearby lodge. From there, it’s a quick walk to the base of Multnomah Falls. When framing the following shot, I attached my ND8 filter to reduce the light transmission. This allowed me to lengthen my shutter speed a little to smooth over the waterfall. It was really windy that day and the leaves were moving fast, so I didn’t want to lengthen my shutter speed too much. I waited for the wind to subside before shooting. I also waited for the sun to set a bit so there was even lighting. To capture the atmosphere, I decreased by exposure value to -1.0EV.
View from the Bridge
There’s a short hike off to the right that leads to the Benson Bridge and offers a unique view of the upper portion of Multnomah Falls. This bridge is named after Simon Benson, a businessman who owned the waterfall in the early 1900s. He gave the waterfall to the City of Portland, who eventually transferred ownership to the USDA Forest Service in 1943. Here is a long exposure shot I took from the bridge.
When framing the following shot, I wanted the fall colors to be the focus. Instead of shooting at f/11, I opened my aperture to f/2.8 to bring only the foreground leaves into focus. Using a 1/100sec exposure allowed me to freeze the leaves in place and get some turbulence in the waterfall, which is exactly what I wanted. Normally I shoot waterfalls with a longer exposure (see the above image), but I like the dynamic that the rushing water brings to the image below. To me, I feel like the still leaves reaching up balance the movement in the waterfall coming down in a nice way. I’m still developing my compositional style so I’d love to read what you think!
A Bit of History of Multnomah Falls
Multnomah Falls was created 15,000 years ago by the Missoula Floods. It is currently the tallest waterfall in Oregon at over 620ft! Native Americans believed that the waterfall was created to win the heart of a princess who wanted a private place to take a bath.
Architect A.E. Doyle built the nearby lodge starting in 1925 using every type of rock found in the Columbia Gorge. It used to have accommodations for overnight stays, but has gone through several renovations. Now, there is a restaurant, visiting center, and other services.
One unique aspect of Multnomah Falls is that it runs all year long. There are underground springs and snowmelt that insure decent runoff every day of the year!
Have you visited this iconic waterfall? As always, comments and feedback are welcome in the section below!
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