Donut Falls, Wasatch National Forest, Utah

I was headed for big cottonwood canyon with less than two hours till sunset. My plan was to stop at the s-curve, get out of the car and walk along the creek in search of interesting combinations of rock, water, and reflection. I was hoping to see late sunlight break through the clouds, shine on cliffs and reflect in the creek. As I drove up canyon, this scenario seemed less and less likely. The sky now looked completely overcast, a white dome.

Trying to stay positive, I reminded myself that the creek shows different faces throughout the four seasons; there’s always something interesting to discover, it’s just a matter of physical and visual exploration. There’s always power in moving water. Always the potential to create an image that can transcend subject matter.

One of the things I love about photographing flowing water is that it’s always rendered in a way that cannot be seen. Faster shutter speeds show more detail than the eye can discern. Slow shutter speeds, a dreamy blur. I am convinced that interesting images can be created any time of year along any creek, river or stream, by focusing attention on intimate details.

Bells Canyon Waterfall

This HDR panorama was created with twelve images, four sets of three.

It had been four years since I’d been to this location, which is strange considering what a magical destination it is, and how close it is. The trailhead is a twenty minute drive, and the hike is about an hour up, if I don’t get too caught up in the scenery along the way. I think it’d been that long because the last time I was there, in June 2006, I made such a beautiful image (first image in my Wasatch Mountains Gallery, “Bells Waterfall”).

In 2006, I was there at exactly the right time, what I considered the peak seasonal climax for this location; shortly before the Summer Solstice, at sunset, on a night when the setting sun wasn’t obscured by clouds.  At this time of year the water is really flowing from spring snowmelt, and the sun, near its northern terminus, strikes the waterfall and granite towers at sunset, but leaves the canyon between in shade. This effect helps to simplify the image and really sets off that crimson sunlit water falling.

Zion National Park September 2009

This image was created by stitching three vertical images together. I'm excited by the wider angle of view I'm able to cover, as well as a larger file to use for printing. I liked this image so much I decided to use it as my home page hero image. Perhaps what I like best about this image is, it's the best of several attempts at photographing this Zion icon. I think I've hiked "the subway" a dozen times now, and on about half of those occasions I've photographed Archangel Cascades. It took me forever to figure out I needed to use a polarizer to bring out the rich red color of the rock through wet reflections.