Glen Ellis Falls

Author's Comments

The walk in is short enough that you can almost talk yourself out of bringing the tripod. Bring it anyway. The falls drop sixty-four feet into a plunge pool that holds the light strangely, especially in the morning before the sun finds its way down into the gorge. Until then, the whole basin is in cool, even shade, and the granite walls go nearly black where the moss is thickest. That is the light you want. I have made the long exposure shot here a few times and it is the obvious move - silk water, blurred motion, the kind of photograph that almost makes itself with an ND filter and a six second exposure. It works. But I have started to think the more interesting frame is tighter. The moss on the walls. The way the water catches against a particular ledge before it falls. The pool itself, which goes a deep tannic green in summer and almost black in October. Spring runoff makes the falls loud and full and gives you the most dramatic wide shot. Late September gives you color at the rim of the gorge and a quieter, more controlled flow. Both are worth the trip. The pedestrian tunnel under Route 16 is a strange little prelude that I have come to appreciate - you walk under the road and emerge into something that feels considerably more remote than it is. Get there before nine. The stone steps fill up later, and the photograph wants stillness more than it wants anything else.

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