Middlebury Falls

Author's Comments

The town wraps itself around the water here in a way that feels almost European. Otter Creek drops fifteen feet over limestone ledges right in the middle of downtown, and the old mill buildings of the Marble Works lean in close on either side, brick and stone and windows that have been watching this water for over a century. It is not a wilderness waterfall and it does not pretend to be. That is the point. I come early, before the shops open and the foot traffic picks up on the bridge. May is good, when the snowmelt is still pushing volume through and the falls have real authority. Late September is good for a different reason - lower water, but the light comes in at an angle that catches the brick and turns the whole scene warm. Morning is the hour either way. The buildings on the east bank shade the falls until mid-morning in summer, which means you can hold a long exposure without fighting blown highlights, and the water goes soft and pale against the dark stone underneath. The footbridge is the obvious vantage and worth a few frames. But I find the closer angles more honest. There is a viewing platform on the Frog Hollow side where you can get low and let the mill wall fill the upper third of the frame while the water carries the lower two thirds. That is where the picture lives. The juxtaposition is the whole story here, and the closer you get to it, the more it tells.

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