Empress Falls, Sylvia Falls, and More
Jan. 4th, 2024 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerAustralia Travelog #27
Valley of the Waters, NSW - Fri, 29 Dec 2023, 10:30am
The first part of our hike down into Valley of the Waters was not exactly fun. The sky was gray, casting a pall over everything. And there was lots of descent— which not only ached my injured ankle going down but made me dread the pain I'd endure climbing back up. That cast a further pall over things.
The pall of pain I couldn't do much about except grit my teeth in determination. There is no "back", only forward.
As for the pall of the gray sky... well, that's actually good for visiting waterfalls. The dimmer sky creates a more intimate atmosphere down underneath the tree canopy. Moisture on the leaves from fog or light rain makes everything glisten. And the dimmer, more even light from the overcast sky makes waterfall photography more vibrant. ...That sounds paradoxical; dimmer equals more vibrant? It's because, technically, the dimmer light makes it easier to capture the the contrast of the scene with a camera's limited range of brightness sensitivity.
Now about those waterfalls....
Empress Falls (above) was the nominal star of the trip. She's the tallest on today's trek, with the upper set of cascades being about 80' tall. I thought this lower vantage point, showing the wider, shorter lower tier made for better composition. Update: I'll come back to the upper part in my next blog.
Below Empress Falls the trail kept going down, down, down. I wasn't sure how well I could make it back up but... in for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. Or, there is no "back", only forward.
I was glad I kept going forward, as Sylvia Falls is quite beautiful. At less than half the height of Empress Falls I found it more enchanting, partly because it's right there next to you. And the gentler flow of water makes it even more intimate.
Trail reports had warned us that the trail is blocked below Sylvia Falls by a landslide. We didn't see any signs of closure of danger, though, so we continued forward.
We found one more falls (above) before the trail was blocked. This falls was much smaller than the others but even more intimate. Intimate, as in you could sit right next to it.
We weren't the only ones here. A family had arrived just ahead of us. An adolescent girl posed for pictures in the water (we waited for her to finish) while her older brother snapped lots of pictures with his DSLR camera.
"Nah, I need to buy one of those next," he answered.
"What filter size does your lens take?" I asked, seeing already that it was likely the same as mine. Once we confirmed it was the same size, I offered him my 6-stop ND filter (some technical discussion in this blog and another blog it links to) to try shooting some silky water pics. He enjoyed capturing several frames and then passed the filter back to me. Well, if he got some Amazon gift certificates for Christmas, I know one thing he might want to buy now. 😅 There's an old saying, "If you want to keep your kids away from drugs, get them interested in photography. Then they'll never have money left for drugs!" 🤣
Update: On the way back up we saw an amazing sight— climbers rappelling down the face of Empress Falls!
Valley of the Waters, NSW - Fri, 29 Dec 2023, 10:30am
The first part of our hike down into Valley of the Waters was not exactly fun. The sky was gray, casting a pall over everything. And there was lots of descent— which not only ached my injured ankle going down but made me dread the pain I'd endure climbing back up. That cast a further pall over things.
The pall of pain I couldn't do much about except grit my teeth in determination. There is no "back", only forward.
As for the pall of the gray sky... well, that's actually good for visiting waterfalls. The dimmer sky creates a more intimate atmosphere down underneath the tree canopy. Moisture on the leaves from fog or light rain makes everything glisten. And the dimmer, more even light from the overcast sky makes waterfall photography more vibrant. ...That sounds paradoxical; dimmer equals more vibrant? It's because, technically, the dimmer light makes it easier to capture the the contrast of the scene with a camera's limited range of brightness sensitivity.
Now about those waterfalls....
Empress Falls (above) was the nominal star of the trip. She's the tallest on today's trek, with the upper set of cascades being about 80' tall. I thought this lower vantage point, showing the wider, shorter lower tier made for better composition. Update: I'll come back to the upper part in my next blog.
Below Empress Falls the trail kept going down, down, down. I wasn't sure how well I could make it back up but... in for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. Or, there is no "back", only forward.
I was glad I kept going forward, as Sylvia Falls is quite beautiful. At less than half the height of Empress Falls I found it more enchanting, partly because it's right there next to you. And the gentler flow of water makes it even more intimate.
Trail reports had warned us that the trail is blocked below Sylvia Falls by a landslide. We didn't see any signs of closure of danger, though, so we continued forward.
We found one more falls (above) before the trail was blocked. This falls was much smaller than the others but even more intimate. Intimate, as in you could sit right next to it.
We weren't the only ones here. A family had arrived just ahead of us. An adolescent girl posed for pictures in the water (we waited for her to finish) while her older brother snapped lots of pictures with his DSLR camera.
Keeping Australia's Kids Off Drugs
I noticed the boy balancing his camera on his dad's shoulder. "I see you've got an impromptu tripod there," I ventured. "Are you using with a neutral density filter to take slow-exposure pics?""Nah, I need to buy one of those next," he answered.
"What filter size does your lens take?" I asked, seeing already that it was likely the same as mine. Once we confirmed it was the same size, I offered him my 6-stop ND filter (some technical discussion in this blog and another blog it links to) to try shooting some silky water pics. He enjoyed capturing several frames and then passed the filter back to me. Well, if he got some Amazon gift certificates for Christmas, I know one thing he might want to buy now. 😅 There's an old saying, "If you want to keep your kids away from drugs, get them interested in photography. Then they'll never have money left for drugs!" 🤣
Update: On the way back up we saw an amazing sight— climbers rappelling down the face of Empress Falls!
