Eagle Creek

Today Ryan, Jeff, and I took a hike along the Eagle Creek trail to Punchbowl Falls. The trail is beautiful, with some sections carved out of the side of the gorge hundreds of feet above the creek. Of course, it was Sunday and the falls were pretty crowded but it was a nice spot nonetheless. The trail ends level with the creek but a few hundred yards away from the falls. The gorge walls are too steep on either side to get any closer by land. Jeff and I swam in as close as we could get. It was exhausting. We found some driftwood and used it for more buoyancy. The force of the water coming over the falls was enough to push us back so that we couldn't get much closer than 30 feet away or so, and that alone was exhausting. It was a ton of fun though, because for as crowded as the falls were, we seemed just about the only people daring enough to make a swim for it. It was awesome!

Also, it had been a while since I took the pinhole camera out. I don't have a light meter, so shooting is a whole lot of guess work when it comes to exposure times. When I'm taking pictures close to home, I can try a time out, develop the shot, and see how I need to adjust the exposure time. Can't do that when I'm on the road though. I took 8 shots, hoping to get maybe one I could work with. That seems to be about the success rate I have in guessing light levels. Of the 8, I actually got 5 that came back in the developing room with images. That was great seeing how normally I get far more over or underexposed shots than ones I can actually work with. Anyway, here are a few of them.

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This is a 25 second exposure of the Bridge of the Gods. It's a lot more overexposed than I would have liked, but it does have a ghostly look that appeals to me. I especially like the rusted old farm equipment in the foreground.

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This is a 35 second exposure of Eagle Creek. I love what the long exposure times do to water. It smooths it all out and makes it look surreal. I really like this picture because I didn't have to make any brightness or contrast adjustments to it after developing. This is the picture exactly as it was taken.