Most of the time, we can easily find the place or feature which we go to shoot.  It’s out in the open.  However, there are times when we have to search for our landscape subject matter.  This is the story of one such time we recently experienced.  We found a waterfall by surprise.

A while ago, my spouse’s boss at the time told us about a waterfall near Twin Falls which few but the locals know about.  It’s near the golf course.  I decided that I wanted to shoot pictures of that waterfall.  However, we didn’t have very good directions from the former supervisor.  We had to wait for better information to make that trip.

After some internet research, we found out where that waterfall is.  We programmed the information we found into the GPS and set out on our trip.

When we got there, we found a very nice little hiking trail and thought we found the waterfall we were searching for.  However, it was way up on the cliff-side of the Snake River Gorge.  Since the waterfall we were looking for was one that we could walk behind, we kept looking.

On our way down to the trail, I happened to notice that there was a small turnoff, part of the switchbacks, which a couple of people pulled off at.  I also happened to notice a guy walking away from the road with a camera bag on his shoulder.  That sight caught my attention.  I made a point of remembering to investigate the area after we finished exploring the bottom of the gorge.

After we completed our hike, we took a brief drive around the waterfront down at the bottom on the river.  I say this because it’s relevant.  As we started back up the road, we found the waterfall we came to see.  It was much larger and more spectacular than the one high up on the cliff from the hike.  It was also right where that guy with the camera bag was heading.

Once we hiked through the dense vegetation on the way down, we found that we could indeed walk behind the waterfall as advertised.  That waterfall was huge.  It’s also recessed slightly in a bend of the canyon wall.  That wall hid it from the road as we were coming down.  This explains why we couldn’t find it on our drive in but easily found it on the way out.

We walked around the waterfall and took several shots from different angles.  As we passed under the slight overhang of the cliff directly behind the waterfall, we got drenched.  There is water falling from the roof above in large drops.  For two people who don’t like getting rained on, it was a bit unpleasant.

However, we found our surprise waterfall and got our photos for the day.  We also updated the GPS with the correct coordinates of the waterfall.  The set we used to get there pointed us towards the waterfall high on the cliff instead.

This waterfall provided us with lots of different angles to take pictures from.  I even tried to see what would happen if I applied the silky water technique to the water falling from the edge of the cliff.  During the process, I found out that darkening by 10 stops was too much but darkening by 6 stops was just fine.

I even had some fun and turned one of these waterfall pictures from color to black and white and it worked just as well as the original color version did.  It changed the feeling of the photo from water cascading down into something that looks more like enchanted fire to me.

On the way home, we avoided a storm which was blowing in from the south.  The storm made for some amazing color in the sky.  It was a very scenic drive home in the rear view mirror.  However, I got to the point where I had to stop and try for a shot.  The clouds were dramatic and the sunset was colorful.

Overall, it was a fun day and we got some great photos out of it.  It was an unusual day in that we managed to get so many great photos on the same day.

If you would like to buy fine art prints of some of these surprise waterfall and landscape photos, just follow this link to our online store where you can order a copy today.