T-Travel Photography
Zdenko Takac & Iveta Takacova
Landscape, Travel & Fine Art Photography
Mt St Helens & Willamette NP
Vernal Falls
It takes about 1-2 hours to get to Vernal Falls, which is about a 2.5km round trip with 130m elevation to the bottom of the falls. To the top of Vernal Falls, it is another kilometre or so but with 340m elevation, it is a very strenuous hike. A couple of years ago we couldn't get to the top of the falls as it was very wet and water from the fall sprayed us heavily. We couldn't get any photos back then as our cameras got wet right away. This time it was much better. We still got wet but nowhere near as much as before. Photos were easier to take, especially when the wind was blowing the right direction. We used our Lee Big Stopper for the long exposure shots to achieve a smooth waterfall as shown on the left picture below. The picture on right was taken with normal exposure and as you can see it made a big difference.
Nevada Falls
At the top of the Vernal Falls people were swimming carelessly in the Emerald pool and trying to get to the middle of the river even with little kids. We couldn't believe how reckless they were. After having a brief stop, we continued our hike to Nevada Falls. The hike itself wasn't anywhere near as bad as getting to the top of Vernal Falls and it took us about 25 minutes to reach the bottom of the waterfall. Nevada Falls were equally as spectacular as Vernal Falls but unfortunately we didn't have enough time to hike to the top.