A Tale of Two Photographs

One of the many benefits of our weekend getaway place is its proximity to Savage Gulf State Park in Coalmont, TN. For someone like me who loves to hike, photograph, and botanize, it's a piece of Heaven. 

Photography is no casual undertaking for me, as it involves a backpack full of gear, a sturdy tripod, and, more often than not, a hiking stick or poles. Walking around on wet boulders can be hazardous to your health. The perfect conditions for the type of photography I like, with delicate light and lack of wind, are fleeting and involve lots of planning. When I don’t have time to plan, plain luck sometimes works out. When photographing in nature, I'm drawn to moving water, and within minutes of our place, Ranger Creek, picturesque in every way, is my happy place. This creek, more like a river, is edged by Rosebay Rhododendrons (Rhododendron maximum) and many of my favorite native trees, shrubs, and, in some areas, wildflowers. Moss-covered boulders abound; their vibrant green is soothing to the eye and soul. Like any creek, river, or body of water, Ranger Creek has many moods depending on the season and the abundance or lack of rain. There are times when the creek flows lazily and others when it’s a raging torrent. Catching the river a day or so after a good rain is usually the right recipe for photography.

As luck would have it, I recently had the opportunity and the favorable conditions to make a trip to Ranger Creek. I only had a narrow window of an hour before the next wave of rain was expected, so I packed up my gear and made my way down the steep trail to Ranger Creek. It had rained the day before, so the creek flowed beautifully and musically. Not long after I had been hiking, I caught, out of the corner of my eye, bubbles and foam rotating slowly in a circular motion at the creek edge. I love finding these as they create a most unusual pattern in the final photograph when photographed with longer exposures. I found a nice mossy boulder to sit on with the camera positioned very low at the edge of the water. It was so peaceful there, and I let the beauty of this place wash over and through me. These moments are rare, so I wanted to fully appreciate this moment in time. I made several photographs, adjusting my composition and camera settings to get the circulating pattern I wanted in the foreground. I watched a group of bubbles and foam make a circle in about six seconds, so I adjusted my exposure time to correspond with that.

Ranger Creek with swirling patterns in the water.

After an hour or so, I decided to go to another location along the creek, which I like photographing. I got up slowly as my right leg had gone to sleep, sitting in an awkward position for so long.   As I put on my backpack and started hiking, I quickly realized that I had been so captivated by what I was photographing that my bottom got soaked from sitting on the mossy boulder. My (weird) mind promptly went to the song “Foggy Bottom Blues,” but my version was Soggy Bottom Blues. Undeterred and a little amused by my inattention, I made my way to the area I wanted to photograph. A moderately sized waterfall is wedged between two house-sized boulders, with a tree framing the right side of the scene. Moss-covered boulders in the foreground and sheer cliffs in the background serve as a backdrop. I carefully set up my camera among the rocks and began photographing. As luck would have it, I could only get a few photos before the wind started to pick up, signaling the end of my photography that morning. As I packed up my gear and started hiking, a bit weary from the hike and rock scrambling, I hoped I had at least two photographs close to what I had envisioned. It was a good day. It was a great day!

Ranger Creek after a big spring rain.