Everyone else is posting this story today, so I guess I will as well. For anyone who already hasn’t figured this out: Stepping over a guard railing and into a raging river at the brink of a 317 ft. high waterfall = NOT VERY SMART.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/20/BA0H1KCRAP.DTL
Bassi Falls was a must stop place at sunset for my private workshop on Ice House Rd. My client had not been to Bassi before (or if he had as a kid he did not remember). For me this was my third time here this year alone. Amazingly enough there was even MORE flow in the waterfall than when I was here a week earlier on July 4. Not much more but it was noticeable. Usually by July this waterfall is down to a trickle. Not this year!
We arrived about an hour before sunset. My client was thoroughly impressed with the magnificence of the waterfall. We spent our time wandering around the bottom of the falls working different compositions (of which there are plenty). By my experience I “knew” that Bassi gets beautiful warm light for a short time immediately before sunset. However … What I failed to recognize is that later in the summer this does not happen. The sun goes off the waterfall a half hour before sunset and it did not seem to get that really beautiful light. I should have known that but oh well. We still had half an hour of shooting the falls in shade which also works very well indeed. And the best part (and most surprising part) of the evening: No Mosquitoes!!
South Fork Silver Creek is full of small waterfalls in addition to the big 64 footer. This 20 ft high falls is one of the nicer ones we found along the trail. It is a bit steep getting down to it but once down it offers quite a few different possibilities for compositions. I liked this spot lower down which shows the lower cascade and enchanting curvature of the stream.
On Saturday afternoon I was leading a private workshop up on Ice House Rd. Our first stop was South Silver Creek at Ice House Reservoir. The light was crappy when we arrived (as anticipated) so we just worked on various techniques of dealing with the high dynamic range and compositions. There are not a lot of options at this particular waterfall for composition but for some reason I really liked the little nook in the rock here at the edge of the cliff and personally I worked it to death while my client moved around the area as best he could.
After spending time here we climbed up to the top of the cliff where we could see more small waterfalls called the Teacups. We saw a couple people up there and I was wondering what they were doing. Then I realized they were kayakers! We watched them come down the Teacups and stop at the top of the big waterfall. We thought they might come down the big waterfall so we hurried back down hoping to get some shots of them coming down it. South Silver Creek Falls is 64 ft high. It seems crazy but kayakers have come down this one before. These guys, though, after taking a long look at it decided not to descend. Bummer! I was not sure the reason but I was thinking it might have to do with a huge log at the bottom of the falls. As I found out later, one of the kayakers was actually someone I knew. He said the flow was just too high to do the big waterfall. Seems quite logical to me.
In the meanwhile the waterfall came into the shade so we spent a lot more time shooting the falls here and some smaller waterfalls on the creek before moving on to Bassi Falls for sunset. We spent more time here than I had planned but it really worked out well I thought. Sometimes you just need to go with the flow.
I went up towards Donner Summit after work on Friday. I had initially intended to go all the way to Donner Summit, but I realized I did not have enough time to do the hike I wanted, so instead I stopped off at the South Yuba River at Lang Crossing. A friend had informed me about a waterfall in this area and I had to check it out.
The thing is I was not sure exactly where it was or how far of a hike it was. I was thinking it could not have been more than 2 miles, though, so off I went. At least I was sure I was on the correct trail, and it was pretty easy going. After only 1 mile of hiking I came to the waterfall. This is a man made waterfall, created by the dam at Lake Spaulding, which forms the start of the South Yuba River below Lake Spaulding. Even though it is man made, it is still quite a spectacular waterfall, dropping 278 ft. from the lake down into the bottom of the river bed. With the huge snowpack this year, PG&E are letting out a lot of water on the South Yuba, and although the view of the falls is from across the river, it is still quite an amazing sight. It would have been possible to get up closer to this one, but rather on the dangerous side as there are two upstream dams from here. To get down in the river bed for a closer view would be slightly foolish, and deadly if water was released all of a sudden from one of those dams. I did not have much time before dark to get any closer anyway. I did, however, almost lose my tripod. I took my eyes off it for a second, thinking it was stable, but it toppled over, stopping just before it went over the cliff. Geesh, that was a close one. Meanwhile, the mosquitoes were also in a frenzy here. I had to put on two doses of skeeter juice, and only that stopped them from biting me, but not from continuing to buzz around me while I took my photos.
This shot was taken zoomed in with my 100-400 lens. So although the waterfall does not look 300 ft. high from this photo, I assure you that it is. It is an easy hike to get here, and definitely worth going to see.