Leon Turnbull Photography

Another person almost dies going over a waterfall. The report indicates he was trying to cross the river above Corlieu Falls and fell down a 30 ft waterfall. Corlieu Falls is much bigger than 30 ft high, so I guess he just fell down one of the tiers of the waterfall.

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/24/3791270/volunteer-firefighter-rescues.html

In other news … It is a bit late to tell you this but if you are heading to the CA state fair this weekend, my photo “Pool of Cold Fire” is featured in the Placer County display. Be sure to check it out if you can.

Also, I have several photos printed in Ann Marie Brown’s newest edition of her California Waterfalls book. I was quite excited to be a part of her latest edition. Her book is still the ultimate (printed) source for CA waterfalls.

On up to Blue Canyon in Sonora Pass. Another roadside waterfall, this one 32 ft high, dropping quite impressively into Deadman Creek. It was not too difficult to get down to creek level and it is certainly much more intimate than shooting this falls from the road. I had initially wanted to come back here the next day, cross the creek, and work my way up Blue Canyon to try to find more waterfalls up there. But I had second thoughts when I examined how swiftly the creek was flowing here, it did not look easily crossable, not to mention numb freezing cold. Perhaps I should not try that tomorrow after all. After shooting Blue Canyon I drove back down the pass where I would be sleeping in my vehicle. Or I should say trying to sleep.

I took a quick trip to Sonora Pass last weekend. I left work a bit early and zipped on down the freeway. Zip is a relative term of course. Traffic was awful. I had hoped to get to Sonora Pass by 6pm in order to hike Kennedy Meadows Friday evening but by the time I got down there it was much later than anticipated and I didn’t think I’d have time to do that hike before dark. Instead, I drove up the pass to shoot a couple roadside waterfalls that I had been to before but wanted to get better pictures of. This first one was Deadman Creek Falls. It is just a small 18 footer, but with a lot of flow in the creek there was a lot of mist at the base of the falls. I had to shoot this one from higher up, at the side of the highway. It was a good start to the weekend. But would it last? Stay tuned to find out.

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.