Back in the beginning of September 2010, Hurricane Earl came up the east coast and hit Cape Cod.  I was hoping for some great photo opportunities at the Cape, but knew that the police would have access blocked to most of the roads near the water.  Instead, I contacted a friend of mine and we decided to head to Portland Head Light in Portland, Maine.  As the storm continued up the coast during the night, it kicked out further into the ocean.  When we arrived at the lighthouse, the storm was already further out than we had hoped as it tracked northeast toward Nova Scotia.  The large waves we had hoped to find weren't there, but the swells, along with high tide, were enough to make for some interesting photographs.

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When visiting the White Mountains of New Hampshire it's easy to get caught up in taking pictures of all the beauty that makes up this wonderful region of the country.  However, you could end up with the same pictures that many, many people have taken before you, and many others will take after you.  I admit that I have a lot of the standard pictures from the touristy locations around the White Mountains, but I also challenge myself to take photos that others might not take the time to get. 

One of the locations that I recently did this at was The Basin.  It's located right on I-93 with parking on both sides of the highway.  The Basin itself it a nice little waterfall that drops into rock that has been worn into the shape of a bowl.  It can make for a nice photograph.

However, I wanted to get some photos of the surrounding cascades and chutes. 

Just walking some of the trails around The Basin can spark some photographic creativity.  It's not difficult for me to spend a lot of time in an area like this because of my love for waterfalls and moving water.  I could literally take hundreds of photographs along these trails and end up with something that nobody else has.  It's all about taking the time to look around and see the details.  The photo to the left is a small drop that many others may have taken pictures of before I took this, but I loved the mix of greens, yellows, and oranges that offset the milky, smooth water.  This isn't the most photogenic little drop in the area, but I like the result which came from looking for something different in such a heavily travelled area.

The Basin isn't the only attraction in this area.  There are two more named waterfalls along the Basin-Cascades Trail....Kinsman Falls and Rocky Glen Falls.  They are nice waterfalls, but probably not seen by as many people as The Basin.  I like these waterfalls and think they are worth hiking to, but there is another waterfall along this trail that I don't believe is named that I like better than the others.  It's a wide waterfall that's perfectly suited for a nice panorama.

I did take some photos for a large panorama, but I also wanted to see how this waterfall looked upclose.  I put my 70-300mm lens on the camera and zoomed in a little to catch the water as it was forced to move in many different directions due to the shape of the underlying rock.  The large panorama doesn't have the detail of this movement as shown in the closeup.  This is why it pays to take your time and move around.  Many of us have more than one lens in our camera bag.  Us them.  Try wide angles.  Try closeups.  Take horizontal and vertical shots.  Use the photographic rules for your shots and then break the rules.  Just make sure to take your time and take a look around.

Until next time.

Glen Taylor

Mountain View Photography

11/9/11

If you like variety to your waterfalls then you need to hike the Beaver Brook Trail in Woodstock, New Hampshire.  There are small cascades along the trail that are nice to photograph for closeup detail.  Then there are larger drops like the one in this photograph.  The trail is especially nice when the water is flowing good like it was on the day I most recently visited here.  However, it's not one of my favorite places to go when the trail is wet.  A few years ago I was hiking on the trail as some rain started to fall.  Some parts of the trail are bare, smooth (ie: slippery when wet) rock.  I happened to lose my footing, started to slide backward at one of the larger drops, and just caught my footing again a few feet from going over.  That could have made for a not so enjoyable trip.

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The Basin is one of the more touristy areas to visit in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  I admit that I stop there during most visits to the area, but I go when most people are just getting their first cup of coffee so that I can avoid crowds.  I also discovered that once a lot of poeple see the Basin, they go back to their cars and see the next touristy spot.  Little do they know they are missing out on some waterfall gems.  One of those gems is this waterfall located on the Basin-Cascade Trail.  I don't believe this has been named but during high water, it's as gorgeous as many other named waterfalls in the region.

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