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08/03/2003 Entry: "clouds and sun"

I was almost tempted to blow off a planned trip up to Kilgore Falls for some infrared photo play yesterday. The morning weather was heavy overcast, with low clouds scudding before a southerly wind and enough humidity in the air that the idea of rain was completely superfluous. Hardly ideal IR conditions and barely adequate for photography of any sort.

Being an incurable optimist, almost a requirement for working with IR in the first place, I set out for the falls with a couple of rolls of Kodak HIE tucked in my bag. The long drive up didn't do much to boost my hopes, with the sky keeping its thick dark gray and revealing little evidence that the sun had even risen. The valley in which the creek runs was full of mist, which might have been a pretty sight with some sunbeams streaming through it, but merely served to lower any interesting contrasts without a good light source.

Rather than just sit on my tail and hope for an improvement in the weather, I decided to conduct an impromptu experiment in infrared phtography in overcast conditions. The first half of the first roll was shot in very cloudy light and shows it. The negs are a sort of dull mud, with the only redeeming feature of having some discernable elements which might be pulled out in later printing. But I'm a silly optimist, remember? I don't look at it as a waste of film, but as an education in when not to try shooting IR.

The weather did improve throughout the day, with even some patches of blue breaking through the layers of gray clouds. I have hopes for some decent prints from the shoot when I next hit the darkroom. Some long exposure play around some rippling water and rocks, ferns caught in a beam of sun, and an intricate interweaving of fronds from some plants along the bank of the creek.

It's an amazingly beautiful section of water to photograph, with dappled sunlight streaming through the trees. The lower section of the creek, down by the bigger falls, is always filled with a crowd of locals splashing about or just sitting in the mist rising from the cascading water. Take a short walk upstream and you're in your own private world. No one ever seems to walk the short distance through the thick woods and brambles, although enough must do it to have created the faint paths I followed. I'll treasure it as a private and secluded, yet surprisingly convenient, location for more photo trips.