To finish out the fall season I met up with Dan Sherman to check out a couple places in the Gorge that we both had on our list.  First, we went up Gorton Creek, which is magical this time of year!  It was pretty much a perfect day: mostly cloudy, with a little rain.  We shot the creek before heading up to the Gorton Creek Falls and Emerald Falls.

As we reached Emerald Falls the skies parted directly above and made the lighting quite harsh, so we decided to shoot Gorton Creek Falls first.  The trail to the falls appears to come to an end, but if you scramble up the hillside, you can find a “path” to Gorton Creek Falls.  It’s not very difficult or very long to get there, but I’m sure the steep slope has deterred many people from reaching it.  The waterfall has some potential, as it has a short upper fall, but unfortunately at the bottom it is nothing but tree carnage.  Dan didn’t even want to shoot the scene, and I wasn’t too impressed with the scene either, but I thought, “might as well, just to say I’ve been here”.

Next we went back down to shoot Emerald Falls.  I shot it first, while Dan shot the creek, then we switched.  Dan and I shot this scene quite differently, and have very different styles.  You can check out his shot here.

After we were done we headed to Spirit Falls, but on the way there the rain started POURING, so we decided that to stop and have lunch in Hood River.  By the time we were done eating the storm had past, and partly cloudy skies remained.  When we got to Spirit Falls there were two guys already there who were absolutely soaked because they had been there during the down pour.  I hope they got the shot they were looking for because they earned it.

Two weeks later we headed up Trillium Lake for some sunrise.  This was Dan’s first visit in 6 years!  I’m not even sure how that’s possible, but apparently ignoring locations for extended periods of time is the secret formula for magic light because he hadn’t been to Jefferson Park for that long, and that was epic!  As we approached we could tell that the high clouds were going to put on a show for us, but the lighting seemed to be quite early so we were a little nervous we were going to be late.  Fortuneately we arrived at the perfect time to setup the shot, and immediately start shooting…

For all the times I’ve made the trip to Trillium and came away with nothing, this makes up for it.  J