Thanks to winter letting up lately, there’s been some more opportunities for landscape photography. I’ve been so itching to get out there and get a new shot. Thankfully, that opportunity came recently. I learned that a small window had opened for a certain kind of photo demonstrating water power and I wanted to capitalize on that chance. Here’s what I got.
With the onset of spring, the American Falls reservoir opens up the spillway to let water out in preparation for this year’s addition of water thanks to snow thaw. They have the bottom gates open for about a week or two every year. I learned that this was happening just as it was happening. Suffice it to say that we made an immediate trip out to American Falls so I could try for the shot.
I planned to try for a silky water shot of the water cascading down from the dam. Thanks to current conditions, that plan was not possible. The wind that day was murder. It was so strong that it was threatening to blow me over on several occasions. There was no way that I could set up a tripod and keep the shutter open for several seconds in that kind of wind. It would blow over, possibly off the ledge and into the powerful turbulent waters of the Snake River.
Disappointed but still determined to get a shot, I opted for hand-holding. It was the best way to guarantee that I would be walking out of the park below the dam with an operational and intact camera. With the neck strap, I knew I wasn’t going to lose the camera due to the power of high winds which were still wreaking havoc down in the small canyon under the dam.
I took several shots. I was hoping that the white pelicans would swim closer into my shot so I could get them into the frame as well. Sadly, they preferred to keep their distance (though I can’t blame them).
As I was about to leave, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I turned back around to see if I was right. Sure enough, I had seen a fish trying with all its power to jump back up the waterfall. So I decided that I wanted to try and get the fish in the shot if I could. It would add a little bit of flavor to the shot.
I waited several minutes and tried several shots before I realized that it wasn’t just one fish trying to jump back up. There were, in fact, two fish. I discovered this as I was snapping the shot above. You can see the fish in the lower right-hand corner. They probably look like two spots out in the middle of the foaming water which don’t belong.
I was sure glad that I spotted those fish jumping up the falls. This shot ended up being the best shot of the day partly because of those fish.
