Every so often I find something on Instagram or some other social media which tweaks my curiosity.  It’s a landscape photo which looks amazing.  It makes me want to go there and take my own photo of the location.  Sometimes I actually get to do just that.  Here is one of those stories about a hidden waterfall.

I saw some photos of this amazing looking waterfall on the Snake River which intrigued me.  Sadly, like many of the photos I find online, I don’t get to immediately learn where the place is.  This waterfall photo was no different.  I had to wait a while to find out where to find the place.  I recently did and had the chance to photograph it for myself.

This waterfall is actually quite large.  It’s at least a couple stories tall.  The problem with it is that it’s really difficult to photograph from a good angle.  The best angle on the falls is to take a boat out to the middle of the river and stand on a sandbar just in front of the waterfall itself.  Such was not an option for me this time.

I did, however, find the one place where I could photograph the falls from the shoreline.  It’s a quick jaunt off the road after you cross one of the streams feeding the falls.  You still must be careful as there are no safety rails currently to prevent you from falling off the cliff and into the swift-flowing Snake River.  Many who fall in aren’t found again.

I had some concerns about this photo shoot.  My biggest concern was about the light.  I wasn’t sure that I wouldn’t be dealing with harsh direct sunlight ruining the photo.  Thankfully, it was a cloudy day so there was ample shade for taking the photo and getting a proper exposure.

I started with some stopping of the water shots.  Since those weren’t quite so interesting to me, I decided to try for silky water.  I had my tripod, cable release, and ND filters.  The one problem I had was that the wind was kicking up quite a bit.  I wasn’t sure how stable my tripod would be thanks to it.  Thankfully, that wasn’t an issue.

I took several exposures trying for the right one.  I was looking for good overall exposure.  However, I wasn’t looking at whether or not the plants in front of the waterfall were staying steady.  Of course, they weren’t.  Somehow, I managed to capture a multi-second landscape photo of the waterfall without the plants blurring in front thanks to motion.  I don’t know how I got so lucky but it worked out.  I didn’t end up running with the photo I initially thought would work because of this.

Here it is for you to enjoy.  A beautiful, tall, and secluded waterfall on the Snake River which is surprisingly easy to access.  I hope you enjoy the beauty of this hidden waterfall.