Date Taken: 11/07/2017
Location: Soco Falls on the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway near Cherokee, North Carolina

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Date Taken: 05/29/2017
Location: Soco Falls, 1.5 miles south of Soco Gap on the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Milepost 455.7, near Cherokee, North Carolina.

Camera: Canon 7D Mark II
Lens: EF 18-135
Focal Length: 18mm
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1.6 Seconds
Aperture: f/18
Filters: Syrp ND
Exposure: Aperture Priority
How I Got This Shot: It was a rainy day and we almost didn’t stop to visit the falls. However the rain created good flow and provided good lighting. There was also hardly anyone else there which made it nice for getting a good shot of the falls.

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Date Taken: 01/21/2014
Location: Soco Falls, near milepost 456
A wintry view of Soco Falls, located on US 19, a mile or so from the Parkway

Camera: Nikon D7000
Lens: Tokina AT-x Pro 12-24
Focal Length: 24mm
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1.3 seconds
Aperture: f/18
Filters: Circular polarizer
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: Soco Falls, while not directly on the Blue Ridge Parkway, is still adjacent to it, only a mile or two south on US Highway 19 from the interchange at Soco Gap. Also, it’s one of the few Parkway attractions still accessible during winter, as the Parkway between Cherokee and North Carolina Highway 191 itself is typically closed during the winter months. On Tuesday, the snow had begun to pile up at the higher elevations, and US 19 was becoming more difficult to navigate, so I had to act fast in capturing the popular falls. I set up at the top of the second waterfall to the right for safety (Soco Falls is a convergence of two streams, and the hike to the base is difficult at best) and composed the image with the first waterfall to the left, and the icy rock outcropping to the right for a wintry contrast. I used a standard circular polarizer for slowing my shutter speed to give the impression of movement in the waterfall. In post-processing, I cropped the image slightly to tighten and balance the composition, made a color correction which removed some of the haze in the original RAW image, and removed a small, pesky branch that had creeped into the top left portion of the image, and would have been a distraction had I kept it there. Being a very picky, purist sort of guy in terms of keeping things as close as possible to what I saw, it’s very rare that I make an alteration like that to any of my images, no matter how small, as I tend to be a Photoshop minimalist – but this however was one of those cases, as it was impossible to for me pull the branch out of the frame physically before shooting.

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Location: Soco Falls
Just shot October 15 2013. Soco Falls Autumn Splendor! Peak colors being displayed at Soco Falls right now!

Camera: Canon 5D MKII
Lens: Ef 24-105 f/4L IS USM
Focal Length: 47mm
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1.6 sec
Aperture: f16
Filters: Circular polarizer
Exposure: manual
How I Got This Shot: Fron the observation deck you can lean you tripod into the angled rail! This is a must because you have to be able to get over the top of the tall rail. Leaning your tripod into it and then anchoring it with your third leg helps this to stabilize the shot. Make sure you are lined up properly and then use a handheld trigger or wireless trigger to take the shot. Remember that you have to dial in your circular polarizer hence the circular part… look for reduced reflections on the water and saturated colors and you will know you are there! Good Luck. I bet another week will still be good !! In addition, I lead and teach workshops for waterfall photography. I have one this Saturday Oct 19 at Dry Falls – follow me to my facebook page where you can find more info and sign up! Additionally, I also include with the workshop one full hour of my post production workflow as a screencast video. Thanks for your support! Deb

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