Bushkill Falls

On my way home from the trip to the Grand Canyon (of PA) I decided to stop at Bushkill Falls as it was only a little out of the way and it had been someplace I had wanted to visit. Because of the lack of rain I knew falls won't be that spectacular but I knew it would probably interesting anyway.

Bushkill Falls is a set of eight waterfalls with a set of trails that you can walk to see all the different falls. To see all the falls you have to take a hike of around two miles in the woods.

But most people just use visit the main falls which is a short walk from the entrance. 

I opted to walk the full trail as why not try to see all the falls while I was there. The walk through the woods was nice. There weren't a lot of people so it was quiet enough to hear the running stream and get some unobstructed pictures of the stream and falls. I had my R10 Mirror-less camera with me so I spent some extra time trying to get the best shots I could. The light wasn't really great and there wasn't a lot of water over the falls but I managed to get a few good shots.

 

I still have a lot to learn about getting good pictures of rivers and waterfalls but I was able to play with shutter speed to try to get the waterfalls to looks silky smooth. The two pictures below show the difference. The first picture is what you see with your eyes.

The second is the smoothing affect you get with a slow shutter speed which makes a better photograph.

Again the light was not perfect and you really need a tripod to do it right but I understand the technique better now. Handheld I could get down to about 1/3 of a second of shutter speed. Anything lower was too blurry. Getting down to 1 second would be ideal but that would require a tripod and I didn't want to carry that with me for the entire hike.

The end of the trail leads you back to the main couple of waterfalls so it was more crowed here. There were also a lot of steps here to give you a view of the waterfalls from a lot of different angles. It was fun just viewing the canyon and waterfalls from the different angles but my legs complained about all the steps especially after two days of riding.

The view of the waterfalls and creek were worth the trip. Even thought I didn't get the best pictures I really enjoyed the hike and view of the falls and river. I would like to come back sometime in the future when there is more water to see the falls in their full glory.