6/4/12

Posted by dustin gent | File under : , ,
Several weeks ago, a few buddies and myself headed out to the Gorge. For the last few years, there have been several waterfalls on my list that I have wanted to shoot. There still are many falls on my list - which I hope to knock off this year. It took some work/research to get these directions - as they are kinda hard to get. I now understand why.

These falls are located on the Ruckel Ridge Trail. This trail is no joke. Pretty much uphill for 3 miles or so, relentlessly. After checking our coordinates, we broke down to the creek. Of course by this time, the sun was shining and the lighting was pretty harsh - thus we are heading back soon. It took 3 hours of hiking to get to the first falls. Crazy - I know.

After shooting this first falls, known as Epiphany Falls, we went downstream for about an hour I would say - at least an hour of walk time. It took longer than an hour, as we stopped and took pictures of this area that probably doesn't get shot but a few times a year, if that. We finally reached Deadman Falls, which is really an amazing small area. The trek from here to the trail is seriously brutal. It basically is heading up this sloped hill, for like 2400 feet (estimated). It took an hour to get to the trail, and then another hour+ to get to the truck.

It ended up being the last bushwhack with my 1Ds. I have a Nikon F5 - which by the way is such a beautiful camera. It is said to be the finest 35mm film body ever made. The build quality is on par with the 1 series for sure. Personally, I think the nikon is a much better looking camera than the Canon 1 series. Even the digital Nikon pro bodies look better than the 1 series. Of course looks are just cosmetic.

I hope to have my first roll of film developed and scanned in the next week. My Fuji Reala 35mm film just came in today. I am sad to see Fuji discontinue this amazing film in 35mm. They still make it in medium format - which I may end up moving to.. who knows. So I have 15 rolls of Fuji Reala, a roll of Fuji NPS 160 and a Roll of Kodak Ektar. The great thing is that the Reala is not yet expired and has been refrigerated.