Great Falls - Olmsted Island

Author's Comments

The boardwalk takes you out over the river in stages, each bridge a little more committed than the last, and by the time you reach the main overlook you are genuinely above the gorge. The Potomac here does not behave like a river. It becomes something else. In March, at flood stage, the volume of water moving through that channel is difficult to comprehend from the shore. On the island you comprehend it. You feel it in your sternum. This is not a subtle place to photograph. The drama is total and somewhat indifferent to your lens choice. I have tried long exposures here that smooth the water into silk and come away feeling like the image lied about the experience. The falls at this volume want a faster shutter. They want the chaos preserved. Bring a lens cloth. Bring two. The spray reaches you on heavy flow days, and it reaches your glass before you notice. Spring is when I come. The light in April is still clean and low, and the water is running with snowmelt from the mountains. Fall is the more photogenic season by the usual measures, the gorge walls going rust and ochre behind the white water. But spring is when the place is most itself. Loud and indiscriminate and a little frightening. The camera almost doesn't matter.

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