OVER THE EDGE

Canon EOS REBEL XS, Promaster 19-35 lens @ 19mm, ISO 200, f/16, 0.6 sec

  Monday evening was outstanding.
  A fellow photographer friend, John Deas, had messaged through Facebook me on Saturday and stated he would be traveling through my area on his way to Nashville and wanted to know if I wanted to show him my "secret" spots to photograph.
  Well, there are no secret spots, but he didn't have to try hard to get me and my buddy Tim Owens to take him into the Cherokee National Forest on a photog excursion.  We went to Bald River Falls with the intention of hiking back through the Bald River Gorge to Suislides but got sidetracked when Tim showed us a trail that back tracked against the gorge trail and led down to step ladder cascades between Bald River Falls and Kahuna Falls.
  This spot was new to me and an absolutely beautiful place.  There were two sets of cascades with a nice pool of swirling water just below Kahuna Falls. If we had gotten there in the morning, we could have shot for 3 or 4 hours. Unfortunately, we got there late in the evening and the light was fading fast. We did get a few good shots in though.
  The shot above is the last shelf before the top of Bald River Falls and John found this while I was up top in the pool just below Kahuna Falls. When I was done shooting from there I turned around and captured John photographing from this spot (below) and the view from my vantage point was incredible. With the forest and bridge in front of Bald River Falls in the background, the angle I was at made it look like one false step and I was a goner. This was not the case though. I was perfectly safe.

ON THE EDGE - John Deas setting up a shot on the last tier above Bald River Falls