Rain had prevented an afternoon shoot with the DSLR the previous day and the rain chances were to go away overnight, so I got up before sunrise this morning to photograph the falls and portions of the Cumberland River in early morning light.
It was still overcast in the very early portion of the morning with a mist around the river area. Condensation fell upon me from the tree canopy at my first shooting area. I was the only one there and this is usually the case, when one gets out before daybreak. Most typical tourist are late risers and/or have breakfast before venturing out and about. We photography enthusiasts usually shoot first and eat later.
Initially, long shutter speeds were required due to the dim, very early, morning light; but this is exactly what I wanted, in order to get the silky look in the flowing water, creating the sense of motion.
Going back up to the walkway/trail along the river after my first stop, I noted that there were other view points that I had not explored the day before, so I continued to those other areas, checking views from the trail as I walked along.
Eventually, the overcast began to burn away and there was some good early morning sunlight, which as expected fell on the opposite side of the river. The waterfall was mostly in shadow in the very early morning; but I think I got good images anyway and the low light intensity made it easy to get the slower shutter speeds that I wanted to use.
I continued to drag the shutter (use longer than required shutter speed) a little, even though as the light brightened, I could have adjusted the aperture and/or the ISO to freeze the water motion. I prefer the silky look in the flowing water; although, there are some who object to this as creating an unreal (not as our eyes see it) image.
As the light advanced and I was satisfied that I had acquired the images that I wanted of the falls, I walked down by the river just below the parking lot, shooting several photographs of the river above the falls. By this time a few scattered visitors began to show up.
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At the end of our stay in the Liberty, Kentucky area, we decided to modify our plans and make a stop over at Cumberland Falls State Resort, Kentucky. We were only a couple of hours away and the online literature made this look like an interesting place to see.
It was much too early in the fall for the best fall color here, but our schedule dictated that we be here now. I went out late in the day of our arrival, primarily to scout, but I put my camera in our vehicle trunk just in case I decided conditions merited DSLR photographs.
Scouting along the river just above the falls, I noted a sign that prohibited one from going any further along the river above the falls, much to my dismay. I knew I could safely get closer to the top of the falls, but I heeded the sign. The top edge of falls are frequently not very interesting to photograph anyway.
This is a tourist attraction and there are railings set up at various view points with warnings not to cross the rails, which of course I really wanted to do, since I was sure I could get better compositions beyond the rails, exercising caution not to fall off of a cliff in the process. Nevertheless, I heeded the prohibitions.
As usual in the afternoon hours, there were numerous visitors out and about, with one group being escorted by a young park ranger. This time of the year there were not large crowds of visitors, as there are in the summer months. In fact most of the visitors were older people with no children. There were a few younger people, who either had no kids or only pre-school kids.
It was an overcast afternoon and, even though earlier than I would normally shoot at sunset, it was obvious that there would be no sunset light this day. So I decided to go back to my vehicle, get my camera gear and shoot anyway. As I began to get out the camera gear, rain began. I initially sat in the vehicle for a while, then decided to give up for the day. Of course, by the time I drove back to our cottage, the rain had stopped. At least I got a few iPhone images, just in case something happened to prevent me from returning in the morning, when the rain was predicted to have passed by.
Tomorrow I will try to get some long exposures of the waterfall for that silky flowing water effect.
During our September, 2019 visit to Liberty, Kentucky, we stayed in a VRBO rental near Russel Springs, Kentucky and the Cumberland Lake. The rental was in the country about a 45 minute drive via country roads to Liberty. Nearly each day, we drove by an interesting looking country antique place. What initially caught my eye was an old, rusty Ford pickup truck out front with the sign “Sue’s” on it.
Late one day on our way past, I decided to stop to get an iPhone shot of the old truck. It was just after hours for the antique place, but the owner, Sue, saw us and came out to chat with us. She actually opened a couple of the small store units and let us look around.
Barbara bought a small item that she liked and I browsed around, mostly outside, shooting interesting objects around her stores.
Sue even told me to check her yard decor at her house next door to the antique stores and invited Barbara into her house to look at her antiques.
Sue had interesting yard decor with a definite country flair.
Sue had numerous old grinding wheels and grist mill wheels. These must have been a real chore to move around.
There is something very appealing, nostalgic and comforting about country yard decor such as Sue’s.
As I was browsing around Sue’s yard, her husband, a retired school bus driver, arrived after doing some tractor work for someone. We chatted about the old truck, which he had wanted to paint, but Sue did not want the truck painted, which I think is fortunate, as it looks quite appealing in its current rusty state. Sue’s husband showed me a photograph of an old automobile in a pasture, which he was acquiring from someone he knew. He said he would paint that old car, since he was forbidden to paint the old truck.
Before we got away, I was fortunate to get a sunset shot, although it is only via my iPhone, which does not handle the high light contrast very well.
Sue’s husband also had put small lights in the old truck’s headlight holes, so I got a shot of the truck with the light on at sunset.
It is always amazing to me how friendly our country people are and it is always a pleasant surprise to meet people like Sue and her husband.
In mid-September, 2019 my wife and I visited Liberty, Kentucky for a number of reasons, but the timing was mostly because my wife wanted to attend the local apple festival.
This photographic genre is definitely well out of my comfort zone and I have to force myself to see and make these type images. I suppose this is a good exercise, nonetheless I feel much more at home in a wide open landscape with no one around and just the sounds of nature rather than raucous crowds.
A cropped version of the photo above is posted on Flickr. I cropped it to get a closer view of several of the performers, which I think is more appealing than this wide angle view that I made to take in the sign above the stage.
This festival had all the usual things that festivals have: entertainment and lots of booths with various goods, over priced food and beverages for sale to the attendees.
Liberty, Kentucky is a typical southern, rural, small town with down home country people, deeply religious and patriotic folk. Many of the families here have deep roots going back for many generations. The intermarriage of local families means that many of the residents or descendants of them are related in some manner.
Having grown up in a small, rural, southern town, I can understand the culture here. Most of the residents are conservative and have a long history of hunting, fishing and gun use as sport and as a means of supplementing their food supply. Hence, one will see such displays as this:
Many of the items displayed in the vendor booths are hand crafted, such as these beautiful wood vessels:
And, of course, many of the locals have ancestors that fought in the civil war, probably on both sides and that history is still prevalent in many vendor displays along with the hard scrabble life of rural farm history.
Everyone knows how much southerners like sweet ice tea.
This is also Trump country.
One has to take time to pick the best hat:
I did not see any political displays for any of the current crop of Democratic Party presidential candidates. I’m guessing the progressive movement is not very popular here.
There were many items to enjoy seeing and have fun photographing at many of the vendor booths. Here are just a few.