- Joined
- Jul 14, 2011
- Messages
- 4,173
- Reaction score
- 2,551
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
This is easily the hardest I've ever worked for a photo. This photo of Spirit Falls in Southern Washington. I woke up at 7am, a bit tired and under the weather. I drove across icy roads at about 30 mph for 2 hours to meet with some friends in Salem. We purchased chains for his car and headed up to Washington where this fall is located. It took about 7 hours to get to the parking area (the normal drive would've been 3 hours).
We get to the area of this fall (one of my friends had been there before, but barely recognized it because of the heavy blanket of snow). There's 20 inches of snow-pack. Sometimes I stumbled. Sometimes I just slid. But we descended with the grace of a thousand unicorns.
It's a 45-60 degree descent in 20 inches of snow for a good 700-800 feet. When we got down there, one slip could've been disaster near the fall.
I was a bit disillusioned with all the risk at this point, it put me out of the artistic head-space. I snapped a total of 4 RAW files, this being one of them.
Then of course there was the hike back up which was an hour and a half through 20 inches of snow at a 45-60 incline. On the drive back we stopped at Multnomah falls (it was night already), got out of the car, and were INSTANTLY chilled to the core. The wind was 50 mph sustained @ 20 degree temp. So I abandoned the Multnomah night shot that I wanted to grab.
By the time it was all said and done, and I was home, I had spent 18 hours in bad weather and came out with four RAW files. These were definite extremes for my photography and not everyday practice. But a great experience nonetheless.
So comes the name of this photo "Inner Spirit". This trip was much more about inner drive and mounting adversity then about photography. Really testing the absolute edge in ways that aren't necessarily fun but can be rewarding and fulfilling.
Inner Spirit by Majeed Badizadegan, on Flickr
We get to the area of this fall (one of my friends had been there before, but barely recognized it because of the heavy blanket of snow). There's 20 inches of snow-pack. Sometimes I stumbled. Sometimes I just slid. But we descended with the grace of a thousand unicorns.
It's a 45-60 degree descent in 20 inches of snow for a good 700-800 feet. When we got down there, one slip could've been disaster near the fall.
I was a bit disillusioned with all the risk at this point, it put me out of the artistic head-space. I snapped a total of 4 RAW files, this being one of them.
Then of course there was the hike back up which was an hour and a half through 20 inches of snow at a 45-60 incline. On the drive back we stopped at Multnomah falls (it was night already), got out of the car, and were INSTANTLY chilled to the core. The wind was 50 mph sustained @ 20 degree temp. So I abandoned the Multnomah night shot that I wanted to grab.
By the time it was all said and done, and I was home, I had spent 18 hours in bad weather and came out with four RAW files. These were definite extremes for my photography and not everyday practice. But a great experience nonetheless.
So comes the name of this photo "Inner Spirit". This trip was much more about inner drive and mounting adversity then about photography. Really testing the absolute edge in ways that aren't necessarily fun but can be rewarding and fulfilling.
Inner Spirit by Majeed Badizadegan, on Flickr
Last edited:
![[No title]](/data/xfmg/thumbnail/37/37129-2b15d9f6bc8d43c2c1247a6c591d14aa.jpg?1734169834)
![[No title]](/data/xfmg/thumbnail/40/40285-2ce5915035c220ccb3485030863b62d0.jpg?1734174700)
