It is that time of year again. Summer has waved goodbye until next year, families are lining up for portrait sessions, and the leaves are changing. One of my favorite combinations of nature’s events to capture is the Autumn waterfall, complete with orange, red, and yellow leaves. I accompanied two great photographer friends of mine to the waterfall at McConnell’s Mill for a half day of climbing and shooting. Being the ridiculous creature that I am, I took the steep and most direct way down to the falls. This was something that my companions just shook their heads at and headed off to the “long and safe” way around.

The day was a llittle too sunny for my taste, but it still yielded many, many great shots. There were a lot of green leaves still on trees, but more than enough on the rocks surrounding the waterfalls. It was the first time that I had been out on the rocks in nearly 6 months. There were a couple of slides and (somewhat) close calls that yielded scrapes and bruises on my knees and legs. I accepted these with a childlike joy, as if I was some rambunctious toddler without fear.  At one point I looked over at the other two to see that one had caught a salamander and was quickly running to show the other who had never seen one before. I laughed and shook my head, now realizing that we were all feeling like little kids at that moment. It was a departure from what this group usually does, trading abandoned buildings for the great outdoors. I mentioned that climbing on the slippery rocks, shimmying down fallen logs, and leaping from rock to rock over the drop of the falls was only slightly less dangerous as some of the things that we had done as UrbExers.

I cannot wait to visit some of my other local spots for more water and leaves. Perhaps this afternoon, in the spirit of adventure, on a day that is set aside to honor a person who, at the very least, had a sense of adventure. There’s no need to talk about all of the “not-so-nice” things that Cristóbal did. I’ll leave it at that.

-Jason