PHOTOGRAPH INFO

This photo was taken on Monday during a heavy "nor'easter" rainstorm that brought eight inches of rain over three days. The Delaware River rose 21 feet above normal early Tuesday morning.

"The Narrows" is a stunningly beautiful area between the Delaware River and the precipitous Nockamixon Rocks, a set of red shale cliffs that peak at 500 feet above the river. PA Route 32 runs between the cliffs and the river. A 1909 publication by the Torrey Botanical Club says "the cliffs form a sheer wall of rock in many places, cut by ravines down which streams tumble in cascades or waterfalls."

The cliffs face north and receive little direct sunlight. This creates a micro-climate that supports rare alpine and arctic plants species.

I had planned on shooting just the waterfall but saw the (irresistable) deer skull at the base of the falls and included it in the shot. It was whistle-clean!

Post-processing: Shot with the Canon EOS 5D and the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens at 24mm, ISO 400, shutter speed 1/200s, aperture f/7.1. Curves adjustments for contrast and saturation, color balancing for tone.

Thank you for visiting Durham Township!

--Kathleen

Good photo, and subject but I feel that with longer exposure this photo looks better.

I love this! Fantastic.

Irresistible indeed.

Great composition makes this shot powerful.

I hope you all didn't suffer too much flooding this time. Our town got hit with flooding, not as bad as it had been in other storms but bad enough to cause some evacuations to shelters. Some people were still in shelters as of yesterday.

Beautiful shot. You are always a wealth of information, thank you. Didn't happen to see the eagle? He live somewhere around there :)

I love that you focused on the foreground subject. Great shot.

Very fresh. Very funny to see the soft waterfall appear, then scroll down to find the skull of the unknown deer, Jane Doe? (sorry)

Beautiful rocks. I love old masonry and this IS old masonry. The overall effect is so rich....but it leaves me thirsting (oops) for the the wealth of fascinating upstream detail promised by the foreground. Could we, (oh please, oh please) see some of that detail in a latter KC/DT event?

Perhaps a "visual" Nockamixon Rock Concert some day?

Thanks for getting your feet wet! (I assume you did.)

I'm a sucker for skulls...and to find such a shiny-white one! Did you find it just like that on the rock? Great placement.

Cool placement of the skull; it's unexpected at the base of the triangular shaped falls.

Nice shot, but I think I would have preferred a bit more DOF in this one. It's such a tease not to have the waterfall in focus, though I know the intention was to bring focus to the skull.

I took my first trip ever to the Northeast to decide upon which University I will be attending. I wound up getting stuck overnight in JFK airport because of said storm! What a bummer...

The photograph, however, is amazing. I love the skull, the balance of eery with the serene background is great.

That is a really cool shot. Simply amazing.

Wow! Love the skull. I would have taken it with me as well as photographed it. I love skulls and bones in general. I guess it's the artist in me.
Did you leave the skull there?

I'm pretty sure the skull was placed there, which makes it less intresting. However, the background is very nice.

Just as it is in real life....
beauty and then the beast.

mrjazz: I know what you mean by the longer exposure, and many photographers have done that "soft water" look beautifully. But I used a fast shutter because I was more intersted in showing the bubbling "life" of the water contrasting with the skull.

Noreen: Didn't see the eagle that time! Still looking. :)

David Tinnon: I'm not much of a climber yet... and these cliffs are as vertical as they get! I'll see if I can find some of the alpine plant life a little closer to the ground. :) And yes, I definitely got my feet wet on this excursion! Read on...

Gatah, glassgirl and Reza: I found the skull directly below the rock where it's resting in the photo. I would've shot it where I found it but didn't want to lie down in a foot of very cold water on a 38-degree day. (A few degrees warmer and I'd have considered it, haha.) I moved the skull up to the rock but still managed to go home with wet feet, calves and knees.

I didn't take the skull home - I have enough of them already. Ya want some? :)

Jason: Thanks for the comment about the DOF. You're right, the skull is the focal point. My thought was that we've all seen hundreds of clear, crisp photos of waterfalls, but probably not many that focus on the natural activity that takes place near the falls. This deer lived and died there and I wanted to draw attention to that.

Dittos Kathleen on the time lapse water effect decision. It is a dramatic/romantic thinger that would detract from the realism of this piece.

...And whats this I read? You don't have your Master Climber hat yet. I AM shocked. It's off to Patagonia with you young lady!

well, i can't help commenting on this. mostly i never say anything because, frankly, i'm jealous.

but i love deer skulls.

nice shot, as usual.

you could have shot it 25 different ways, but this is fine.

Kathleen, moving water shots are almost always attractive, but can be a cliche. The skull saves it from that and makes it a successful photo.

really nice photography. really. all the best from germany.....

I really enjoy the spontineity that runs through your work, it's quite refreshing, but this one feels a bit contrived. If you had done a more eloquent redition of the falls it might have worked better.

Beautifully composed. Very effective. :)