Revisiting Locations – Finding Creativity in Familiarity

Any creative person will tell you that it’s good to keep moving forward, trying new things, and going to new places. This is very true. However, sometimes going back to an old photography location can be a great idea. Even if you have an image from that location that you think is good, it doesn’t mean you can’t improve on what you’ve already done, or do it differently.

For me, January 2020 seemed to be the month of revisiting locations. It wasn’t really planned that way to start, but I’m happy how things worked out. I think I did some of my best work to date in the locations I revisited, and for two of the locations it was nice to have company for the day. Shooting with other photographers and bouncing ideas off one another often leads to looking at the same scene a different way.

Hocking Hills - Ohio

In early January I headed to Hocking Hills with Eric and Doug. I’ve been there countless times but this time I wanted to just focus (no pun intended) on shooting my RB67, working on new compositions, and also shooting both B&W and Color. I also shot a new film, the SVEMA MZ-3 that I wrote about in my previous blog.

Abandoned Church - somewhere near Hocking Hills, Ohio. Mamiya RB67 ProSD on Kodak Ektar film.

Upper Falls at Old Man’s Cave - Hocking Hills, Ohio. Mamiya RB67 ProSD on Kodak Ektar film.

Doug had never been to Hocking Hills before, so it was nice to see his reaction and enjoyment at what I consider to be a magical place. I always tell people that Ohio has some of the best parks in the country, and Hocking Hills is one of the crowning jewels of Ohio’s parks.

Our day at Hocking was cut a little short in the mid-afternoon as a tremendous wind and rain storm moved in while we were at Ash Cave. I consider us to be lucky as we made it back to the car before the worst of it hit, and, more importantly, the car wasn’t crushed by a falling tree. Another car in the parking lot wasn’t so lucky – a large dead Ash tree fell on it, smashing in the roof and blowing out the glass. Someone had a very bad day that day.

If you are interested in visiting Hocking Hills or learning more about the park, go to:

https://www.hockinghills.com/

Lower Falls at Old Man’s Cave - Hocking Hills, Ohio. Mamiya RB67 ProSD on Kodak Ektar film.

Also, one important note is that in general, there is no phone reception in the park. If you want to make it easier on yourself to get around, and also have maps of the park ready while you are there, download the free app. It works in conjunction with GPS and makes life while in the park much easier.

Sharon Woods - Ohio

Sharon Woods Middle Falls - Mamiya RB67 ProSD w/50mm lens and 135 adapters on SVEMA MZ-3 ISO 3 film

In mid January I made a hastily-planned stop at Sharon Woods to revisit the middle falls that I’ve shot a few times. The water was flowing well after recent rains so I decided to have another go at it. The times I’ve been there before there hasn’t been good flow. I also shot some more of the SVEMA MZ-3 film – the more I work with it the better I am getting at predicting the results and reciprocity failure.

This waterfall is always difficult to shoot as its almost two waterfalls in one. The left side with the rock where the water flows onto and over it, and the right side with its cascades. With the flow I had on that day it looked more “unified” than normal. I also included a little more background than I have in the past, so that the frame doesn’t feel so tight. You can just see the old bridge uprights in the background from a prior bridge that used to be in the park.

To learn more about Sharon Woods, and all of the other things the park offers, go to:

https://www.greatparks.org/sharon-woods

A brief word on gear – one of the best “photography” purchases I’ve made in the past was a pair of knee-high waterproof boots. They were $80 and allow me to wade into, and stand in, water that’s up to about 18” high without getting wet and/or freezing. To have this ability is very liberating when it comes to shooting waterfalls and other things that require walking around in water. I don’t have to worry about keeping my feet dry and often the best vantage point is in the water.

Cataract Falls – Indiana

I visited Cataract Falls for the first time back in October 2018, and wrote about it here:

https://www.jeremymuddphoto.com/blog/2018/10/15/chasing-waterfalls-in-indiana

At the time I explored and photographed only the lower falls area – I was super late getting there due to being lost, so my time was shorter than I had planned. And there were a LOT of debris in the upper and middle falls areas – logs, fallen trees, etc. Ever since that trip I’ve been wanting to get back there and work those other areas.

So last weekend I headed back to Cataract to give it another try. Doug and Eric went with me on this trip – it was nice to have the company for such a long (2.5 hours) drive. Also neither one of them had been there before, so it was all-new to them. I knew that Indiana had received quite a bit of rain prior to the trip, so my hope was that the falls were flowing well.

Upon arrival we headed straight back to the lower falls at the far end of the park. The area had received so much rain that the falls were no longer visible – they were completely under water. So back to the middle and upper falls area we went. These areas weren’t so bad in terms of water, had good flow, and a side-benefit of said flow was that all of the debris that were in the way for my prior trip were completely gone.

Cataract Falls - Indiana. Mamiya RB67 ProSD on SVEMA MZ-3 35mm film with 135 adapters.

Given the cloudy/misty weather conditions, it was a B&W day for me for certain. I shot ACROS, Ortho Plus, and SVEMA MZ-3 film stocks. With Doug and Eric in attendance we bounced ideas off each other and also worked the area from several different vantage points.

I think I would like to visit again when there is good fall color – Fall 2020 maybe?

To learn more about Cataract Falls, visit:

http://cataractfalls.com/

McCormick’s Falls

After spending A LOT of time working Cataract Falls, we headed towards McCormick’s Falls near Spencer, Indiana. It’s only a short 20 minute drive from Cataract and worth visiting if you are already in the area.

The last time I was there the flow was not very good, but I was happy with what I shot. This time the flow was much better! I shot a few different angles and lens lengths, but my favorite was straight at the falls with a longer 180mm lens to fill most of the view with the falls.

McCormick’s Falls - Indiana. Mamiya RB67 ProSD on Ilford Ortho Plus film

To learn more about McCormick’s Falls, visit:

https://www.in.gov/dnr/parklake/2978.htm

OK, a few words about two of the films I shot this past month: Ilford Ortho Plus and SVEMA MZ-3. Both are ortho films, which means they are not sensitive to red. That means that anything that is red in the image tends to render fairly dark, and blues (skies) tend to blow out quicker. They also both have a lot of contrast compared to the Fuji ACROS that is my usual go-to 100-speed film. I think both films are good for shooting moody, winter waterfall and landscape shots, but for general work they may be a little too contrasty. We’ll see – I’ll continue to shoot them more to see what I get in the future. Nothing will ever replace ACROS for me, but its fun to work with new film stocks!

For all of the locations I mentioned above, I only brought my film cameras with me. In the past I’ve always brought a digital kit as a back-up “just in case” but have never needed it. And when I’ve got other people along with me that have gear as well, having less gear with me means more room in the car. I never missed having the digital gear and frankly, only having one kit/medium with me and only the corresponding lenses that went with it was liberating.

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading! I hope this has inspired you to revisit some of your old photography haunts and look at them with fresh eyes!

If you have any questions about the places I’ve mentioned or any of the films/processes I’ve used, please reach out.

Jeremy

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Feb 4 Revisiting Locations – Finding Creativity in Familiarity

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Feb 4 Revisiting Locations – Finding Creativity in Familiarity

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