Burney Falls

Burney Falls, probably the most visited waterfall in California outside of Yosemite. A waterfall photographed so much, it's hard to make something here that stands out. 

I spent the day driving around the Shasta area looking for new vantage points to photograph Mount Shasta from for when it becomes covered in snow again. Once the day began to come to an end, there were a decent amount of clouds in the sky, and I thought, "there might be a good sunset tonight." I don't think I have ever seen a photo of Burney with some good color in the sky, so I figured I would make the drive over there and see what happened.

I made the short hike over to the bottom of the falls, and the roar of Burney Falls is always so majestic, no matter how many times you go there. Once I was at the bottom, I thought I would try to utilize the creek flowing out of it to give it a cool, long exposure, rushing water look, pointed up at the sky. I hopped around the creek a bit, taking a few photos here and there, trying to see what I liked the most. I settled on a spot, and waited for the sun to go down. But unfortuately, nothing ever happened. 

The following day, I uploaded the photos onto my computer to see if maybe something stood out to me, and I was amazed how the light gently illuminated the top of the waterfall on this one. Something I didn't notice as I was taking it. A photo I took as an experiment, expecting to be a throwaway, ended up being the one with the magic. It's funny how that works sometimes. Nature is always full of surprises.