Of Wildness and Wet
“What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wilderness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”
—Gerard Manley Hopkins
With rain in the forecast, I made a four hour drive yesterday to Ricketts Glen in Pennsylvania. Ricketts is a wonderful place, with 21 named waterfalls (and countless other smaller cascades and drops) along a four-mile trail. Although each waterfall is quite beautiful, I went past most of them without even taking my camera out of the bag. If you spend enough time in the field, you reach a point when you stop taking pictures of things, and start thinking about how those things might make a good picture. To me, a waterfall is not a photographic subject itself, but rather an abstract compositional element—a line, curve, or shape that must successfully relate to other elements of a scene before a successful photograph can be made. So, while exploring Ricketts, I assessed each cascade, waterfall, and rapid for its compositional potential. Finding nothing to my liking, I moved on. Finding something that I think could work, I’d stop, set up my equipment, and give it a go.
The shoot was extremely difficult, as the rain never stoppped all day, coming down in a steady drizzle. I used a small umbrella to protect my equipment while working, but even then my camera and lenses were getting soaked. Soon, all of my dry cloths for wiping moisture from my lens were wet as well. But I kept shooting, despite the challenges, trying to find images that would reveal the character of this magical glen.
The waterfalls of Pennsylvania are much more subtle than the thundering giants of places such as Yosemite and the moss-covered Columbia River Gorge. Yet they have their own quiet beauty, revealed to those who are patient and persistent. I struggled all day in the cold damp, but I managed to find one scene that seemed to fulfill the promise offered by Ricketts Glen. It may not be as dramatic as some of the waterfalls out west, but to me, this small cascade will forever tell a story of wildness and wet.
