Ice Falls

It's been wicked cold in the Virginia area over the past few weeks, so I haven't been out shooting many landscapes, however, I did sneak out this weekend to capture one of the hidden waterfalls in Northern Virginia.

The falls lies at the end of the Scott's Run Nature Preserve river trail. Scott's Run is located not far from Great Falls in the Langley/McClean area and has several trails that make for a nice afternoon adventure. The river trail is relatively flat (at least until the very end) and follows a small river that eventually feeds into the Potomac River by means of a hidden waterfall. I say the waterfall is hidden because you don't know you are going to see it until the very last second. Along the trail you have a few opportunities to cross the river, but the path is made easy via some stepping stones.

After a week of below freezing temperatures, the falls had solidified into more of an "ice falls." I got a few amusing shots but my favorite one was this print showing the combination of a flowing falls and the solid ice. Although the print was great in color, I thought the contrast of the solid ice and flowing water looks particularly powerful in black and white. Photo taken with Nikon D800, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8, Gitzo tripod w/Really Right Stuff BH-55 ballhead and a ND8 neutral density filter.