The final day! I had considered ending the month on a high, by climbing Pen y Fan, but in spite of
some early sun, the afternoon was overcast and I had a couple of loose ends to tie up, so it was
back to the waterfalls again, two of them, in two separate short walks. Luckily the rain had stopped
so there was no need for the brolly-pod, although I took it just in case.
First I revisited Melincourt Waterfall. Although I'd got some pretty good pictures of it earlier in
the month, the fall itself was quite pathetic, with barely a trickle coming over the 80ft high fall.
This was the worst waterfall shot I'd taken in terms of water quantity, so I wanted to get a better
one after all the recent rain.
The autumn colours were looking really good this time, and the fall was looking much better. I took
quite a few different photographs this time, different angles, compositions and viewpoints,
including a couple of panoramas. It was amazing how much more convenient it was to do this without
the hassle of having to set up a brolly pod too. The spray caused a few problems and required much
lens cleaning in between shots, but it was still much easier without any rain to contend with.
Next I revisited Henrhyd Falls. After the previous day's photographic disaster I was determined to
get some decent shots. As I approached the car park I passed a farm with a black labrador running
down the driveway. As I parked the car the same dog (I presume) ran up to meet me. As I proceeded to
walk to the falls the dog followed me. I was going to open and shut the gate quickly to stop him
getting through, but before I even got there he dived under a small gap in the fence. Obviously this
dog knew his way around, and seemed determined to accompany me to the falls.
To be fair, he wasn't leaping up all over me, just running back and fore along the track, so he
wasn't really with me, but near me most of the time. I tried taking a few snaps of him, but it
wasn't easy as he wouldn't stay still. After messing about with manual settings on ISO 400 I ended
up settling for program mode with flash.
I started off by locating a good viewpoint on the river bed, with interesting foreground rocks. This
was far enough away from the fall that spray wasn't a problem, and I got a few decent shots there.
The dog insisted on splashing about in the river in front of the camera for a lot of the time
though, so I had to wait until he was out of the picture.
I took more shots from two more viewpoints, including the previous day's, and got much better
results. Even though I had to deal with spray there weren't any raindrops to worry about, and the
shorter exposures gave less time for spray to collect on the lens. At one point the dog ran along
the path that went behind the waterfall, perhaps he wanted to be in the picture? I don't think he
can be seen clearly though, he wouldn't stay still.
During this time there were a few other visitors, including families with kids, some of whom were
bothered by the dog, who was no longer paying much attention to me. Some of them thought the dog was
mine and gave harsh looks in my direction, but I explained that he wasn't.
Going back down to the riverbed I then proceeded to photograph some mushrooms. They were growing in
great profusion on some tree trunks and I got some nice shots. I tried a mixture of fast film speeds
and flash with interesting results. I took about sixty photographs with no battery problems.
I really enjoyed the last day. Much better photos and far more pleasant not walking in rain. It's a
pity that the autumn colours have become so good in recent days. With the recent rain the time is
really good for waterfall photographs now, much better than earlier in the month. Seems I'll have to
make more visits in the coming weeks, but for now I need a nice long rest.
Paul
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The October Project 2003
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