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From the Podcast: A Field Recording of Sounds at a Waterfall Deep in the Appalachian Mountains

From the Podcast: A Field Recording of Sounds at a Waterfall Deep in the Appalachian Mountains

In this episode of the Fine Art Photography Podcast, the sounds of a hike to photograph a waterfall in the deep, primordial forests of Eastern Kentucky

Full episode transcript

In this episode, a field recording from the primordial forests and rock ledges of the Appalachian Mountains

Hey everybody Keith Dotson here welcoming you to another episode of the fine art photography podcast, and to the green forests and rocky overhangs deep in the mountains of eastern Kentucky.

Photography is fun to think about and to talk about. It’s fun to look at on the walls of gallery exhibitions, and to see in books and videos. But for us photographers, photography is at its best when we are out in the field actually making photographs.

In this episode, I’m bringing you along on a short but steep hike Yahoo Falls, to a think low volume waterfall that drops 113 ft from a rock ledge into a rocky basin. Behind the falls is an incredible cavernous rock overhang that provided shelter for the local indigenous people up to 9,000 years ago.

There won’t be much more talking in this episode, but that’s OK. It’s an audio medium, and I’ll close out this episode letting you hear the soothing sound of that ancient waterfall.

As I said, it’s a short hike. You encounter stone steps, and some steep and quite narrow metal steps.

They’re so narrow, I could barely fit between the handrails with my backpack on.

I was fortunate to have the place all to myself for quite a while. It was so peaceful, and my imagination ran wild, I was almost able to put myself back in time to that period before Europeans came, when the Native Americans used this place.

After exploring the area around the falls, I walked downstream in the river bed — there’s not much water so it’s easy to do, and I was greeted by an environment that looked like something from Jurassic Park — with massive boulders larger than a school bus littered here and there — most of them covered in green moss, as were the thick tree trunks. So many photo opportunities for a landscape photographer, and the air was dead still, so long exposures were a viable option.

I’ll include a link to a blog post where you can see my black and white photographs from this hike, and watch a video too, if you’re so inclined.

That’s all I’ve got for this episode. Stay tuned for a few minutes of the pristine sounds of the waterfall. I’ll talk to you again real soon.


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