Pineapple Express by ramij

Pineapple Express - Oneonta Gorge, OR This weekend called for a rare weather occurrence called "The Pineapple Express" or a "Atmospheric River". Those are basically terms for a prolonged focus of rain that consistently dumps inches and inches of moisture in one location. What did that mean for me? It meant the rare opportunity to chase down one of my photographic bucket lists ... Oneonta Gorge with weeping walls on the side. Terence and I decided to head up in the middle of the day to see if we had any shot of entering into the canyon. For those that haven't been here, it's a potentially dangerous journey in, even on the best of days. It involves a wade through a creek and then a scale of dozens and dozens of logs jammed up in one part of the canyon. Usually once you cross the logs you will find yourself maybe calf or knee deep in the creek on the other end. This day was just a bit different. As soon as we arrived in the normally calm flowing creek we noticed the power of the flow. Even before reaching the rock, we were waist deep in raging waters trying to push us (and our packs into the drink). Once we got over the rock, we noticed our path over the logs was going to be much more difficult than normal. The logs that are normally a clear path to the other side were a mix of completely flooded over, floating, and stuck in place. We carefully navigated our path over the safe logs and took our time making our way to the other side. Once we made it to the last log we could reach, we dunked our tri-pods in the water to see if we could set up shop. I have no idea how deep the water was here because my tri-pod was completely submerged and I couldn't reach the bottom. We had to get crafty and set up our tri-pods on the log we were standing on and brace the other legs against the rock wall on the side. Another challenge was the logs were shaking from the fast moving flow making it difficult to compose a sharp shot. With the pouring rain and fast moving water, it was about as challenging of a shooting environment as I've experienced. We spent probably about an hour back there in spiderman poses trying to balance ourselves and our tri-pod to capture this rare occurrence. All in all, I walked happy with the experience and I hope this image does justice to how cool it was to witness this first hand. In the hurry, both Terence and I forgot to get some zoomed in shots of the canyon. We were kicking ourselves for that today, but just means we'll have to make another trip in some time. Hope you enjoy. via 500px http://ift.tt/1E1TsqZ