I am not a morning person.
But if there is a sunrise spot I have to wake early for, I typically have no problem jumping out of bed swinging and ready to rumble.
The day we planned to get to sunrise to this waterfall was one of the few where we didn't quite make it. When we arrived it was past sunrise, and I was disappointed for the bright light made it really harsh in the photos and I didn't have ND filters to compensate for the glare.
But, since we were there, we set up to take some shots and just relaxed into the beauty of having this beautiful waterfall to ourselves.
After shooting for about an hour, we started to pack up, but then the light suddenly shifted. We were completely wet, slightly cold, but as we looked back at the falls, the sunlight broke through the trees and hit the mist from the falls in the most perfect spot.
Of course we stayed for another hour, delighted that we arrived so late for we never would have known this would happen. We had never seen images with this lightening before here, and that makes this image so special to me. It's captures my own unique experience of a popular place.
A lot of what photography teaches is to live fully in the moment. Don't let expectations make you miss out of undiscovered magic.
