Sahale Falls · Mt. Hood · Mt. Hood National Forest · Oregon · USA

• Canon 5DII · 16-35mm f/2.8L II · CPL
• 28mm · f/8 · 30s · ISO 200

Ever press the shutter thinking you’re getting one thing and come out with something else altogether? I’m not gonna lie—that’s what happened with this one. At the tail end of a 16km hike, with darkness falling, I clambered down the steep scramble path and ambled out onto the rocks at the lip of Sahale’s splash pool, hoping against hope that I could salvage a single shot of the lacy 78-foot cascade. Everything was done in haste except for the 30-second exposure, leaving me with an unlevel shot that I hoped I could straighten out later.

In the process of developing the raw file, however, this solemn apparition materialized from the lacy water, and I decided to leave the frame underexposed as it was. With a little imagination, you might see what I see: a fair maiden in veiled headdress, kneeling, perhaps, in supplication to some higher power for more of the Newton-Clark glacial meltwater that is her very lifeblood.

Lest people think I’m crazy (at least on the basis of this), here’s the lady I see in the falls. Granted the lower body’s a bit of a stretch (unless she’s a little person), but it’s gotten to the point where I don’t even recognize the falls anymore! Lol.