fourpointedstar

There is something fascinatingly unattractive about this photo. It’s not that humans have ruined a scene – so many beautiful vistas are ruined by power lines, trash, or other remnants of humanity. No, this is just the backwater area of a creek that is very low right now; as you’ll see in a photo later in this series, barely a trickle.

The stone wall is muddy and inaccessible, and the water was murky and dirty. But I still love the location and the reminder that not everything is pretty – and it doesn’t have to be either.

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If you visit the lower area of Matthiessen State Park, you can walk through a naturally carved tunnel on the left side of the canyon to get a unique view of the waterfall and cliff face. While I was standing there, I felt like this was my little hiding place, so I edited this monochrome image to match that feeling.

…view older images with the thumbnails below…

I first visited Matthiessen State Park back in 2014 on a day that I photographed 4 of the waterfalls at Starved Rock as well. You can see how sunny it was in quite a few of the photos, but the sunshine made it almost impossible to get a longer exposure of Cascade Falls – that is, until a cloud drifted overhead. The same thing happened throughout the day on this trip to Matthiessen; the clouds drifted overhead allowing for some longer exposures.

…view older images with the thumbnails below…