Imagine having a 40-foot-tall waterfall right in your backyard …

Lee Ann and I joined other members of her family at a large, isolated rental cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina for three nights between Christmas and New Year's. 

How isolated was it? Google Maps cannot pinpoint it. So, to get to the Havilah Falls cabin in southern Scott County, we used Google maps to get as far as a specific local road in Tuckasegee, N.C., then followed written instructions sent by the owner to complete the remaining 15-mile drive.

The instructions gave us a little challenge near the end point, but we eventually made it. I don't know how many acres around the cabin the owner owns, but aside from the cabin and a large waterfall (I'd estimate 40 to 50 feet) immediately behind the cabin, everything else in the vicinity is mountains. And they’re steep. Seriously. That's the waterfall in the photo leading off the post. 

A very short distance below where the picture ends is land on which there is a fire pit, and then a very short walkway from there to the cabin's rear deck. It's a wonderful experience to take in that waterfall (the water comes from Cold Creek) and the sound the water makes cascading down the rock formations. 

On the second day, a couple people in our group got brave enough to climb up a steep hill (no trail) on the left side of the waterfall (out of view in all the waterfall pictures) to reach and walk along the middle ledge. And on the third day, one of those intrepid souls found a sculpted bust (pictured below) wedged behind one of the boulders you see on the left at ground level. 

For many years, I’ve used high-dynamic range (HDR) processing software for the vast majority of my landscape shots partly because so many landscapes present contrast in lighting. But I also have used it because I’ve found a way to use it tastefully and get striking images without going over the top with outlandish color, an unchecked characteristic in some HDR work that many photographers find offensive. 

But in my photos from this trip, I found myself making 95 percent of my JPGs from single frames because the heavy presence of shade was forcing me to use high ISO settings, and that was introducing noise I didn’t care for in my images.

Click on any photo to view a larger and sharper version. To view a full gallery of images from the Havilah Falls trip, follow the link in this sentence. 

  

The highway (above and below) off which a gravel road (first four photos below as well as the sixth photo below) gave us access to the cabin. I took so many photos of this gravel road because of the tree shadows that were intersecting it.

A slice of the tree population in this neck of the woods (above) and the access to the gravel road from the highway (below). 

Above: An HDR (high-dynamic range) rendering of the gravel road from the cabin. I use HDR here because the cars in the foreground were in almost total darkness from shade.

Below the falls, the rock formations angle downward (above and below), before water returns to a traditional creek formation. 

 

Another shot of the falls (above) and a close-up slice of rock formations below the falls (below). 

The fire pit in operation (above) on Sunday, with the falls in the background. 

Above and below: Lining the walkway to the fire pit and waterfall are a collection of small boulders in interesting shapes, designs and colors. 

Above and first two photos below: These three photos represent an effort to capture the falls at the same time of the day using different shutter speeds, using my Canon 6D. Above, the shutter was set at 1/125. Below, it's 1/60. And in the second photo below, it's 1/20. The lens I was using, my Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3, is equipped with vibration compensation, so other than the falling water, everything should be pretty sharp.  

 

In the early afternoon (1:28 p.m.) of Dec. 27, with the sun shining, I noticed interesting shadows on the waterfall when I took the above photo with my 6D. About two and a half hours later, at 3:53 p.m., I returned with my iPhone Pro 13 and took the photo below.