Today we hit a wombo combo on Seneca and Cascade Mill Falls.
Thus beginning our journey into the fall-laden depths of upstate New York. The plan was to bag as many autumn waterfalls as humanely possible in three days, then come back to work like nothing happened.
This is a trip I’ve been dreaming about for years, and now it was finally all coming into fruition. We decided to start with Seneca and Cascade Mill Falls, namely because they both had booming mills associated with them in the early 1800s. I say both because they were about a mile apart from each other on the same trail.
And you KNOW I’ve been on a wild urban ex kick lately, so interlacing industrial ruins into the waterfalls only felt natural.
Let’s start with Seneca Mills Falls.
We started by checking out the main overlook, but it turned out to be a total bore composition wise. It wasn’t until we began backtracking down the creek that we discovered something interesting:
A chunk of brick just hanging out in the middle of the river. I have no idea how it got there, but it did, and it got the job done. Thanks brick gods.
Next stop, Cascade Mills.
As I said before it was about a mile downstream, and I ended up snagging this guy on the way down because the black contrasted the vibrant leaves so well:
And you know what?
Cascade Falls ended up having way more features to work with the Seneca Falls. There were old concrete ruins everywhere, but I ended up landing on this absolutely disgusting scene:
Fuckin yuck.
I’m not going to lie, it was a fairly technically difficult shot too, because the foreground was taken at a high shutter speed, while the background was shot at a low shutter speed to capture the motion blur of the waterfall.
And I can claim with full faith that the leaf was discovered there, not conveniently placed there, for the photo. That earns a bonus point or two in my book.
The final shot I got of Cascade Falls came as a bit of a surprise. Alara actually found it because she’s recently become a pro at framing devices. I don’t know how, but she is. And I appreciate it.
Check this shot out:
A nice little see-thru hole to frame that bad boy fall. God those leaves are incredible.
And that’s the kickoff, folks. Fall season is officially in session. Next in line we got Eagle Cliff Falls, which was a little side quest before we hit the big boy… Watkins Glen.
Stay tuned.
