Crawfordsburn Waterfall

There are some photographs where getting to the right place is as much a part of the story as pressing the shutter.

Finding a Waterfall I Already Knew Was There

I had known about the waterfall at Crawfordsburn Country Park for some time, but despite being local and having visited the area before, I had never actually managed to find it. Earlier that day I eventually went into the visitor centre and asked the staff for directions.

I remember feeling strangely embarrassed about it. Here I was, a local, asking for directions like a tourist to a waterfall in a country park I already knew. But at least this time I was going to find it.

The timing of the visit was deliberate. I had already learned that waterfalls can be much more rewarding to photograph following wet weather. More rain means a stronger flow of water and, hopefully, a more dramatic waterfall.

The downside was that the same conditions that were good for the photograph made getting there considerably less pleasant.

A Very Wet Walk Through the Woods

Leaving the car park, I walked back along the road until I found the route into the forest and continued beneath the aqueduct. The ground was soaking, sodden and muddy. Eventually I came across a fallen tree whose branches were blocking the path.

I veered off the path and tried to make my way around it by climbing the slippery slope alongside it.

That didn’t go particularly well.

I lost my footing and went down, covering pretty much the entire right side of my trouser leg in mud.

I carried on.

Hearing the Waterfall Before Seeing It

Before I could see the waterfall, I could hear it. The sound of the rushing water was coming loudly through the trees. After deliberately choosing to visit following the wet weather, hearing that amount of water was a good indication that the conditions I’d hoped for were waiting ahead.

As I got closer, the waterfall gradually revealed itself through the woodland. From the lower approach the view was obscured by trees and foliage, with only a few gaps offering glimpses of the falls.

Initially I tried to use that to create a photograph — looking for a frame within a frame, with the foliage surrounding a partial reveal of the waterfall. The idea worked better in my head than it did through the camera. The available angles only showed portions of the falls, and I couldn’t find a composition that felt right.

Looking Beyond the Obvious Viewpoint

I continued uphill until I reached the viewing platform, where most visitors would naturally stop to admire the waterfall. Of course I photographed it from there, but I wasn’t completely satisfied. Looking at the scene, I felt there was a better photograph to be made than the conventional view from the platform.

The wall surrounding the viewing area was only about a foot high from my side, with the ground roughly another foot lower beyond it. I climbed over and began exploring the lower area.

I moved off to the left and worked my way closer to the flowing river — considerably more careful with my footing after already covering myself in mud once that day.

Finding the Crawfordsburn Waterfall Composition

It was from down there that the photograph finally started to come together.

Instead of treating the waterfall as an isolated subject, I could see the journey of the water through the whole scene. My eye could follow it from the main fall at the top, through the rocks and smaller cascades, past the large moss-covered boulder and eventually into the pool in front of me. The surrounding woodland enclosed the scene naturally, while the water created a route through the centre of the photograph.

This was the view I had been looking for.

Photographing Crawfordsburn Waterfall After Sunset

By the time I made this exposure at 9:16 pm, the sun had already set and the woodland was becoming increasingly dark. Using a 25-second exposure at ISO 100 and f/22, I allowed the movement of the water to soften while retaining the detail and texture of the wet rocks, moss and surrounding foliage.

This photograph also belongs to a very different period of my photography. In 2014 I was still shooting JPEG rather than RAW, something I would approach very differently today. That limits how much information I have available when returning to the original file more than a decade later, but it is also part of the photograph’s history.

Looking Back More Than a Decade Later

Looking at it now, I don’t just remember the waterfall.

I remember finally admitting that I needed directions to find it. I remember the sodden woodland, the fallen tree, slipping on the slope and covering myself in mud. I remember hearing the water before I could see it, rejecting the obvious viewpoints and continuing to search until the different elements finally came together through the camera.

Sometimes finding the photograph takes a little more effort than finding the place.