On a road trip across the United States, I had a chance to stop for a few days in the state of Michigan. As I had never been to this state before, I was excited to check out the photographic potential of its many landscapes. As a resident of Oregon in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., I have been spoiled by the wealth of landscape photography opportunities, among them being many majestic waterfalls. While I wasn’t expecting to see anything like the grand landscapes of the West in Michigan, I was pleasantly surprised by one waterfall in particular.
Located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Tahquamenon Falls is an impressive cascade of water. It is actually a series of waterfalls on the Tahquamenon River, which eventually flows into Lake Superior. The brown color of these falls sets it apart from any other waterfall that I have seen.
The coloration is from the tannins, which are leached from the cedar swamps which this river drains. This section of the river is 200 feet wide and divided into the Upper and Lower Falls, which are four miles apart. After walking around the edge of the Upper Falls and looking at it from various angles, I decided to photograph it from a spot that revealed its wide expanse, and used a slower shutter speed to soften the flow and give it a more soothing feel.
