Machine Falls – A Tale Of Two Photos

Back in the old days (meaning pre-Covid) my wife and I visited Nashville, Tennessee over a long 4th of July holiday weekend. Nashville is a great city with lots to see and do. The surrounding area is beautiful with forested hills and valleys; so different from the Houston, Texas area where I live. We wanted to get out and see the countryside and decided to take a short (by Texas standards) 1½ hour drive to Lynchburg to visit the Jack Daniel’s distillery. Knowing that we’d be going through hills and valleys it meant one thing – waterfalls! The possibility of a waterfall was exciting. In Houston, if you want to see a waterfall you have to build your own. I did some research and found a beautiful waterfall to visit; Machine Falls near Tullahoma.

A Hidden Gem

Machine Falls is in the lush woods of the Short Springs Natural Area. Water cascades 6o feet down over exposed black Chattanooga shale which makes it great for photo contrasts.

Machine Falls is not well known. We went there on a Friday of a 4th of July holiday weekend and we had it to ourselves. In talking to some locals, they surprisingly hadn’t heard of it and didn’t know it existed. I don’t recall seeing road signs for either the falls or the Short Springs Natural Area. The parking lot at the trailhead has all of 6 spots. All though it is easy to find the details and directions it is not well publicized. This is surprising as it’s part of a 4.5-mile loop that you can also take to view 2 other falls. It’s the kind of place you would think would be wildly popular; but I for one was glad it wasn’t.

Getting There

The trail to the falls, rated as “moderate” difficulty, is about 0.8 miles one-way. Most of the trail is along a ridgeline which makes for easy walking. However, as you get near the end the work begins with a steep descent (about 110 ft. drop in ¼ of a mile) down to Bobo Creek at the bottom of the falls. From the bridge over the creek, it is a short scramble along the bank to Machine Falls. Oh, what a beauty!

It was a wondrous sight: crystal clear water cascading over the shale, dappled light filtering through the trees. Combined with the sound of the water, the wind blowing softly in the trees, bird chirping all made for a soothing peaceful scene. It made the work of the steep descent and the upcoming steep ascent out worth it.

Getting The Shot

I decided to use a 24mm tilt-shift (TS) lens in a vertical orientation since the best vantage point was relatively close (about 10 -15 feet) from the falls. By using the full shift range left to right I was able to get 3 photos that I could photo-stitch together to cover the entire falls. This gave me a large high-resolution image with no distortion that also gave me a great deal of flexibility in terms of cropping. The specifics of the shot were:

Canon 5DMk III vertically on tripod, Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II Tilt-Shift Lens, +/- 11mm horizontal shift, 0° tilt,      1.0 sec, f/22, ISO 100

If I had slowed down long enough to think it through, I probably should have gone to an f/11 with a 2-stop ND (neutral density) filter or possibly an f/8 with a 3-stop ND filter. As long as the near focus distance was good this would have lowered the possibility for diffraction while keeping the exposure the same.

Why I Used A Tilt-Shift Lens

Often dismissed as merely an “architectural” lens, tilt-shifts are under appreciated. This classification minimizes its capabilities. I believe the tilt-shift should more properly be thought of as a perspective correction lens. In this situation the TS gave me a high-resolution photo with no distortion. A single shot of an ultra-wide lens that would be of lower resolution and have edge distortion which is significant in comparison.

Using the tilt-shift in this orientation and photo-stitching 3 images together I have a photo that is equivalent to a 18.8mm wide angle shot (not that they make such a lens) but with a 92% increase in megapixels. Given that the tilt-shift is a very sharp lens to begin with you get sharp detail and resolution throughout.  In terms of distortion the TS not being an ultra-wide angle doesn’t produce the optical distortion inherent in those lenses. Furthermore, with the shift function the image circle remains parallel to the original sensor plane orientation. Trying to photo-stitch with a non-TS lens involve rotating the lens around the no-parallax point but in doing so the image circle plane is at an angle to the original sensor plane orientation thereby introducing a very distorted perspective. Because of these features the tilt-shift lens has become my go-to lens for photo-stitching and panorama images.

The Post-Processing

The canopy of trees produced very diffuse light within the verdant woods. This combined with the contrast of the water on the dark shale creates a scene of exquisitely beautiful light, color, detail and contrasts. I really like this image in color. However, at the same time those details and contrasts work wonderfully in black and white. While I do admit a bias towards black and white, I was torn in this instance between choosing black and white or color as my favorite. However, I later tried adding a slight blue toning to the black and white emulating a cyanotype processing. This little addition really made things pop and cemented its position as my favorite (I still like the color version, just not quite as much).

I know some would make the opposite choice. We all have our preferences and biases. For that reason, I offer up both for your viewing. I like them both but for different reasons. The color version appeals to me because of the lush color and the light. I like the black and white version for the contrasts and textures. You can see these difference in the two photos above and also via the slider presentation below.

A Fun And Memorable Day

It turned out to be a fun and memorable day. I had a great hike in the beautiful Tennessee woods, had fun photographing the wonderful Machine Falls, got an image I’m very happy with, and, finished off the day getting to buy a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey from the source. Days don’t get much better than that!

Do certain of your photos bring back strong memories of the day for you? What’s your process for doing photo-stitch and panorama photos? Please leave a comment in the comment box below?