Glen Onoko Falls

Our first real adventure was upon us. For the first time, the whole team would be together to travel and camp at an interesting location. We were prepared, excited, and most of all, determined. The intended destination and main subject for our shoot would be the Glen Onoko Falls in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Along with being our first real adventure together, this was also the second time we were all together for our photography adventure series known as Long Exposure which can be seen on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpiSWpq0eqTaKveGOsOkWkQ).

Day 1:

We arrived at camp and quickly setup to prepare for the night. The tents were prepared, the food was organized, and our gear was checked. We were on top of our game from the very beginning. Unfortunately, this didn't last long as we left that evening to scout out the area around the falls. My friend Josh was acting as the navigation for this trip, as the falls area was about 10-15 minutes away from our campsite. Let's just say he didn't get any award for his work. We spent almost half an hour wandering around some random neighborhood before we finally figured out where to go, and at that point it was close to sundown. To make things worse, we all walked right past the trail that was clearly marked "Falls Trail" and proceeded down an entirely wrong path. Luckily, Josh found a river and took some nice long exposures, but then the light quickly faded and we returned to camp.

Day 2:

We woke up to some gentle rain and Josh was also greeted with a wet sleeping bag. After dressing and organizing, we packed up camp and left for the falls. Due to the fact that it was still relatively early and that it was very wet, there were almost no other cars in the parking lot. We got on the proper trail this time, and began the hike. Overall it was fairly easy but we had to stay focused because some of the rocks were pretty slippery. We hiked along and eventually made our way up to the first of the falls where I captured this image:

The next one was even more massive but unfortunately the rain prevented me from getting any clean shots. Josh said he got some good images, but I have yet to see what he took. Eventually we made it to the third and final waterfall where I got several images I was pretty happy with. Throughout this whole time I had to focus on filming as much as I could. For the most part, filming went pretty well but I failed to get any slow motion shots for an intro. Oh well. At that point, the main goal of our adventure had been completed and we continued on the hike as it looped up and around the mountain. At the top, we were greeted with a large amount of fog and I quickly snapped this picture before it lifted. I was fairly happy with it and it was a pleasant surprise.

I wanted to take a second to talk about how this trip personally affected me. The entire blog so far has simply been a narration of what happened, so I thought I'd throw something else in to change it up. For me, this adventure had several ups and downs. The first main down was the first day where we had very little time to scout our area out and went down the wrong trail. I was hoping for pictures that evening but the light and timing was not in our favor. The next main down simply had to do with the weather. I am a huge fan of the rain, but on this hike it provided complications with filming/photography, but also with safety. I was concerned the rain would pick up and we would have to abandon the mission. Since we only had time to be there the one day, this would mean a complete failure. I know weather cannot be controlled, but it still manages to affect attitudes and emotions. One thing that I found to be nice, however, was that filming still went pretty well overall. I am the main videographer for our trips and channel, so I was worried I would not be able to capture good quality video. In the end, I believe I did and it made me more confident in my own skills.

If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading, and I encourage you to check back every couple weeks or so to see if anything else has been written.