Amazing Sunset at Mesa Falls

Every Monday is family night. So this past Monday, my husband suggested we make a spontaneous road trip to Mesa Falls! I love waterfalls and hikes so I was like, “uh, yes!” Plus, we would be going during golden hour so the chances of an amazing sunset were pretty high. There were two things about this spontaneous trip that I was not prepared for, one was the mosquitoes and the other was my pregnant breathlessness. Keep in mind that I was even wearing bug spray! I ended up with a few shots where you could see the blurs of the mosquitoes that were swarming me.

I’m not sure where to even start about the picture below. I forgot my tripod which was a real tragedy, but luckily there was a railing that I could rest the camera on. That helped. I used a longer exposure to get the water to appear soft.

I spent ages on the post-production of the below picture. I was so grateful for an amazing sunset (golden hour, am I right?). I mean look at that sky! It was difficult to see in the original image so I turned down the highlights and boosted the dehaze slider. I started out in Lightroom and later moved to Photoshop using a variety of adjustments, masks, and filters.

The picture below was shot with a faster shutter speed and thus required less editing which is always nice.  Isn’t Mesa Falls breathtaking?

The top image, and this bottom image, were both bracketed and then later merged in Adobe Lightroom. This helps a ton with getting the sky to be the right exposure. Plus, even though the amazing sunset wasn’t as amazing from this angle, you can even spot some color beginning to creep into the clouds!

One thing I have learned this year is that sometimes, a spontaneous road trip is just what you need. Mesa Falls is beautiful this time of year! But, a word of caution, cover every part of your body in bug repellent.

To learn more about Mesa Falls visit the forest service website. To see more amazing landscape shots, visit Chris Burkard’s site. He does some awesome work!