Waterfalls

I was just looking at some pictures of the trip my friends made last summer around Iceland, and I was noticing that they seem to have a lot of pictures of waterfalls. Indeed, I think most tourists that come to Iceland end up taking lots of waterfall shots here, just by virtue of how ubiquitous they are. But it got me thinking about what it is that makes a waterfall so fascinating, so picture worthy. And whether or not a camera can really do a waterfall any justice at all. I guess for some people it is just the visual beauty of it, the contrast of white against green and black, finding the right way to frame it. Sometimes waterfall shots include mist, and I think this is a way to visually invoke the sensation of being near a waterfall, how refreshing it can be. And it is really the physical sensation of being near a waterfall that makes us want to photograph them, to provide a visual pneumonic of that experience. But I think this is limited to those waterfalls that are delicate and misty, where the feeling they evoke is sort of comforting, because that comes across in a photograph even for those that never visited the waterfall themselves. On the other hand, the power of a large waterfall, the loud noise and the wind they generate, is much harder to convey by any visual means.  

I think the thing I really like about waterfalls is also impossible to capture on camera. Whenever I drive up to a waterfall here in Iceland, I do not just stand back and admire it. No, I always have an overwhelming urge to climb to the top of it, to see the river above it. This is what I like about waterfalls, that there can be a very still and calm river flowing easily along, and then boom, all of a sudden it is transformed into a waterfall, just by going over a rocky ledge. It is impossible to photograph, to capture both the river and the waterfall in one shot, but I can sit at the top of a waterfall for hours, and just watch the transformation.