Hurricanes and Waterfalls

Can I assume waterfall shooting might be good this weekend in the Buffalo River Region?

I'm pretty confident that there are a bunch of photographers holding their respective breaths and sure hoping so. NOAA seems to think Newton County is very likely to get 4-8 inches of rain over the next few days, and I wouldn't argue with them, but weather is never a sure bet. I expect the ground is pretty dry, and most of that rain may soak in rather than run off. Still, if that much rain falls, you would expect enough to be left over to make a pretty good show.

Did I get both sides of that covered sufficiently?

Naw, the sun's going to be out and the water's going to be as muddy as the Mississippi, so it'll be a horrible weekend for waterfalls. I say that because I'm going to be at the Pinnacle Hills Art Festival all weekend trying to sell some canvas prints and a few calendars... Crap!

Yup, they will come up fast and MUDDY and go down in a hurry. The weekend water will end up clear with more water than we have now, but no telling if any waterfalls will be running well or not - no way to know until the day gets here. If I were going to bet I would say Thursday and perhaps Friday might be good, but probably most waterfalls would be much lower by the weekend - and they are calling for sunny skies all weekend, which is a killer for waterfalls - that means it will probably be overcast and great! As always, I've never known too many waterfall photos that were taken while sitting at home (although I can see a couple of pretty good ones from where I sit) - if you want to get waterfall photos you simply have to get out and look for waterfall photos every chance you get, and sometimes you will come home with great ones and sometimes not - the worst would be that you got to spend a day or two in the woods!

Did I get both sides of that covered sufficiently?

Yep. But that's the weather. Hopefully, the rain will be over Saturday (and prints can be sold) but the falls will be running hard. Can I wish for a nice cloud cover to make the shutter speed long and the colors saturated?

Tim, I agree, but since it's a little over 3 hours drive, I would like to at least have a shot at it. You know the saying, A bad day chasing waterfalls beats a good day at work.

BTW, Tim. I'm writing a "Weekend getaway" article for an Oklahoma magazine. Surely you wouldn't mind plugging your guide books and website, would you? It won't be out until spring.
Mike

I thought a day chasing waterfalls WAS a day of work? Some of the toughest days of work I've ever had were chasing waterfalls. It really can be quite physically demanding, and dangerous. When I was doing the research for the waterfall guidebook it was typical of me to get up and leave at 3am (after checking the radar), drive several hours, hike in an hour or two, drive some more, hike some more, drive more, hike more (you get the idea), and often I would not get home until after 10pm - then up again in the middle of the night looking at the radar to see where my job would take me the next day. It kind of all depends on your frame of mind - it can be a lot of FUN being soaking wet all day and exhausted, or it can be WORK and just as mentally difficult as anything else you could ever do - I always tried to make it fun though, and that is one key...

Sure, plug away...