Williamsport Falls

Said to be the tallest free-falling waterfall in Indiana, Williamsport Falls is located in the middle of the town of Williamsport, steps away from the old train station. It's a surprise to see such a canyon hidden right in the downtown area of a town. It's a short hike along what appears to be a steep old road through the woods, and down to the creek where you can hike a little way along the creek to the foot of the waterfall.



The sandstone cliffs are quite impressive, especially considering their proximity to the railroad an roads above. This area was quarried many years ago for stone blocks for the local buildings. This quarrying may have made the waterfall a bit deeper, but the creek appears to be at a natural level, so perhaps the cliff was simply cut back and not cut deeper.The waterfall is said to have a height of 90 feet, but it looked to me more like 60 feet or so, but of course, I didn't measure.

The depth of the canyon keep a bit of the direct sunlight off of the rocks and falls, but depending upon the time of day, the sun highlights the falling water against the thick woods beyond. Williamsport Falls is an easy to access waterfall that is certainly worth the detour from the more traveled parts of western Indiana.

First Quarter Moon

As the moon "grows" larger in the sky, it reflects more light into the atmosphere, blocking out the distant and dimmer stars. Photographing the Milky Way, stars, or planets becomes more difficult, so I simply captured the cause of the problem - the moon.

This image was captured hand-held (no tripod) with a 600mm lens, with a 2x tele-converter attached. The tele-converter doubles the aperture, so this was capture at the lowest possible for this set up, F13. It's a good thing the moon is actually very bright, with an aperture that low, it's often necessary to bump up the ISO or drastically lower the shutter speed, which can introduce noise or camera shake.

In addition to the set up above, the camera was put into DX mode. This crops the image area when using DX lenses on a full frame camera. This "trick" increases the magnification of a lens by 1.5 times. So, the equivalent magnification here is 1800mm.

I prefer to capture images of the moon when it's less than full. The craters cast long shadows making them easier to see in the photograph.

Interdunal Pond

Nothing beats a walk through nature on a summer morning. This view, while very close to industry and other activity, conveys serenity, and was the perfect side trip on our way to the trails along the dunes.

This area of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore was restored after industry left. Toxic remnants were removed during the restoration, including acid ponds very close to this spot. The dunes create valleys and in places, rainwater has no way of absorbing through the ground. The small bodies of water formed in these valleys are called interdunal ponds, and are often a haven for small animals.

This pond shows signs of animal activity - a few trails meander through the wetland in and around the pond. Other interdunal ponds in the national lakeshore are home to many more animals. They are generally larger ponds, out of view of a lot of activity. West Beach has one such pond that is just off the trail, but shielded from view; the wildlife can enjoy a bit of privacy there. The photo below was taken quite a few years back.

Meteor Crossing the Milky Way

The Perseid Meteor Shower of 2018 happened on a calm, clear night, allowing us to view the show - and comfortably I might add. While we only spent about an hour looking at the sky, we saw seven or eight meteors, but I was only able to capture three or four. Of course, where I pointed the camera was the wrong spot most of the time! 

I'm not a night sky photographer, but I do find it challenging to capture the Milky Way and meteors, and in the summer, I don't mind spending a long time trying to capture an image. The main problem is light pollution, and there's plenty of it around Chicago.  Even in rural LaPorte County, Indiana, Chicago casts a yellow light on the western horizon, and bluish tones to the rest of the sky when long exposures are attempted.

I have to settle for this image of the meteor, not the two long, bright meteors that passed just under my camera's view. There's always next year!