Timeless Flow
Photo Location: Eastern New York State
I had been to Taughannock Falls twice before the morning I made this image. The first trip taught me the place. The second taught me what I'd missed. The third — spring 2023, late April, the snowmelt still feeding the creek at full volume — gave me what I'd been waiting for.
I walked the gorge trail in before the light was fully established and found a position where the canyon walls framed the falls on both sides, the 215-foot drop filling the entire vertical space of the frame. The morning light was coming from a low angle and catching the mist at the base — the kind of light that exists for a narrow window before the sun climbs above the rim and the quality of it changes entirely. The water was everything late spring at Taughannock promises: a full, powerful curtain of falling water roaring off a cliff face taller than Niagara, enclosed in 400 feet of ancient shale and limestone that amplifies the sound until you feel it as much as hear it.
The title arrived when I reviewed the image that evening. Taughannock has been falling for 12,000 years, since the last glacier released its hold on this land. It will be falling long after every photograph of it has faded. There is something in that permanence that the image holds — the water moving, the rock enduring, the light passing through both.
TruLife acrylic-mounted limited edition of 100, signed by me with Certificate of Authenticity. Free US shipping.
Image copyright © Jongas Fine Art Photography.
