Edge of the World

Most photographers don't go down this side of the trail. There's no sign for it. The path is narrow and not well maintained. But I was already wet and already tired, and that's exactly the kind of mental state where you start saying yes to detours that turn out to matter.

The view opened up between two Sitka spruce. To get the composition I wanted, I had to lean out over the edge — a 250-foot drop straight down to the water — with the tripod spikes set into the ground behind me and one hand braced against a tree. The light was failing. The rain was about to win.



I shot eleven exposures in four minutes. The print is the second frame I made. The first was framed too low. The eleventh was a different photograph entirely — the light had moved that fast.

I haven't shown this image much. Truthfully, I think I was saving it for myself. It's time to let other people stand at this edge too. Made the same morning as Mystic Waters, a few hours later, on the hike out.