If I’m being honest, I’ve never really felt that successful shooting images of most of our local icons in Ohio. When I’m traveling I’m happy to shoot the icons and feel like I’ve been able to make some quality images doing so, but locally just feels different. Let’s take Ohio’s most famous state park, Hocking Hills as an example. I’ve probably been to the Hocking Hills region roughly 10 times for the sole purpose of photography. I usually get up early in the morning well before sunrise, drive down (roughly 1.5 hours), shoot for the morning, and head back around noon. I’ve explored the main sites and gotten off the beaten path a little more recently. For some reason, I’m almost always happier with the smaller scenes than the wider view. I always enjoy my time, but photographing Hocking Hills has proved a bit challenging for me.

This image from Ash Cave is nearly a perfect example of why I struggled but also why I feel this image is a success, and worthy of being in my portfolio. Hocking Hills is the busiest park in the state of Ohio, and for good reason! This place has some amazing scenery, but with so many people comes so many images! Everybody and their brother has pictures from Hocking Hills. With the larger views, it was hard for me to avoid my image looking just like any other cell phone snapshot. But, luckily for me, not everybody gets up at 5AM on a wild snow day to drive nearly 3 hours through 6 inches of fresh snow to be the first one into Ash Cave.

Sometimes a common composition is made unique by the conditions. Like fog in a Pacific Northwest forest, the snow covered surfaces in Hocking Hills presented the perfect set of circumstances to make this image. I’ve seen compositions similar to this from others typically taken with a cell phone. But it is rare to be present in this place with conditions like these, and to have the entire place to yourself. I was thrilled when I pulled into the parking lot and no cars were present, I didn’t see another soul for well over an hour.

I believe one of the reasons my photography has improved over the last few years has been my willingness to focus on smaller and smaller scenes. I’ve often said finding and photographing wide views in Ohio has been a real challenge for me so I’ve naturally gravitated toward smaller images. As soon as I walked under this giant recess cave, I knew a small scene wasn’t going to do this moment justice. I needed to think bigger than I was typically comfortable with so I set out to find the best vantage point to take it all in. I set my pack down and walked from one end to the other just enjoying the moment and realizing how rare it was to have this place to myself, there was no need to rush to beat the crowds as the weather would surely keep them away. 

I started thinking about what elements were making this scene so unique on this day. First and foremost was the snow. I haven’t had many opportunities to shoot in the snow so this was exciting. My biggest concern was just to not mess it up when processing it. I’ve had some images with snow that just don’t seem to turn out right. This usually comes from the snow either getting so bright it doesn’t show up well in a digital file, or too dark and it just ends up looking dirty. There is a small sweet spot. Next, I wanted the image to include the famous waterfall. I was lucky that the waterfall was flowing. It often freezes over or has such a small amount of flow, it is just a drip. But I also wanted it to be more than a picture of a waterfall, which led me to the third component I wanted to include the entirety of the scene, the full recess cave from one side to the other. I decided the best way to do this would be to shoot it as a panorama to ensure I had all the space above, below, and around the cave. Getting there early meant I had plenty of time to set up and not worry about others coming into the scene. 

I ultimately settled on this spot for a couple of reasons. First, I felt like there was a balance between the waterfall on the left and the large rock on the right side without placing too much emphasis on either component. Next, the sweeping edge of the cave mirrors the foremost portion of the stream leading you out through the scene. Finally, the arrangement of the trees in the background was pleasing and provided some vertical structure to an image with a strong left to right flow, but without breaking the scene or dividing it in half. 

Is this image the most creative image I’ve ever made, by no means. I’m happy that I made it though. I’m happy that I held off on creating/sharing other images of this local icon and I waited until I had something that was just a bit different, a little more unique, a little more effort required than just a regular cell phone snapshot. Shooting any type of iconic location can leave you feeling you’re doing nothing more than a typical visitor, but with the right circumstances and the right effort it is possible to come away with something that stands apart from the average image. 

Hocking Hills Landscape Photography

If you are interested in purchasing any of these images from Hocking Hills, they can all be found in my Ohio Made Gallery using the link below.

I have a goal of writing one of these “Behind the Scene” articles a month. So far so good! You can take a look at previous installations below.

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