Taking a trip to Marysville to photograph waterfalls

Back in March, I took a trip to Marysville with my friend Chris. We often go out together and it is always a good day.

I thought with this post I might try and do something a little different. I spoke to you once before about the idea of doing posts that were more about the planning and then the trip. Discussing things like what the aims were or what we tried and then how it all went.

Why go to Marysville

There are many reasons to go to photograph Marysville. The main one being the waterfalls. There are so many there, mostly small ones, but they are still really nice and great to photograph.

I first went to Marysville in 2009, it was more a drive through to see the devastation after the massive bushfires that went through the area a couple of months before. Those fires and that day are remembered as the Black Saturday Fires. If you want to find out more, click here.

I have been back many times over the years and watched the town rebuild and the rainforests around it regenerate. There isn’t much evidence left from those fires except maybe the top of the dead trees where the newer trees haven’t got quite that high yet.

Here are some photos from that time.

I didn’t really start going there to take photos until 2014 and even then I really only went to one waterfall, Steavenson Falls. I had heard of Lady Talbot Drive, but every time I went to go it was closed. Because of the fires the road was unsafe at certain times of the year, mainly winter. The problem was the dead trees falling over the road.

I wasn’t able to visit until 2015 and went a couple of times that year.

Here are a few photos from the first time I went there.

The last time I went we were trying to make our way up to the Taggerty River Cascade Falls and visit the Upper falls. However, we got almost there and then we came across a tree over the road. That put an end to that.

Planning a day out with the camera

I told Chris that I wanted to go back there. It had been a few years and from what I could tell the road was open. I told her about the tree on the road and wanting to get back to Upper Taggerty Falls.

I seem to remember she had there but not as far. The day was planned. She would pick me up early in the morning, I would make the coffee and we would head off.

The plan was basically to drive to Lady Talbot Drive and see what we could photograph along it. There are the waterfalls, but if you look you can find other things as well. I’ve also been there and photographed lots of fungi, so you have to keep an eye out for those.

I took both my Fujifilm cameras and the 18-300mm Tamron lens as well. I also took my Fujifilm 10-24, but didn’t really use it. I knew I was going to waterfalls so that meant taking a tripod and my ND filters. With my tripod, I was trying out a new head for Bucky, my 3 Legged Thing tripod. It is the 3 Legged Thing AirHed Cine – Arca Swiss. It is really a tripod head for filming, but not really the reason I wanted it, but I figured if I was going out why not try using it to get some video footage?

The road is just a small gravel one so you also need to keep an eye out for other drivers as well.

The day

It was a bit misty out of the city, and the morning was damp, only to be expected really. We did stop just outside of Kangaroo Ground for a lovely view over the hills.

Once we got to Marysville we stopped at the Fraga’s Cafe for a late breakfast and some more coffee. We love it there and stop every time we go.

Once we were finished with that we headed up to the roundabout and turned right, then when we got to the start of Lady Talbot Drive we turned left. It is a gravel road, and a long one, so you can’t go too fast on it so be prepared for the long trip down it.

We did look out for the waterfalls on the way to the end. We found that Phantom Falls was closed. Apparently, the bridge over the Taggerty River isn’t safe. I don’t know why they can’t just fix it. In the photos above you can see a photo of the bridge. So we knew on the way back we wouldn’t be stopping there. That was really disappointing, as I wanted to do more photos from the bridge.

We saw the parking spot for Keppel Falls and saw that it was a 2km round trip, not too bad. Then we went past the Taggerty Cascading Falls, the upper and lower. Chris wanted to see how far we could go until we were stopped. It does go a long way but you do get stopped at a point where we weren’t allowed to go any further.

As we turned around and headed back to the first lot of waterfalls we saw a walk that would have been about 4km round trip. Chris wanted to do it, but I knew if I did it it would wipe me out for the rest of the trip, so I said I didn’t want to do it. It was that walk that made me realise I need to get fit so I didn’t have to miss out on things because of my fitness. We were in a rainforest overall.

Taggerty River Cascades

This is what I was here for. The Upper Cascades of the Taggerty River. When I had been here before it was closed, so it was good to see that we could go up them this time.

It was really beautiful, but you are above the water in a way, or rather up and beside it. It was hard to get photos. Of course, the sun decided that it was a good time to shine. I guess that is one of those things when you do a trip like this you kind of have to go with the flow. We can’t control the sun or the clouds. I have been known to wait for clouds and did on some parts of this trip.

From the above image, you should be able to tell I used my ND filter. I find when I’m doing spots like this you don’t need a lot of extra time so often find the 3 or 6 stop Neutral Density filter enough. You just want to slow the water down a bit, so 20 or 30 seconds is usually enough.

We got to a certain point and we found the track closed sign and we weren’t able to go any further. It looked like the track had been dug up. It was disappointing, but not much you can do.

From there we made our way back down to the road and then down to the lower part. The Lower Taggerty River Cascades had more places to photograph.

Again I did more long exposures in a few places. It was quite the climb down.

This was taken at the bottom, though you could go further. I’ve never followed the track any further, but when I get fitter I wouldn’t mind going back and seeing what else I can find.

Once we finished here we jumped back in the car and headed back towards Marysville.

Keppel Falls

We both wanted to go here. I had photographed the falls before, but not sure if Chris had. We had to walk about 1km to get to it. It isn’t a bad walk, mainly flat which is always good for an unfit person.

There are so many things to photograph besides the water and I often look for other things that I think will make an interesting image as well. Being in a rainforest there are ferns everywhere.

When we got to the falls we were disappointed, well I was, to find people climbing all over them. The last thing you want when you are taking photos is to have people climbing all over what you want to photograph. In the end, we had to wait a while and they disappeared.

We only took photos from the observation deck, but I think if I went back I would try and get out on top of some of the rocks lower down and photograph it. I’ve done that before but it can be a bit scary.

After this, we walked back and headed to another spot Chris knew about. There was meant to be a waterfall and while we did find it, it was more a bit of water like a drain running down the side of the road. It was only about a metre high and we decided to turn around and head home.

Heading home at the end of the day

It was a great day and I got some great images, I’m sure Chris did as well.

Really the only thing that marred the day was my fitness. I’ve already told you that I am now working on that so next time I won’t have to worry about it at all. So we will do that walk next time.

Video

I did a lot of video while I was there and I have put it together for you. The idea of the video is so you can see where I was taking photos. I’m still new to doing this, but I love being able to show you what the real world looked like and then my photos. It is something I would like to concentrate more on really. I have put lots of the photos I took on the day in the video as well.

So I hope you enjoy this video on where I went and what it was like.

Take care, everyone. I hope this post gives you more insight into my day out. I probably need to work on some things, so if you think I missed anything let me know.