Cascade de la Mouline

The Story Behind This Photo #

I’ve always liked photographing moving water, especially rapids and waterfalls. The downside of living in Finland is that there aren’t that many around. This waterfall, however, is pure gold. It is set in a ravine of the Siauve river, which is one of the tributaries of the Creuse river. It is a natural waterfall carved into the granite and it stands approximately 8 meters tall.

It is an unknown gem in the area, since I too haven’t stumbled upon on it until yesterday. I knew of its existence, but I mixed it up with a second waterfall which also flows in the the Creuse river near Anzême below the “Devil’s bridge”. In all honesty it is the most natural and beautiful waterfall I have ever visited in person and since it is situated in a very remote area, there aren’t too many tourists around.

The name of the waterfall is related to the activity of grinding something down, but it is not related to a mill, since the word mill in French is masculin. This is corraborated by the setting, since there is no mill around this area, rather this tributary is all natural in its ebb and flow.

Taking this photo took two trips, since in the morning when I first scouted out the place, it was raining quite heavily. The whole day was very rainy, but luckily in the afternoon the rain clouds cleared around the area and I was able to set up my gear to capture this shot.

To date, I think this image represents the pinnacle of all of my waterfall photos to date. I spent roughly an hour clicking a away, until I decided toe change the lens to my trusty old Nikkor 50mm f1.8. I was in luck, since the distance of the waterfall was perfect for capturing the flow of water as it cascades through the bottom part of the eight meter high waterfall.

I waited for a bit of cloud cover, to get this shot. I have several others of course, but this shot in my opinion has it all:

• perfect light
• moving water which is not rendered too milky
• perfect, harmonious composition
• no cropping needed.

I plan to return to this place whenever I can, since these kinds of places are not too numerous anywhere. This year has also been good in terms of water volume, since it has been raining more or less ten months straight according to the locals. Usually, summer isn’t be best time to photograph waterfalls, as was the case with my visit to another waterfall in the area several years ago.

Image Details - Aluminum Print Art #

This image has the default form factor of 1.5.

Should you be interested in purchasing a copy of this image as a high quality aluminum print (40x60cm), please visit my online shop, The Print Atelier, through the button below.