China - Juizhai Valley National Park, Shallower Falls

How nice it would've been to do this one at 1/10th or even 1/6th shutter speed.  1/6th of a second would certainly require a tripod, but if given the time and circumstances would gladly haul one around.

And tripods do make a huge difference.  Since we drove up to Nashville back in August of 2012, I was able to more freely bring equipment along, so had the tripod for pictures taken indoors at the Gaylord Resort.  When Chenjean was done with meetings for work, she watched the kids while I carried the tripod around to capture pics such as these.  I'll get a neutral density filter for better falls pics outdoors if we ever settle down enough in retirement to devote serious time to take my photography to the next level.

China - Juizhai Valley National Park, Another Wide Waterfall / Mr. Waguespack and the Beer

Another stop for waterfalls.  Think of the millions of photos taken of these falls over the years.  Well, here's one more, with different perspective of same below:

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        I mentioned that Dad liked telling stories.  One of his that I still repeat today is the story of a neighbor across the street, Mr. Waguespack.  Mom and Dad were over there one afternoon on a social visit.  They were sitting around talking when a car door was heard closing on the street in front of the house.  Mr. Waguespack got up and looked through the blinds to see who it was.  Upon seeing that it was a deacon from his church, he raced around the room collecting everyone’s beer and cigarettes, putting it all in the refrigerator.  This he accomplished before there was a knock on the door.  After answering, he greeted this deacon and cordially invited him in.  They sat down and everyone resumed visiting, including the new visitor in conversation, albeit without the aforementioned accoutrements.

        Then, after the deacon left to make more church visits, Mr. Waguespack returned to the refrigerator, retrieved and re-distributed everyone’s items, and resumed as they were before.

China - Juizhai Valley National Park, All the Little Fishies

As can be seen, the water is clear but we didn't see a whole lot of life in the lakes...perhaps because it was so cold, as snowmelt sources most of them.

China - Juizhai Valley National Park, Cross-Lake Reflection with Walkway and People

The presence of people make for more interesting reflection shots.

The sparse presence of individuals in this pic betrays the throng milling about immediately behind me.  Hiking across to the other side of the lake and back would require an extra hour, time that most people in tour groups simply don't have.

China - Juizhai Valley National Park, Lake Reflection Shot #3

 

China - Juizhai Valley National Park, Lake Reflection Shot #2

 

China - Juizhai Valley National Park, Lakeside Reflection Shot with Foggy Mountain Background

The surrounding mountains block the stronger winds at these altitudes, so the lakes were normally smooth.  This offers some pretty good reflection opportunities, in this case with a cloud-shrouded mountain serving as a backdrop.

China - Juizhai Valley National Park, Lakeside Roofline

The pictures captured in the Park are being posted in order of when they were taken, so the waterfall pics will be interspersed with more lake pics, such as what we see above, and vice versa.

Several rooflines with tiles such as this have already been posted from our travels in Taiwan (see here, here and here), so not surprised to see something similar in mainland China.

China - Juizhai Valley National Park, Wide Cascading Waterfall

Some of the waterfalls' grandeur surprised us, as their sources were wide, slow moving creeks perhaps several hundred feet across.  While crossing on a walkway you think, OK...what could this lead to?  Then you go to where the water is gathered into much narrower channels, resulting finally into what you see above.  Then you are struck with wonder, thinking, How many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years has this been in place?

Slightly different perspective below:

China - Juizhai Valley National Park, Waterfall Through Vegetation

We were on a fairly rigid schedule going through the park.  We had all day, but there were so many and varied spots to stop and explore that our usual allotment of time in one place was only between 45 minutes to an hour.

So in between the various lakes we stopped to see waterfalls, among other sights.  Waterfalls are a treat no matter where a photographer goes, and this one would normally be considered very special, but it was just one of approximately a million more we saw that day, each seemingly bigger and more grand than the last.  I went crazy with the iPhone, and this is where I missed the Bigger Cahoona most, primarily because of the iPhone 15 Pro Max's lack of ability to extend shutter speed.  As an example, compare this and the following few posts with these posts from British Columbia.