Well if I you caught my Five Favorite Photos of 2017 post, you’ve seen one of these images already. Kanching Falls in Malaysia provided some of my favorite photos of the year. The area was totally beautiful, and completely unexpected.
When I travel overseas for work, I’m traveling to larger cities, because that’s where my work is. At my heart I’m a nature guy, but sometimes these trips just don’t offer me a chance to get out into nature. Well, this was not one of those occasions. I actually had a whole weekend to myself in Malaysia, and tried to make the best of it by getting out of Kuala Lumpur. I also tried something new this go around, and that’s hiring a local guide! When I was looking through the options of things we could do, I saw these falls and thought it might be nice. Understatement of the year!
During the summer months in Malaysia, families will visit this park for bar-b-ques and hangout time (that’s what the little red buildings are for in the image just below), but since I was there in November, which is their rainy season, there were hardly any people there. It was amazing…. and obviously really wet! Turns out it really rains in the rain forest, who knew!? I was joking with my guide that I’m not sure who got more wet, him with no rain jacket on, or me with a rain jacket, but sweating to death inside it. Needless to say, we were both soaked. Anyway, the falls themselves snake down the side of this big mountain. There are seven different “levels” of the falls, meaning pools where the falls stop for a second, as in these pictures. We’d hike for a few minutes and then come to a level, hike up the side of the mountain a bit more, and then another, all the way up the mountain side. It was something else. Add into this that there were monkeys everywhere, and it was a ton of fun. You just have to remember not to set anything on the ground, because the little boogers will run over and steal it, thinking it’s food. 🙂
On a photography note, the falls were somewhat challenging to shoot. The lower falls were in a lot of vegetation, which meant lots of shadows, so the lighting wasn’t easy to deal with. The shot above, which ended up being my favorite, is a panorama of about 7 different images. The falls themselves were REALLY tall, and I was basically right at the base, so it took a lot of moving around to get it all in the frame. It was worth the effort though I think, and fun to work on.
More from Malaysia next week!
–Dan Thompson
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