Iguazu Falls, Argentina

   Along the border of Argentina and Brazil lies Iguazu Falls...one of the largest waterfalls in the world (second to Victoria Fallis in Africa). At more than 1.5 miles long with over 250 separate falls, you can spend all day exploring and still not see everything. I spent the night in the Argentine city of Puerto Iguazu and hopped the first bus to the falls.  By the time I got there the heat was already starting to build, but luckily the humidity was very tolerable...something I'm told isn't normal for the jungle.  A short train ride and a longer hike brought me to this section of the falls where it appeared to stretch to the horizon.
   When photographing nature you don't always get to pick the direction your subject is moving away from the camera, so you have to figure out ways around some problems.    The way the falls are oriented from this viewing platform, along with the vegetation growth at the edge of the falls posed some physical as well as creative problems. First, the creative problem:  The human eye is attracted to the brightest part of any photograph.  In this image, that is the row of waterfalls that stretch from right to left into the photo.  That leaves a whole lot of nothing in the rest of the shot. I was lucky to have the sun in a position to create a rainbow which helps anchor the bottom left of the photo.  Without it, there would have been a lot of visually empty space.   
   The other problem was the fenced off platform I was standing on.  It almost looks like I'm floating in air over the edge of the falls.  Except it wasn't me that was floating, it was the camera.  This takes a little practice, but it's something I learned years ago.  I placed my camera on the tripod, put a level in the hotshoe and set the self-timer.  After that, it was simply a matter of figuring the exposure, extending the tripod horizontially out over the falls and getting lucky with the composition.  The speed of the water going over the falls was a big help too...I didn't have to shoot at a super slow speed to give the water motion the way I like.
   I don't know if any photograph can do these falls justice or relay the feeling of awe one gets from Iguazu, but at least we can try and give the viewer a sense of place.