Virgin Falls, TN

[Jon Buffington]

Been awhile since I have been here. Still out shooting film and digital. Wanted to share a hike I did to capture Virgin Falls in the Spring of 2022. Beautiful area on the Cumberland Plateau and this was a recent trail addition connecting from Lost Creek. Just a gopro 10 with max lens mod and media mod as well as a Nikon FM2n with a nikkor 20/2.8ai and a series e 35/2.5 (I incorrectly labeled this as the 28 series e in the video). Hope you enjoy a look at the TN Cumberlands and this unique falls.

 

[AlanLichty]

Beautiful falls in your B&W images overlaid within the video. You mentioned that this is a low water flow time of year at the Rylander Cascades which did have some nice delicate drop offs in your still images. How much more water would be flowing over Virgin Falls during a wetter season? that looked like a pretty fast flow already. What were the bugs swarming your GoPro during the hike? They looked rather persistent. What would hiking this trail look like with fall colors?

I did have some issues trying to hear your narrative over the music and waterfalls starting around the 9 minute mark FWIW.

 

[Jon Buffington]

A wetter spring brings more flow. Fall, the colors are great but if it is a dry fall (usually is, we have been in an on/off drought all summer) then the flow is virtually non existent at Rylander and low at Virgin. The water comes off the cumberland plateau so is weather dependent. Fall is our dry season typically and late winter/spring is the wet season. Summer is also wet but can be less so.

As for the bugs, I guess my bug spray was keeping them off me and out towards the camera. Spring in the south! Bugs bugs bugs!

The media mod on the gopro was not ideal as the mic is pointed towards the subject, away from me. Without the media mod, vocals would have been picked up better. Been trying some things out and have one from this spring I will post up as well shortly. Appreciate the feedback.

 

[ProCaliberTraveler]

Virgin Falls is excellent and hat trail looks inviting. As @AlanLichty already mentioned, it was difficult to understand what you were saying over the music and the sound of the falls.

 

[JimFox]

Very nice Jon! I enjoyed your video. That's a really beautiful area, and your video presents it well to anyone who is interested in that area.

Those bugs though! You need to attach a fan onto your GoPro to blow the bugs away!

And I may have mentioned this before, but I stopped using my GoPro for my video's. The iPhone does so much better of a job then the GoPro for video. Not only does it have multiple lens options that allow you to zoom in, the HDR aspect of the iPhone when recording video is something that GoPro doesn't have. So the video's will look better. This video looks great, but I wanted to mention about the iPhone in case that's something you hadn't thought of using.