Waterfall Rappel

As part of a campaign for North Carolina Tourism, I had the opportunity to photograph climbers rappelling down Big Bradley Falls in Saluda, North Carolina. Not for the faint of heart or weak of knee, rappelling down a 200-foot waterfall is no joke. It’s wet. It’s slick as hell. And you can barely hear yourself think over the roar of the falls - which may be a good thing, given the insanity of it all. In order to photograph our talent, I had to do everything they did - only facing down the wall (called the Australian Rappel) and shooting all the while with an extremely heavy and cumbersome underwater camera. In doing so, I was reminded of what they said about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers - that everybody remembers the balletic pyrotechnics of Fred Astaire, but nobody remembers that Ginger Rogers did everything he did, only backwards and in high heels. I was definitely feeling like Ginger Rogers in a wetsuit that day.

Thanks so much to Jon Cain, Ryan Coleman and Naomi Newman of LGA in Charlotte for trusting me with their wonderful campaign; and to all the folks at Green River Adventures in Saluda, for keeping us safe as we dangled off of Big Bradley