Rick Hartigan, the photographer/author of West Virginia Waterfalls, is the organizer of the Cincinnati-based Ohio Valley Camera Club and administrator of several nature-related websites. Privately printed in 2017, this reflects his years of travel experience in and around the Mountain State.
This publication contains viii pages of introductory material (table of contents, author’s presentation and preface); 111 pages of text on waterfalls; 11 final pages of useful resources, credits, photography tips and an index.
The entry for each water feature consists of GPS coordinates, clear practical directions which should assist with finding the location, along with sound advice regarding accessibility(i.e. whether the falls or cascade is visible for roadside viewing or requires any hiking for any distance and/or scrambling down hillsides) and, usually, a fine color photo.
Much of the book’s material is drawn from accumulated material to be found on the author’s West Virginia Waterfalls website (http://www.wvwaterfalls.com/index.php), where the reader will find additional falls entries, more images for some locations, and further commentary. It is suggested that the book and the website be consulted together, along with many helpful links to be found at the latter.
As Rick says in the preface, the book’s primary concerns is “about finding and getting to locations” of waterfalls in West Virginia, the “what and the where” rather than photographic information such as lighting situations and camera settings (although this is not infrequently encountered along the way). There are lots of tips about driving through the rough spots. While the author advises that this is not a book concentrating on aspects of taking pictures of the water, the final section on photographic technique for capturing waterfalls is a generally valuable and, again, based on what he has found to be successful and satisfying. Anyone who has traveled with Rick knows that this book is a labor of love based on first-hand experience and that it is produced with his deep passion and enthusiasm for the outdoors in general and water features in particular.
The easygoing and colloquial style of prose is authentically Rick; if you know him and especially if you have traveled with him, you’ll almost be able to hear him speaking this text.
This book is highly recommended as both a useful assistant on the road but is also enjoyable in itself thanks to the superb images. While most of this reviewer’s waterfall expeditions with Rick have been to other areas – in fact, that’s my 2010 photo of him at Spruce Flats in the Smokies on the back cover – one special trip on the road with him to the New River region makes this something of a souvenir. Using this volume as a tour guide – one of its main purposes – will save the reader a lot of wasted time and frustration. I am happy to see Rick’s hard work in West Virginia made available in this book.
This publication contains viii pages of introductory material (table of contents, author’s presentation and preface); 111 pages of text on waterfalls; 11 final pages of useful resources, credits, photography tips and an index.
The entry for each water feature consists of GPS coordinates, clear practical directions which should assist with finding the location, along with sound advice regarding accessibility(i.e. whether the falls or cascade is visible for roadside viewing or requires any hiking for any distance and/or scrambling down hillsides) and, usually, a fine color photo.
Much of the book’s material is drawn from accumulated material to be found on the author’s West Virginia Waterfalls website (http://www.wvwaterfalls.com/index.php), where the reader will find additional falls entries, more images for some locations, and further commentary. It is suggested that the book and the website be consulted together, along with many helpful links to be found at the latter.
As Rick says in the preface, the book’s primary concerns is “about finding and getting to locations” of waterfalls in West Virginia, the “what and the where” rather than photographic information such as lighting situations and camera settings (although this is not infrequently encountered along the way). There are lots of tips about driving through the rough spots. While the author advises that this is not a book concentrating on aspects of taking pictures of the water, the final section on photographic technique for capturing waterfalls is a generally valuable and, again, based on what he has found to be successful and satisfying. Anyone who has traveled with Rick knows that this book is a labor of love based on first-hand experience and that it is produced with his deep passion and enthusiasm for the outdoors in general and water features in particular.
The easygoing and colloquial style of prose is authentically Rick; if you know him and especially if you have traveled with him, you’ll almost be able to hear him speaking this text.
This book is highly recommended as both a useful assistant on the road but is also enjoyable in itself thanks to the superb images. While most of this reviewer’s waterfall expeditions with Rick have been to other areas – in fact, that’s my 2010 photo of him at Spruce Flats in the Smokies on the back cover – one special trip on the road with him to the New River region makes this something of a souvenir. Using this volume as a tour guide – one of its main purposes – will save the reader a lot of wasted time and frustration. I am happy to see Rick’s hard work in West Virginia made available in this book.
Dan Pater