For the past several months, I have been wanting to capture the waterfall at the low water dam on the Caney River near the intersection of Hensley Boulevard and old OK-123 highway, but never got around to it.

Last week, I strapped on my camera and rode my bike on Pathfinder.  It was a great evening to be riding and capturing some fall colors along the route.  As I neared the falls, I was greeted by a picturesque sunset behind the waterfall and Cherokee Bridge.  Since my interest was to capture the waterfall in a "silky" flow pattern, I had to slow down the shutter speed to a point that is not recommended to be taken without a tripod (not handheld.)  Since I didn't lug my tripod on the bike ride, I had no choice but to hold the camera close to my chest, literally stop breathing, while clicking the release button. Took half a dozen shots with various shutter speeds, with the hope that one of them may turn out okay.  They looked decent on my small 3" camera screen, but wasn't counting my chickens.

To my surprise, when I downloaded them to my laptop, I was amazed by the quality of the images.  A shutter speed of 1/5 second turned out to be the best. I was impressed by the "image stabilization" feature of my camera. The backlighting on the fall foliage and the river were near perfect.  An added bonus is that I was able to capture the Cherokee Bridge, which will soon be taken down as she has withstood the test of times.  Sad to see such beautiful bridges not lasting forever. 

Glad to share the end result here with you.  Hope you enjoy it as it was the most pleasant surprise in my photography to date!  

Cherokee Bridge, Bartlesville, OK