Great Waterfalls of North Carolina: A Guide for Hikers, Photographers, and Waterfall Enthusiasts

The book I truly love. A friend owns a copy and I wanted my own. HOWEVER, the packaging was torn to the point I was afraid the book had been damaged. The paper had a stamp on it indicating it contained "media" and could be opened for inspection. Since when do books get examined? I have ordered many many books and had never seen the stamp before or had one so severely damaged. The book itself is still awesome. There are many hidden waterfalls that don't get the publicity so we don't hear of them. For those not from the area or who are not real hikers, the rating system is excellent so you will know what you are in for. Enjoy NC waterfalls!

This book has been very helpful in planning a trip to this area. It arrived very quickly and is in excellent condition. The photography in the book is absolutely fantastic. It really makes you want to travel and find these waterfalls.

This is a good book, covering some falls that aren't mentioned in other guides of NC waterfalls. Each falls discussed has a photo. The quality of the paper is very nice and the photos are of very good quality. Overall a nice book.

I bought this from Amazon along with 2-3 other WF Guidebooks on this area and unfortunately, ended up wishing I would have passed this one by. Frankly, there are so many things wrong with this book that I find baffling, especially considering the previous (although limited) positive reviews and that there are much, much better resources available for this area (mainly Kevin Adams' Book & Map).1- Volume: only contains about 60 falls compared to over 600 in Adams' book.2- Content: only contains 1 page of info on each WF and info is very basic... beauty rating, waterflow, directions, etc. Does have a little blurb at the bottom recommending best locations for shooting photos but I didn't find this very valuable as there are no earth-shattering revelations here. Anyone with reasonable sense of adventure could easily find all these angles and more with just a bit of effort.3- Format: this book is about 50% wider than your average guidebook, which would make it more difficult to fit into a day pack or small backpack. The one potential plus is that these are all thick stock glossy full color pages. Unfortunately, this only ends up being a waste of potential as most of the photos look as though they were taking by a weary tourist who could barely be bothered to pull their point and shoot camera out of their day pack (see more on photos below).4- Expertise (or lack thereof): as a self-described photographer and long time western NC resident, one would assume that the author would possess enough knowledge of these falls to be able to shoot them in ideal (or close to it) conditions, especially for inclusion in this book. However, it is now clearly apparent that most of these shots were taking during very low water periods. For a resident of this area, it's baffling why he would do this as it severely detracts from the appearance of most of the falls in this book.5- Photography: OK, with the caveat that the author does actually mention in preface that he intentionally included photos that employ the "stop-action" technique of shooting falls, rather than the "cotton-candy" or blurred effect, he seems to imply that this is just a toss up as far as personal preference goes. OK, yes, in the strictest sense of the term personal preference I suppose he is right, but the fact is that the vast majority of people, photographers & others alike, prefer the blurred effect. I will even admit that in some cases, like extremely high-volume falls, the stop-action version is a decent option to at least try. However, to not include any blurred effect falls in this book is a tremendous oversight and does a tremendous dis-service to the falls of this beautiful area! This is especially apparent in his extremely low-volume shots (again, baffled by this) like Moore Cove Falls & Cove Creek Falls, where the trickle of water coming down would have at least been somewhat more appealing with the blurred effect. To me, this is not so much a preference as it is a cop-out. The fact is, it is much more difficult technically to pull off the blurred effect. First, you absolutely have to shoot on a tripod. It's apparent to me that this author just hand held most or all of these shots. It also appears as though he didn't bother to use a polarizer, something that is a must in many WF shooting situations to cut down on glare, etc. But again, this would make it harder to hand hold a shot. The other thing about blurring water is that you tend to get hot-spots in the higher volume areas and these can effectively ruin your photos. It takes a lot of effort, both pre and post processing to account for this factor. Given all these factors, it seems more like laziness on the part of the author than personal preference but I guess I could be wrong.Just not sure why a publisher would go the extra expense of glossy, heavy, full color stock and then settle for inferior photos to print on it. Bottom line is that if I had purchased only this book and not seen other pics online of some of these falls, I never would have bothered to visit this area at all. And, it's one thing to market this poor attempt to hikers but to actually say it's also for photographers is an insult. I can honestly say that in my 4 short days in this area, I was able to get much better shots of many of the exact same falls in this book, and under less than ideal conditions.

I got this book in advance of a trip to NC to photograph some waterfalls on my own. It has a very good selection of falls to visit and excellent directions on how to get there. The trail directions are ok I would say. I do wish the book was a little smaller to fit, and wheigh less in my backpack on the trails. Excellent product though and the photos will inspire you to get out there.

Best book I have found. All the info you need ! Especially the distance you have to walk to eternal and the terrain.

A definite must if you are going to western North Carolina to photograph waterfalls.

Great Book! I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn the Great Waterfalls of North Carolina! Get it!