How to Find Jerry Force Waterfall

Jerry Force Waterfall - An Introduction

Jerry Force is a waterfall located in the Gaunless valley in County Durham on a stream called Hindon Beck. Hindon beck then flows into the Gaunless, and the Gaunless then merges with the River Wear at Bishop Auckland. The waterfall is about 7 metres tall. So much smaller than it’s neighbours high force, and Summerhill force. It is also much more difficult to access than most of it’s counterparts.

The photographs you will see throuughout this blog, are from the path we took to Jerry Force. I will add a gallery of images at the end of the post.

Steele Gill Nikon Z6ii 2 Sec f/14 Iso 50

How To Find Jerry Force

I have tried MULTIPLE times to access Jerry Force to no avail. The waterfall is surrounded by private farmland. Not something that would have bothered me in my youth. But it’s not the same being a grown up. Is it?

DO NOT TRESSPASS ON PRIVATE LAND.

The address given on Google is Dent gate lane. But being totally honest, that won’t help you find the stunning waterfall. Instead, you need to get off the beaten track. Now the way we went, was not the ideal route as we were flying blind.

The easiest and by far the safest (we’ll get into this later). Is to simply follow Steele gill as far west as you can go. You will eventually end up at jerry Force. However. Parts of the gill and beck are lets say tricky to get through when there’s been a lot of rainfall. As with most waterfalls, without much rainfall, this waterfall isn’t worth going to.

So after a while of faffing about, and pointlessly crossing the river several times. We decided the best bet would be to head up the valley walls. Yes walls. There are sheer drops so please be careful, it’s more of a canyon than a valley at this point.

We clambered up the valley and decided it was easier to just follow the fence line. Until the GPS showed up in near enough the right location. There has been so much rain lately. With Storm Arwen and the Storm barra. That we could hear the waterfall from a good distance away.

How to Photograph Waterfalls

Steele Gill Nikon Z6ii 1.3 Sec f/16 iso 100

Tricky Landscape Photography Locations

Now, what I haven’t or didn’t notice when researching this location. No one talked about the descent. Maybe everyone is sensible enough to go the safe way. maybe we’re just a little bit crazy. Who knows? But, OH MY GOD! I thought we would need mountain rescue at one point.

If you follow the route, I laid out above. You will come to a small area that slopes down to a nice open flat. This looks like a great place to set up camp if you’re out for a good hiking session.
you will be able to easily see the waterfall from here. The next bit is where it gets a bit dicey though.

You come to what can only be described as a precipice. A large, vertigo inducing drop! Well, maybe I’m embellishing a little. But I’d say it’s a good 25-30 metres down a 70% slope. What made it worse. Did I mention Storm Arwen and Storm barra? The loose leaves and mud slick. To be honest made the descent quite fun. Until ONE OF US got stuck. Which prompted a rescue mission that the SAS would have been proud of. The route back up the slop was damned near impossible, so I chose to climb a nearby rockface to make life easier. I then got to slide back down. I would have loved doing this in my youth!

Jerry Force Nikon Z6ii 2 Sec f/16 Iso 50

Waterfall Photography

When it comes to waterfall photography. Many photographers default straight to filters and long exposures. And to be fair that’s a fair enough approach for most waterfalls. I took a different tact when photographing Jerry Force. I used a combination of short and longer exposures, to mix and match ang get the best result. I then blended these exposures in Photoshop.

Some aspects of the images in the above gallery are 2 second exposures. Others are 1/50 or higher. I don’t always like to see that smooth milky water that has become so cliché when it comes to waterfall photography.

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Waterfall Photography settings

So as I mentioned above. There’s no real right or wrong way to expose a waterfall. I mean after all photography is an art form, and there’s no such thing as “wrong” in art. It is entirely subjective. I find there is a comfortable start point that you can take with any waterfall. Then adjust to get the desired creative or technical effect that you desire.

I generally begin at an f-stop of f/8 with the Iso setting at the lowest possible. I have the benefit of shooting on the new Nikon Z6ii Mirrorless camera. So I can see pretty much exactly how my camera will expose in the viewfinder.

Waterfall photography is all about getting those shutter speeds right. To either show that somewhat cliché smooth look. Or a more static image. But that’s entirely up to you, and the waterfall you’re photographing.