The Venta rapid forms a widest waterfall in Europe. It's located very close to Kuldīga town centre in Latvia.
See: Flying Fish over Venta Rapid in Kuldīga
I took my DSLR camera and decided to master my photography skills, couldn't say it improved drastic, but here is the thing I was told by a good friend a professional photographer:
If I may say try and get lower angles on the waterfall. Popular idea is to stand in the water if its shallow and not too cold. And if you don't mind to get wet
I didn't listened this time to this advice
View to the Venta Waterfall through the Brick Bridge
Kuldīga is a very interesting town from tourism point of view - you have a great access both to the widest waterfall in Europe and to the kind of (!sic) longest bridge in Europe. The Old Brick bridge across the Venta river is located just 240 meter distance from the Venta waterfall and you can have a great views to the rapid from the bridge. Read: The Old Brick Bridge Across The Venta River In Kuldīga
View to the Venta Waterfall from the Brick Bridge
The Venta waterfall
Folks gathering to observe flying fish over Venta rapid
In the Spring time one (perhaps you) can observe fishes trying actually jump over that rapid. If you are up here for that moment, make sure you have your best glass attached to your camera. I even didn't try to catch a moment here with my kit lenses. But look at the queue in above picture, they are people looking for that exciting moment.
The Venta waterfall
According to sources - It is the widest rapid in Europe – 249 metres (817 ft) and up to 270 metres (886 ft) during spring floods. Its height is 1.80–2.20 metres (5.9–7.2 ft) and it changes depending on the water level in the river.
A lovely summer cafeteria with moss on it
The Venta waterfall
Just couldn't resist to take another shot of this place
About Venta Waterfall
Ventas Rumba and the bridge create an impression of idyllic, calm provincial town. Even though Ventas Rumba is the widest waterfall (249 metres) in Europe, it is not typical of wild, exciting beauty of world’s big waterfalls. Its real prettiness one can evaluate giving attention to it at least 10 minutes and go down to it on one bank or another. The general impression of surrounding nature will give different effect in every season of the year. It is eternal and changeable forever.
Waters of the river Venta fall here over the hard layers of dolomite, where under them the more fragile layers of dolomite are situated, which the river erodes easier. Now and then the existing hard blocks of dolomite over them fall down and in this way the waterfall moves against the stream.
To lengthen the waterway to the south, Jacob, the Duke of Kurzeme and Zemgale (ruled from 1642 to 1682) ordered to blast the waterfall. After the first test blast the big stone blocks splitted away however also the cracks in the walls of Duke’s castle close by, notifying about the danger of this intention.
Since Ventas Rumba was still standing in its place, Duke Jacob directed to dig the canal to go round it. The digging works were started on the right bank of the river Venta but due to hard layers of dolomite the canal didn’t succeed in its finish, only during spring flood the water flows in it. In such a way the Mārtiņsala (Martin’s isle) was made.
In old times Kuldīga was famous for fish caught in the air here. In autumn the salmon come back to the river Venta from the sea, to spawn. They go against the stream and try to get over the waterfall. Already in Duke Jacob’s time the interesting method was invented for salmon catching which successfully was used for three hundred years. During the salmon spawn special baskets were placed along Ventas Rumba where fish which couldn‘t jump over the waterfall, fell back and got to these baskets. In a daytime it was possible to catch 80 to 100 salmons. Like salmons in spring time – at the beginning of May the vimbas jump over Ventas Rumba.
