Photos of Arkansas

The colors in the far north Fayetteville area seem to be behind the Upper Buffalo Area. Last weekend, I found the areas around Ponca, to already have dropped their leaves or the trees were just turning brown. However the valley near Kyles Landing should be perfect this weekend as the oaks last week were just starting to turn. Here is a sunrise shot taken looking towards Kyles Landing from last weekend. As you can see, the oaks in the shots are just starting to turn and they are showing a good yellow color unlike the oaks up around Roark Bluff.
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Tags: Arkansas, Autumn, Big Bluff, Boxley Valley, Fall, Fayetteville, Horseshoe Canyon, Kyle's Landing, Maple, Oak, Ponca, Roark Bluff, Sam's Throne, Steel Creek, Sycamore, Vendor Valley

Throughout the central part of Arkansas, Pulaski, Saline, and Perry Counties, the fall colors have yet to even begin to peak. Based on the colors that were showing at Flatside Pinnacle on Thrusday, I feel that it will be the middle of November before any real peak happens here and maybe as late as the 1st of November up in the Northern Counties. The small amount of rain that fell on Thrusday did not bring any of the local creeks up so my hopes of getting some fall stream shots are starting to fail.

I have yet to head up to Petit Jean but I feel that Cedar Falls will not have a very good flow. The evening skies do allow for some wonderfull sunset work as many nights the deep blue of the evening sky has really stayed out long after the actual sun has set.

Hopefully things will start to come together this weekend as there are only 2 left before the opening of modern gun season.

Tags: Arkansas, Fall, Perry County, Pulaski County, Saline County

Over the past weekend, I spent some time up at Ponca AR to photograph the Elk herd. The Elk in Arkansas are considered a great success as the heard now has grown to close to 500 animals. The viewing of the herd has become a big item at Ponca and on the weekends you can expect to get a lot of traffic along Hwy 43 as people stop to look. There were more photographers out looking for the Elk that I expected. Enough that it reminded me of photography in Yellowstone during the fall rut.

The Elk will come down into the main fields near Ponca early in the morning and later in the afternoon. I found that the later afternoon shooting provided the best opportunities for my shooting style. If you are working the fields around Boxley Valley, you are limited to the fence line. This means that most of the visible Elk are between 100 to 200 years out. Even with a 400mm lens, the distance was really too great to take a photo to feature an elk without an extreme amount of cropping. To really bring the animals into view, you would be better suited with at least a 500mm lens, even a 600 or 800mm. There were plenty of people using these huge pieces of glass. Enough that it reminded me of a sporting event.

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Tags: Arkansas, Boxley Valley, Elk, Ponca, Yellowstone

I had hoped that more rainfall would have occurred in the later part of September so that Richland and other creeks would be at a higher level in October. It has been 2 years now since there was good water in Richland Creek during fall.

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Tags: Arkansas, Bill's Thrill Rapid, Fall, Hiking, Maple, Maytag Rapid, Richland Creek, Sweetgum