Photos of Arkansas

I found the area around Crowley’s Ridge one of the most difficult to photograph.  The geography there is most unique, as it is almost all mud and hills, with very little rock.  Village Creek State Park, which is in the northern end of Crowley’s Ridge has some very interesting areas to hike.  This photograph was taken along the Trail of Tears which runs through Village Creek.

The East Fork of the Little Buffalo is one of the hidden (really not so hidden) gems of the Arkansas Ozarks.  It’s head waters are near Nail and Deer Arkansas but it’s middle section can be reached by taking Hwy 374 for a ways and then turning off into the Valley.   This photograph was taken in the middle of a rapid that came to be know as the labyrinth.  It’s four parts and over a football field in length.  Quite impressive at higher water.

What can I say,  Roark Bluff on the Buffalo National River is one of the most photogenic spots in Arkansas.  I like to photograph it year round.  However one of the best times of the year is when the fog is thick in the river valley in the fall.

When the water level on the Cossatot gets really low say under 10 CFS, you can work right into the Washing Machine itself.  This photograph was taken in 2004 in the fall which is one of the best times to catch lower water levels on the Cossatot.  Cannonball the large rock below the main drop is out of the frame to the immediate left.   I found that this water lever allowed me to catch the river at angles I had never been able to get before.

This photograph was taken in the early fall in 2004 on the Cossatot River, at Cossatot Falls.  One of the best places to photograph water in action in Arkansas.  This particular rapid is called the Washing Machine and the large rock the water is washing around in the middle is called Cannonball.  This is on the low side, it still could be kayaked at this level but I preferred to run this drop when the water was washing over the top of Cannonball.

Surprised!!!, actually we both were.  I was walking across this thicket in the middle of a cloudy afternoon with my camera down.  This bull, which was one of the larger bulls of the 2008 Elk population in Boxley Valley, stood up directly in front of me.  He had been asleep and I had startled him.  My first reaction was to run, but after I realized he was not going to charge, I recovered from my surprise and was able to get one or two photographs before he walked off.

This is a second work up of this shot.  I found that the color in the sky was too flat in the first print.  I was also able to pull up the snow on the trees.  This is my favorite time to photograph snowfall, when the trees and rocks are still coated with a layer of wet snow.   This was taken as a 4 exposure HDR image with a Canon 1ds MKIII.

While on a trip to photograph the Elk in the Boxley Valley, I happened to turn around as the sun was rising over my left shoulder and caught this scene as the last of the morning fog and haze were burning off.  The hills in shot had a great overlapping quality to them. The barn in the foreground is set against a hillside so that it looks like the roof is laying on the ground.

I know many will feel that I planted the leaf, but it was there.  I was in the middle of crossing Richland and this lone rock adorned with a single leaf caught my eye.  I stopped in the middle of the creek and the rest is history.  This was about a 30 second exposure, taken with a Canon 1ds MKII.

The Cossatot River in Southwestern Arkansas has many scenic spots worth a trip to photograph, however by far, the best is the area known as Cossatot Falls.  Here 6 ledges cross the river and create unique features in the river.   All the ledges are made from sandstone and the rocks are wonderful macro subjects.  I prefer to photograph this area after a rain when the small pools in the rocks will be full.