08/23/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Rocks and Leaves on the Cossatot River
Taken with a Canon 1ds MKII, iso 200, Canon 24-70 Lens @70mm, 1/60th of a second. The Cossatot River is one of my favorite spots to hike. You have all sorts of photographic subject matter to work with. The Cossatot River is in the southwestern corner of Arkansas Ouachita Mountains. You can find some of the best photography in the area known as the 6 falls or Cossatot Falls. Here the river turns due south and drops over 6 separate ledges, each of which have unique rapids and names. The rocks around Cossatot Falls are sandstone and have been worn totally smooth by the action of the water. You can find all types of interesting formations, such as the one in the photograph above where lines of quartz are running through the rocks.
08/09/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Swirls in foam on the Cossatot River
Taken with a Canon 1ds-MKII, Canon 24-70 lens, 24mm, F9 for 1/125 of a sec, iso 100. The Cossatot River has a wide range of photographic subject matter. When the water is running high you can make a trip down to catch the kayakers running Cossatot Falls, and when the water gets lower, you can look for unique spots along the riverbank to work. Most of the rock along the river is sandstone and tends to have a reddish hue in most places. The best place to catch the kayakers is at Cossatot Falls. Here you can perch on one of the rocks for the best view. The falls consist of 6 separate drops and each has a unique name. The most famous drop is the “washing machine” which tends to get the most attention. The only problem with the Cossatot is the fact that it’s about a 3 hour drive from Little Rock so a trip there makes for a rather long day.
Swirls in foam has been printed on both canvas and Canon Platine rag. It makes an excellent print and can be displayed in both the horizontal and vertical orientation.
05/08/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Cossatot Falls State Park near Mena Arkansas
- At May 08, 2013
- By paul
- In Featured Arkansas Photography
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Taken with a Canon 1ds-MKII, Zork adapter, 35mm Pentax FA lens, F11, iso 100 for approximately 1 second. The Cossatot River is one of the great scenic spots in the southwestern corner of Arkansas. The Cossatot runs due south and eventually creates Lake Greason. From there is continues to run into Millwood lake, one of the largest impoundments in the southwestern part of the state. This photograph was taken much further upstream in the area known as the six falls. Cossatot Falls is unique to Arkansas rivers as here you will find 6 distinctly different rapids that have cut through the sandstone ridges in different places. Each spot has a unique name, BMF, and the Washing Machine are two of the most famous. This photography is looking back upstream from BMF and features 3 of the falls. I took this shot with a Canon digital camera, with a Zork adapter that allows you to to 3 separate portrait frames as stitches. I then will combine the 3 frames into 1 landscape image. You gain a tremendous amount of resolution by shooting in this format.
03/10/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Sunset from Flatside Pinnacle
- At March 10, 2013
- By paul
- In Featured Arkansas Photography
- 0
Taken with a Canon 1ds mkII, Canon 70-300 lens, F11, iso 200, Composite shot taken as a manual exposure bracket. If you get a chance to visit this area you won’t be disappointed by what you find. Flatside is the 3rd in a series of pinnacles that I consider to be the gateway to the Ouachita mountains. In Pulaski County, you have Pinnacle Mountain, then just a bit east from Flatside, there is Northside Pinnacle. These are followed in turn by Flatside and then Forked Mountain. Forked mountain can easily be seen in the distance from the summit of Flatside. Forked Mt. is a considerably harder climb than Flatside but the view from it’s summit is worth the hike. I like to shoot to the west from the summit of Flatside after the sun has dropped below the horizon as you then can pick up the rolling hills out towards the west. I worked this shot up from 5 separate exposures in a classic exposure bracketed series, which was required back when I was shooting with the Canon 1ds series of cameras, now with Nikon’s newer cameras like the D800, I should be able to get the same shot with 2 or 3 frames max due to the extra dynamic range of the Nikon sensors. The trail runs up the back of Flatside mountain and right now there are several large trees down that make the hike take a bit longer. The trail is an easy 1/4 hike from where you park your car.
10/28/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Early morning light at Gunner Pool Campground
Taken with a Canon 1ds MKII, lens Canon 24-70 at 24mm, iso 400, 1/60 of a second, handheld.
When working early in the morning I love to hike along Arkansas Forest Service roads as they can offer some great candid shots. This photograph was taken near the Gunner Pool campground which is near Sylamore Creek. When this shot was taken, I had gotten up early to work along Sylamore creek and was heading back to my car, when I looked back and caught this ray of sunlight striking the road. The fall colors were about at their peak and there was no wind blowing. There was a bit of smoke coming from old camp fires and it just added to the overall look and effect of the scene.
08/13/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Fall Scene on the Cossatot River
Taken with a Canon 1ds MKII, Canon 24-70 lens @ 70mm and F 14, iso 100, Shutter speed 1/160 of a sec. With the fall season just about here, actually in many places it’s already here in Arkansas as a lot of the trees have turned brown due to the excessive drought. This shot was taken during one of my many hikes along the Cossatot River in the southwestern Ouachita mountains. The Cossatot is a great stream, just takes a while to get there from Little Rock. When the levels are right, the Cossatot is one of the best kayaking spots in Arkansas. The area known as Cossatot Falls is the real mecca. Here you can find 6 distinct rapids each of which has a unique name. Along the banks of the Cossatot you can find wonderful displays of maples, oaks, and gum trees. I found this shot on my hike back out as the sun was starting to set and I was able to position the sun so that it back lit the leaf just the way I wanted. I used a polarizer to help block out unnecessary reflections and to give the sky a deeper blue hue. Fall is definitely one my favorite times to photograph Arkansas.
08/09/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Richland Creek Reflections
Taken with a Canon 1ds MKII, Single Exposure with a Canon 24-70 Lens @ 35mm, F11, iso 200. This is better than Richland Creek will look in the the for 2012 unless Arkansas starts to get a lot more rain. Currently the creek is dry for almost it’s entire length. There might still be a bit of water in the deeper pools along the lower creek below the campground bridge. However I doubt that most of the pools above the bridge have any water left in them. The USGS guage has not reported any level for Richland for about a month now, so I feel that the large pool at the campground bridge is dry also.
On a cloudy day you have a much harder situation to work with since your sky will attempt to go white or light gray. Personally for my work I don’t prefer to see the white sky effect and since I don’t tend to combine images, i.e. take the sky from one and the scene from another, when shooting a scene like this most times I will move in closer and take the sky out of the frame. On this day the light was very neutral, no visible highlights and the shadows were all pretty even. I still liked the visible color on the creek so I walked up looking for a scene that might work. This group of rocks is called Cindy’s Hole Rapid and is quite a fun drop when there is a bit more water in the creek. I like the way the rocks work all the way across the creek and have such distinctive shapes. Richland creek is a great day hike for any photographer looking for the beauty of Arkansas’s outdoors.
08/03/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Sunset from Flatside Pinnacle
Taken with a Canon 1ds MKII, iso 100, HDR series 5 frames, Canon 24-70 lens @ F11. Flatside Pinnacle is one of those places that once you make a trip there, you will find yourself going back many times. You can catch a great sunset looking out over the Ouachita mountains, or if you are there early in the morning, the fog will be down in the hills. Flatside is an easy 40 minute drive from Little Rock, west on Hwy 10 towards Lake Sylvia. I took this shot with a Canon 1ds, MKII, in a 5 frame HDR series. The sun had already set and the exposure times were from around 5″ to 20″. The effect I was after was the light playing off the haze in the distance. The colors of the sky that day were amazing. The hike to Flatside will take you near the 150 mile Quachita trail which runs east/west across most of the Arkansas Ouachita mountains and into Oklahoma.