12/15/15 Featured Arkansas Landscape Photography–Big water at Cedar Falls on Petit Jean Mountain
Taken with a Phase One P45+, Mamiya 35mm F 3.5 lens, for approx 1 second, with a circular polarizer, ISO 50.
The view of Cedar Falls on Petit Jean mountain is always impressive, but when you have a lot of water and fall colors, well, it just gets better. There was almost too much water running this day as the force of the water made all the sweetgums up by the falls be in constant motion. I was not really able to get to a shutter speed that would stop them totally so they just really blend into a mass of yellow. I had hoped for some red and yellow colors as is common with the sweet gums, but this year they were only yellow. Lots of folks don’t realize that the water in Cedar Creek is has such a brown tint to it. But on this day it just seemed to add to the overall shot.
To get this photograph, I had to stand in the water and cross out into the creek. Standing where I was the spray coming off the falls was also pretty constant. I had tried to get closer, but the spray was just too much to handle as it covered the front of my lens very quickly. I used a circular polarizer even though the sun was not out as it always seems to help bring out better overall colors and there was still glare on the rocks. I tried several shutter speeds this day, but anything over 1 second just did not look very good as the there was too much water moving by at such a high rate speed.
Cedar falls is one of the highest “real” waterfalls in Arkansas at over 75 feet tall. You can hike down to the base of the falls the trail that starts at the back of Mather Lodge.
PLEASE NOTE: All of the photography of this website is the property of www.photosofarkansas.com and is copy right protected. Do not copy any of the images on this site to paste on Facebook, Pintrest, or any other website without the permission of Paul Caldwell. Years of time have gone into capturing these photographs, please respect that. I do not take copy right infringement lightly. If you have a need to display any of my work on your site ASK me before you Copy & Paste.
12/14/15 Featured Arkansas Landscape Photography–Fall view below Big Bluff on the Buffalo River
Taken with a Phase One P45+ and 35mm F 3.5 lens, ISO 50, 2 exposures-one polarized and one non-polarized for reflections.
The Buffalo River has numerous bluffs along it’s entire length, but Big Bluff is the tallest at well over 550 feet tall from the river. Big Bluff is famous for the goat trail, which is a narrow shelf of rock that cuts across the middle Big Bluff. At a few points it’s barely 4 feet wide and the edge is straight off. Since the road down to Big Bluff from Hwy 21 was closed, you now have to hike down from the Compton Trail head and that is a major hike. The trail itself is at least 2 miles to the goat trail, and it’s all up hill on the way back. There is no water on the trail unless you happen go during a heavy rain so plan to bring some.
The best view is not from the the goat trail, but instead from the bottom of the bluff. Here in the fall you can catch some wonderful reflections along the river bank if the river is calm. On this day, I hiked in from Steel creek and waited for about 2 hours for the wind to die down. The wait was well worth it as the sunlight improved and the tress on the far bank were just lit up. It’s very interesting to note, that only the trees along the river were starting to turn and the trees up towards the top are still mainly green.
I used a Phase One P45+ back to take this photograph. I used a tripod mainly since I was going to bracket the shots. I wanted to use a polarizer to help cut the glare off the trees but I also knew that the polarizer would cut down on the reflections. So it was a simple thing to take two shots bracketing and then combine them later in Photoshop. This hike from Steel creek is a about 1.5 miles one way and you have to cross the Buffalo several times, so plan to make this trip on a low water day, or from a canoe.
PLEASE NOTE: All of the photography of this website is the property of www.photosofarkansas.com and is copy right protected. Do not copy any of the images on this site to paste on Facebook, Pintrest, or any other website without the permission of Paul Caldwell. Years of time have gone into capturing these photographs, please respect that. I do not take copy right infringement lightly. If you have a need to display any of my work on your site ASK me before you Copy & Paste.
09/18/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–The Natural Bridge in Lost Valley near Ponca Arkansas
Taken with a Phase One P45+ in 3 vertical segments to be stitched into one frame, 35mm Mamiya lens, F14, iso50, 3 second exposures with ND filter and CL-PL. Lost Valley is one of my favorite spots in Arkansas to photograph, especially when there is water running in Clark Creek. I would say that in the 100 or so trips I have made to Lost Valley over the years, I have only seen water like that shown in this picture about 10 times. Clark Creek runs throughout Lost Valley and eventually empties into the Buffalo River above Ponca. This one valley has more scenic value packed into the 1.5 miles of trail than most other places in the Ozarks. You can find over 6 separate waterfalls when the creek is running at full flow. If you have not been there before with a good head of water running in Clark Creek, I would put this on your list of places to visit. You can be sure of good water in Clark Creek if the Buffalo River is running over 2000 cfs when gauged on the USGS gauge at Boxley. Lost Valley can also especially pretty in the dead of winter if you happen to catch it after a heavy snow.
07/25/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–6 Finger Falls on Falling Water Creek
- At July 26, 2013
- By paul
- In Featured Arkansas Photography
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Taken with a Phase One P45+, Mamiya 35mm F3.5 lens @F14 iso 50 for approximately 1 second. Falling Water Creek is one of the many jewels of Arkansas. This particular spot is one of the more popular spots on the creek. Here you find a ledge that runs all the way across the creek and is broken in 6 spots, thus the name 6 finger falls. The total height is about 10 feet and it’s a very unique spot on the creek. The rocks in the foreground on this shot were all washed away in a recent flood and now there is only a sandbar. The creek above the falls has a long flat bedrock bottom is a nice spot to wade. If you want to photograph 6 finger falls, I would recommend you plan on being there in the morning in the afternoon, the sun will be shinning in your face. Of course if it’s a day like this one, overcast, it won’t matter. This area is about 2 hours away from Little Rock.
06/10/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Springtime at Cedar Falls on Petit Jean Mountain
- At June 10, 2013
- By paul
- In Featured Arkansas Photography
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Taken with a Phase One P45+, Mamiya 35mm F3.5 Lens at F14, iso 50, Exposure for approx 1.5 seconds. Here are my print prices if you would like to purchase a print of this photograph My website features many photographs of Cedar Falls on Petit Jean. Petit Jean is about a 40 minute drive from Little Rock and is one of the largest State Parks in Arkansas. It’s not a well known fact that before Hot Springs National Park was created, there was serious consideration to make Petit Jean a National Park instead. Cedar Falls is one of the highest “real” waterfalls in Arkansas. There are many other spots where water will run over a bluff during a heavy rain and create a temporary waterfall, but not many of them flow year round. You can hike down to the base of Cedar Falls from a trail that starts up at the back of Mather Lodge. The trail itself passes many very pretty spots that may warrant a quick stop. This photograph was taken at the peak of spring when the single red bud at the base of the falls is in full bloom. One of the features of Cedar Falls is that there is almost always someone standing around the base of the falls and they tend to be in the way of a good photograph. On this day, I was lucky enough to have the falls to myself for almost 2 hours and that was plenty of time to capture some great images. This photograph was taken with a Phase One P45+ Medium format digital back and a Mamiya 645 camera.
10/09/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Stars over Roark Bluff late October
Taken with a Phase One P45+, 45 minutes, 35mm F3.5 lens @ F4.5, iso 50, Phase One DF Camera, One of the most amazing aspects of photography is working with time lapse shooting at night. By leaving the camera shutter open and using just the ambient lighting from the moon, you can get some great night photographs. In this shot I was working the Buffalo River Valley near Steel Creek which is one of the most popular spots along the upper Buffalo. There were no clouds and the sky was very clear with very little wind, perfect conditions for night work. I left the shutter open for 45 minutes which allowed me to capture the movement of the earth around the north star. If you can find the north star in the night sky then you will get the concentric circles outward from the north star. If you don’t have the north star, then you will get different patterns to the star movement, sometimes waves or other partial circles. I feel that the best shot will have a northern view even if the north star has dropped below the horizon. Remember, the moonlight will give the sky the wonderful blue tint.
10/06/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Wintertime sunset at Flatside Pinnacle
Taken in January 2012, Camera Digital-Phase One IQ160 mounted to Arca rm3di, Lens-Rodenstock 28mm HR, 2 exposures to create a exposure bracket. The wintertime in Arkansas can be very photogenic. I was out on Flatside in early January 2012 working with a new Rodenstock 28mm HR lens with a Arca Swiss rm3di. I wanted to test the lens in various combinations of focus and tilt. For this shot I was able to get a hyperfocal of about 24 inches to infinity. I used approximately 1/2 of a degree of downward tilt on the Arca rm3di. The corresponding depth of field was amazing. For this shot I took off my polarizer as it just did seem to make much difference. The Phase One IQ160 performed very well here. In the past when working with my older Phase One P45+, I found shots like this one impossible since the P45+ was impossible to work with bright highlights. For example on this shot I would have needed to take a shot for just the sun and these several more exposure brackets to try and pull in the shadows in the foreground. The Phase One IQ160 did this shot in 2 exposures. I still couldn’t get it all in one, but I found the Dynamic Range of the Phase One IQ160 a vast improvement over my P45+.
07/16/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Jigsaw Blocks in Lost Valley on Clark Creek, Buffalo National River
- At July 16, 2012
- By paul
- In Featured Arkansas Photography
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Taken with a Phase One P45+, Mamiya 35mm lens @ F14, iso 50, Exposure 2 seconds. The Lost Vally part of the Buffalo National River has to be one of the most scenic areas in the entire state. I have been hiking, camping, and photographing Lost Valley since around 1970. I can remember Lost Valley when it was still only a small state park and the logging had just been stopped with a injunction. This photograph was taken during the huge rain even in 2010 during late April and May. For over 3 weeks Clark Creek ran close to full capacity and some features that almost never have any water in them were available for photographic capture.
Now Lost Valley probably gets close to 250 visitors a day during the week and 3x of that at times on the weekends. Now there is no campground as the National Park service is totally unwilling to replace the wonderful campground that used to be on the far side of the creek. There was a heavy rain in 2011 that caused a flood and the rest is history. At least they reopened the area to hiking.
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