02_07_22 Fall Sunrise over Western Pulaski County featuring Pinnacle Valley
A composite image taken in 3 parts with a DJI Mavic 2 Pro Drone. The fall colors were just about peaked on the ridge in the foreground, and had already pushed past peak in the valley. I wanted to included the Maumelle River in this shot as I loved the look of it’s graceful curve at the bottom of the image. The Arkansas river flows in the background. The sky that morning was special with a wonderful peak/pink color and the rising sun popped the colors of the trees on the ridge. I found very few spots in the state in 2021 that had as much fall color as the Walton Heights Ridge.
Paul Caldwell
06/18/18 Featured Photography–Clearing morning fog at Pinnacle Mountain
I have a great fondness for the valley of the Little Mamuelle River and Pinnacle mountain. On one side you have the river winding down to the Arkansas River and then across the mountain is Lake Mamuelle. The distinctive shape of Pinnacle makes many feel that Arkansas has a volcano, but no the top is really two separate peaks. Pinnacle is around 650 feet tall and on most mornings where there is fog, you will see the just the top of the mountain poking out. This day was unique since there was a large amount of fog over Lake Mamuelle, which was billowing up like a cloud bank. As the sun rose up, the sky was painted in a wonderful separation of pink to light blue and the sun hitting the face of the mountain just added to the scene.
I used my Phase One IQ3100 for this shot. I was using a tripod and the Phase One 75-150mm lens. However I still cropped into the shot at least by one third as I just wanted to have the mountain by itself. I used Capture One software to work up the raw file and then tweaked the final look and feel in Lightroom and Topaz.
Pinnacle is a great climb for those in good shape, you can climb it from either side from fully maintained trails.
written for www.photosofarkansas.com by Paul Caldwell. This article is copy write protected, please contact me for permission to reprint.
07/27/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Sunrise throught the trees
- At July 27, 2012
- By paul
- In Featured Arkansas Photography
- 0
Click on the photograph for a larger image.
Taken with a Sony Nex-7, Sony 18-200 Zoom lens @ 30mm, F5.6 1/125th of a sec, iso 400. I like to drive along the rural roads in Arkansas to look for scenes like this one which was taken in western Pulaski county, Arkansas. This image was taken in late April before the effects of the drought began to really show in the state. This is a typical rural county road, which is only about 1 lane wide. The state of Arkansas has thousands of miles of roads like this and such roads are a great place to head out and look for a spot to photograph that is off the beaten path. I used a tripod to take this shot and it’s not a HDR composite which I would normally do in a scene like this. The Sony Nex-7 was able to handle the exposure range fine at iso 400 with a single exposure.
06/29/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Sunrise over Lake Maumelle in Western Pulaski County
- At June 29, 2012
- By paul
- In Featured Arkansas Photography
- 0
Taken with a Canon 5D MKII, Canon 24-70 Lens at F11, 3 exposures bracketed allow for a combination in Photoshop, Iso 100. You have to get up early to catch a shot like this on on Lake Maumelle. I was headed to Petit Jean Mountain to work Cedar Falls but as I crossed western end of Lake Maumelle, I caught this shot looking back to the east. I liked the way the early morning fog was pulling up off the lake towards the opposite shore. There was just a bit of breeze on the lake, but I still liked the outcome. Lake Maumelle is the water supply for the city of Little Rock and is about 10 miles outside of the city limits. Not a long drive.