09/02/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Cedar Creek on Petit Jean Mountain

Cedar Creek Below the falls on Petit Jean Mountain

Taken with a Phase One P45+, Mamiya 35mm F3.5 lens @ F14 for 2.5 seconds. When hiking along Cedar Creek one must always consider the views of the creek below Cedar Falls.  I like to call this area the rock fall as so many large rocks have fallen down from the area bluffs.  The best time to photograph here is after a good rain which will give you the best water features.  When shooting water like this, I will always use a slower shutter speed, in the 1 to 5 second range.  To accomplish this I use a circular polarizer and a neutral density filter.  The ND filter allows me to reduce the amount of light coming into the camera to allow for the longer shutter speeds.  The main issue you will tend to have here is the blur caused by wind.  To compensate for that, consider taking a shorter exposure at around 1/60 of a second.   This will help to stop the leaves and reduce the blur.  Later in post, combine the two images.  You may have to remove your ND filter to gain a fast enough shutter speed.  Petit Jean is about a 45 minute drive from Little Rock and is great place to go and spend a day exploring.