08/06/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Autumn afternoon on Richland Creek

Richland Creek in Autumn above the campground

Taken with a Nikon D800e, Nikkor 24mm 1.4 lens at F 5.0, for a 5 second total exposure. The autumn in Arkansas can be one of the most beautiful times to be out photographing the state.  The Ozark mountains are cut by thousands of small creeks and hundreds of larger ones like Richland.  Richland however is by far one of the most scenic creeks in the state.  It is the 3rd largest tributary of the Buffalo National River, after the Little Buffalo River, and it has 6 miles of sheer wonder to hike.  The best times to hike this creek are the early spring and early fall.  The color display along the creek can offer some of the most variety in the state as you can expect to see hickory, oak, maple, gum and dogwood with hundreds of lessor species of tree.  If the creek has water in the fall, it just adds to the overall great effect.  On this day in 2012, there had been a heavy rain about  days before so I only caught the later half of the water, but it still had a lot to offer.  This rapid is called Maytag is the last major drop on Richland before the campground.  The large rock on the upper right of the photo is “maytag”.   The color along the creek on this day was more green and yellow but there were a few dogwoods starting to show up.  I love it when I can catch a small whirlpool eddy which is showing up on the lower left of this shot.