03/10/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Sunset from Flatside Pinnacle

Sunset from Flatside Pinnacle in the Eastern Ouachita Mountains

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.

03/07/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Midnight skies looking south from the summit of Mt. Magazine

Midnight skies looking south from the summit of Mt. Magazine

Taken with a Nikon D800e, iso 250, Nikon 14-24 lens @ F4.5, final image is composite of 50 minutes of 2 minute stacked exposures. I had been to Mt. Magazine a about a week earlier but was still learning about the place. The small ceder tree to the left is a famous landmark on Mt. Magazine and has been recently adopted by the Mt. Magazine lodge as their emblem on all signage. It’s a easy shot, but tends to be over run with people most times during the year. On this night with temperatures ranging about 25 degrees, I didn’t have too much to worry about in regards to people, however I did need to watch out for ice. The bluff line drops down about 80 to 100 feet about 5 feet in front of where I had the camera. On this night the moon was more of a hindrance then a help as I was near full, just two days past full and very high in the sky. The day had been very hazy and some of the haze can be easily seen in the distance against the horizon line. The town in the distance is called Havana, not sure where the name came from and the lake in the foreground is call Blue lake. All my night work is now shot in stacks since I get so much more control over the final product. For some reason I still had some gaps that I didn’t expect so I am starting to feel that the Nikon D800e might be buffering out with a long series of raw files, but I need to test this in a control to make sure. The gaps can be easily fixed with Startracer software so I am no worried. However I still managed to somehow touch the tripod and move it so that last few stacks were out of line. This image represents a 50 minute time frame and I took the individual stacks as 2 minute images. This gave me the best balance of star light against the very bright moon. However I still added a dark short frame that I took towards the end of the series which helped a lot in closing down the moonglow to the left of the image. This shot is looking due south and the pattern of the trails was a pleasant surprise for me.

03/05/13 Sunset over Cameron Bluffs on Mt. Maganize, Arkansas

Sunset over Camron Bluff on Mt Magazine in Arkansas

Sunset over Cameron Bluff on Mt Magazine in Arkansas

Taken with a Nikon D800e, iso 100, Nikon 14-24 Lens @14mm, F9, 1/1250 of a second, Single Exposure. I was lucky enough to catch this great sunset as the sun was just dropping over Cameron Bluff on Mt. Magazine last week. All day the weather had been overcast and hazy, but when I reached the summit of Mt. Magazine, things changed dramatically. The sky started to clear and the temperature dropped by as much as 20 degrees. The wind was blowing out of the north and I figured the wind chill was close to 24 degrees F. I had been working the opposite side of the Cameron Bluff overlook and just happened to turn around in time to catch a great sunset over the bluff. I did not have my tripod and with the wind that was blowing I knew I had to go to a very fast shutter speed to stop the trees in the foreground. I set the camera to iso 100 and then moved my shutter speed to 1/1250. The overall exposure was quite dark in the area around the bluff and the sun appeared to be overexposed, but as I worked the image up in Capture One 7 I was pleased to see that I had an amazing amount of detail still available to me in the hills below the bluff. My only issue was FLARE, which is a real problem with the Nikon 14-24 whenever you are shooting into the sun. I have a love/hate relationship with this lens as it’s so sharp but the issue with flare is terrible. I spent more time working on the flare issues than anything else. The 14-24 tends to create a rainbow looking flare and depending on the angle to the sun it can tend to dominate the lower portion of a shot away from the sun. As you are shooting into the sun and want the sun in the shot, there is no way I know of block out the flare at the time of exposure. The D800e was still able to give me a wonderful shot that I feel captured the moment perfectly!

02/23/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Night skies over Area 51 in Western Pulaski County Arkansas

Area 51 and nighttime star trails in Pulaski County Arkansas

Stars and moonlight over Area 51–click on the image for a larger view

Taken with a Canon 5D MKII with a 16-35mm lens @ F4.5 for approximately 4o minutes. Area 51, in Little Rock, not out in the desert. Yes, Arkansas has it’s are 51! It’s a great spot to view Pinnacle mountain as there is big field in front of the mountain and the area 51 sign just adds to the effect of the shot. This is a harder spot to work than one might think as the constant stream of cars coming by. The headlights can really blow out a stacked exposure and to get this shot I had to work in the foreground from several different image since the lights were totally blowing out the image. I liked the way the sky came out, with a amber color towards the horizon and then a nice fade into a deep blue. I was barely able to catch the north star in the upper left corner. I was working against a very bright moon but I was able to finally get into a spot where I could use the large tree on the right to block most of the moonlight. I love this spot and go out to it many time during the year.

02/21/2013 Featured Arkansas Photography–Night skies over Twin Rivers Park

Night skies over the bridge at Twin Rivers Park

Taken with a Nikon D800e, 14-24 lens@ 17mm, F4.5, iso 400. Image is the result of a series of 35 second frames that were stacked together. Well, it’s been a while since I put up anything new, and I do have my reasons, but I am going to try and get a bit more current. This shot was taken over the new bridge at Twin Rivers Park, in Little Rock. This is a new subject for me but one I have wanted to explore for a while now. The bridge has a series of bright lights that run along it’s course so it added an additional challenge for any type of shooting. If you exposed the bridge for 35 seconds, it would be totally over exposed, but I need the 35 seconds for the stars. So the solution is to expose a series for the bridge after the stack is done, then combine the images together later. The bridge added one other problem in that it had a much brighter center that would go off like a search light every once and while. You can still the effect in the center of the image, but I felt it was balanced enough as I had it. The effect of the center light is a bit harsher in the smaller jpg file I have uploaded for the web. I was blessed to be shooting with Dr. Smith that night and only to have a few planes overhead.

12/04/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Fall Scene along Falling Water Creek

Fall Scene along Falling Water Creek in Newton County

Taken with a Canon 1DS MKII, Canon 24-70 Lens @ 24mm, F11, iso 100. If you have the time, one of the best short hikes in Arkansas is along Falling Water Creek. You can find plenty of small waterfalls along the way. The best place to start is from the Falling Water Falls waterfall on Forest Service road 1205. Hike downstream for about the next 2 miles and you will be very pleasantly surprise. If you run into any trouble, just hike up the hillside on the left side of the creek (facing downstream) and you will eventually come back to FR 1205. I would plan for this hike when Falling Water Creek is not running so high that a crossing would be unsafe. You can easily judge the height of the creek by viewing the water comin over Falling Water Falls. In this 2 mile stretch of the creek you should find several great waterfalls entering the creek.

11/20/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Prayer meeting at the narrows, Buffalo National River

Prayer meeting at the narrows of the Buffalo River

Taken with a Canon 5D MKII, Canon 14mm lens @ F11 for 1/60 of a second, iso 200. I love to work the narrows on the Buffalo River. It’s a very unique spot in Arkansas. Here you have a long bluff that had at one time been eroded by two different streams. One, the Buffalo which can be seen in the picture and the 2nd, Richland Creek. Richland long ago moved it banks away from this bluff, but is still close by and empties into the Buffalo not far downstream from where this picture was taken. On this day I was waiting and hoping that all the cloud cover would break off and give me some blue sky. It was late fall in 2010 but I still had some great color along the banks of the Buffalo. While I was waiting, a group of Mennonite women came down the bluff from behind me. I was surprised by this, as I only thought that there was one way up, but they had a different location to gain access. They climbed down the steeper end of the bluff which is behind from where this shot was taken, then walked along the narrows and climbed the smaller bluff in the distance. There they held a prayer meeting. You can see them barely in the distance on the right side of the bluff in the distance near the river. IF YOU CAN’T SEE THEM CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A LARGER VIEW.

10/28/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Early morning light at Gunner Pool Campground

Early fall moring at Gunner Pool campground

Early fall morning 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.

10/09/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Stars over Roark Bluff late October

Star Trails over Roark Bluff in 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

Sunset over Flatside Pinnacle in the Eastern Ouachita Mountains

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+.