08/09/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Richland Creek Reflections

Cloudy Day on Richland Creek, Newton County Arkansas

Taken with a Canon 1ds MKII, Single Exposure with a Canon 24-70 Lens @ 35mm, F11, iso 200.  This is better than Richland Creek will look in the the for 2012 unless Arkansas starts to get a lot more rain.  Currently the creek is dry for almost it’s entire length.  There might still be a bit of water in the deeper pools along the lower creek below the campground bridge.  However I doubt that most of the pools above the bridge have any water left in them.  The USGS guage has not reported any level for Richland for about a month now, so I feel that the large pool at the campground bridge is dry also.

On a cloudy day you have a much harder situation to work with since your sky will attempt to go white or light gray.  Personally for my work I don’t prefer to see the white sky effect and since I don’t tend to combine images, i.e. take the sky from one and the scene from another, when shooting a scene like this most times I will move in closer and take the sky out of the frame.  On this day the light was very neutral, no visible highlights and the shadows were all pretty even.  I still liked the visible color on the creek so I walked up looking for a scene that might work.  This group of rocks is called Cindy’s Hole Rapid and is quite a fun drop when there is a bit more water in the creek.  I like the way the rocks work all the way across the creek and have such distinctive shapes.  Richland creek is a great day hike for any photographer looking for the beauty of Arkansas’s outdoors.