15 Featured Arkansas Photography

Old home near St. Joe Arkansas

Taken with a Nikon D800e, Nikon 24-120mm lens, at around 35mm F5.6 iso 100 single exposure. This is one of the places I have driven by many times on the way to Woolum Ford on the Buffalo River. The home itself is in a total state of disrepair, but if you look closely at the front the woodwork there is most impressive. I would love to go up closer, but this is on private land. The weeds that have grown up around the front bothered me at first, but then after looking at the shot, I felt that they just added in. I love that fact that there are no power lines running to the building as they can be a pain to work with in post production. Someone spent a great deal of time on the decorative wood work on the front and most of it is still in place. One of the many old wonders in Arkansas.

Richland Creek in Autumn–12/18/14 Featured Arkansas Landscape Photography

Richland Creek in Autumn below Shaw’s Folly Rapid

Taken with a Phase One IQ160, Rodenstock 28mm HR lens, F11 for approximately 1 second, iso 50. Richland Creek, which runs from Newton County to the Buffalo River near Woolum Ford, has some of the most beautiful photographic subject matter in Arkansas, if you love creeks. Here you can find huge rocks that have ended up in the creek that had to have originated up much higher on the bluffs. Some of these rocks are the size of a small house and most are the size of a car. Richland creek has several sections that run over flat bedrock and this spot is one of them. This spot is about 100 yards long and starts out directly below Shaw’s Folly Rapid. The foliage on the left back, which is featured in this shot, is full of oaks, maples and hickory trees which on this day were all in full color. There was just enough water in the creek to allow for a movement shot. Normally, I like to have bright sunny days to work Richland, but on this day which was overcast I was able to get one of my best shots of the creek. Using tilt, I have gained quite a bit in overall depth of field so I was able to keep the details of the large rock on the left foreground in focus along with the trees in the background. This was a magic day for sure.

Mt. Magazine morning Vista–12/14/14 Featured Arkansas Photography

Mt Magazine photography Images of Mt Magazine

Morning Vista from Mt. Magazine

Taken with a Phase One IQ260 & Rodenstock 28mm HR lens, with an Arca rm3di, image created by combining 2 nodal pans. Mt. Magazine, which is the highest spot in Arkansas at around 2700 feet, has some wonderful views. One of the best is from from rock ledge below the Lodge where you have a wonderful view of the Blue Mountain, and Blue Mountain Lake off in the distance. This view is looking southwest, and shows the fall colors at peak or near peak. The deciduous trees in the area include, Maples, Hickory and various Oaks. You can also see the effect of the massive amount of forestry cutting in the lower valley which is beyond the boundary of the State Park where all the trees are now pines. These are not the natural pine to Arkansas, the short leaf, but instead Loblolly and or Slash pines, both of which were planted after the clear cuts were made. All of the lower foothills of Mt. Magazine are covered in this type of tree.

This is a hard shot to get in one frame with a 4:3 ratio camera like the IQ260 Medium Format back, so I worked in a series of pans, where I set the 28mm Rodenstock at a spot on my tripod that was close to the nodal point for the lens. This allowed me to pan across the scene and then combine the images into one larger frame later on. On this day, the sky was a radiant blue with some very high cirrus clouds that were rolling in from the west. With a tech camera like the Arca rm3di, and the Rodenstock 28mm lens, this type of shot is a bit more difficult since you have to correct for the color cast the lens creates. I used the Rodenstock Center filter on the lens and a linear polarizer to enhance both the blue in the sky and fall colors, as the sun was over my left shoulder and provided perfect conditions for polarization.

This is popular spot on the weekends, but during the week, most times you will not find anyone around so plan your trips accordingly. Make sure you take enough time to drive around the entire summit of Mt. Magazine as there are many great vantage points for photography.

10/14/14 Featured Arkansas Landscape Photography–Sunset at Roark Bluff on the Buffalo River

Sunset over Roark Bluff on the Buffalo River

Taken with a Canon 5D MKII, Canon 14mm F 2.8 lens, in a bracketed series of exposures @ iso 200 This one is a special shot as it was one of those photographs that was just pure luck. I was up on the Buffalo River with Bob Shull, mainly to work the night skies, and we were just up on the river setting up our cameras. I had been looking downstream as the moon was starting to rise and it was in a very nice position. I had left my Canon 5D MKII setup for a upstream shot of Roark bluff for later that night. The evening skies had been cloudless, so I was not very interested in a sunset. I remember for some reason I looked around, probably due to a noise on the river, and wow, all of a sudden a bank of clouds had rolled at just the right time and they were on fire! I had to shoot the 5D MKII in a series of bracketed exposures as I knew that I would not be able to pull in the entire exposure with just one frame. This scene only lasted about 6 minutes and then the sun dropped below the bluff. My first series, missed the reflections of the sunset on the water at my feet. The river was not dead calm, but I still was able to pull in the reflection of the sunset on the water and the river rocks.

This was one of those once in a life time lucky lighting shots, that unless you happen to live on the river and can be out there everyday, just doesn’t happen very often. This was one of the last major photographs I took with the Canon, as I was in the process of transitioning to my Nikon D800, however I was much more familiar with the Canon at the time, so I shot with it.

09/28/14 Featured Arkansas Landscape Photography–Midnight at Haw Creek Falls

Haw Creek Falls at Midnight in Searcy County

Taken with a Canon 6D, Canon 16-35 lens, at F4, iso 400, 2 hour time lapse photograph. This photograph was obtained by taking a series of 2 minute exposures from 10:00 pm to 12:15 am at Haw Creek Falls in the Arkansas Ozarks. I used a Canon 6D and a focal length of 18mm to take a series of 2 1/2 minute exposures. Each exposure was taken as raw file and developed in Lightroom, then I stacked them in Adobe Photoshop to capture only the motion of the earth over 2 hours which created the “trails. The blue color to the sky is from the moon, which was just a bit past 1/2 waxing. The moon adds both excellent ambient illumination to the night sky, giving it a blue hue, and also greatly adds to the landscape portion of the photograph. There was no light painting used on this photography, it’s all the light from the moon. I prefer this greatly over using artificial lighting, by painting as the moon just works better. You can read more about this technique in an article I wrote: Stacking for better nighttime photography. This photograph was taken in April of 2014, and spring was very late this year as can be seen in the trees on both banks of the creek.

I been working for a shot like this from Haw Creek for over 3 years. Catching the conditions all together can be harder than you think. You need a good flow of water, but not too much, as was present in March. The moon needs to be waxing for this shot, not waning or you will be up way to late waiting on the moon to appear. A clear sky is needed, with no clouds if possible and this does not always work out, as over 2 hours it’s quite common to see a front blow in. Also it work best if there is little to no wind. But since I am stacking I usually can find one of the stacks that has less wind noise than the rest.

This shot has it all, as you have great water, running over most of the ledge, and excellent play of shadows on the foreground. I am looking to the northwest, you can barely see where the north star is up in the upper right corner of the shot. It’s not very easy to get a good shot of the falls and the north star from below the drop, but the wide angle lens I was using did grab a nice portion of the sky. Of all the photograph I work with, nighttime stacking takes by far the greatest amount of time, both in the capture of the images and post processing, however I love the look of what I can create.

08/20/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Bliss

At August 20, 2014
By paul
In Featured Arkansas Photography, Uncategorized
0

Bliss on the bed

Taken with a Fuji X-T1, 14mm lens @ F4, iso 400. Not too much to say on this one, I wanted to test out the new 14mm lens I had picked up for my Fuji X-T1 and my dog scout was totally engrossed in the testing as you can tell. Dogs can make life seem waay too complicated.

08/11/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–October day on Richland Creek

October morning on Richland Creek–click on photograph for a larger image

Taken with a Phase One IQ160, Arca rm3di and Schneider 35XL lens, F11 for 1 second, Image created by shifting the back for 3 separate images and then stitched together in post processing. Both a polarizer and neutral density filter were used. Richland Creek, which heads up in western Newton County, then runs eastward before running into the Buffalo River, is one of the most unique spots in Arkansas. The creek has hundreds of photogenic spots but the best photography will be from the forest service campground, upstream for the next 5 miles. Don’t just stop at Richland falls, which is a creek wide waterfall, but instead hike up stream for at least 2 more miles as some of the best spots are in this stretch. This photograph was taken in October of 2012, after a good rain had fallen a few days before. Richland is usually very low in the fall and when you can catch a clear day with good water it’s a rare but special day. The creek is lined with hardwoods, that produce some amazing displays of color, and most years, they don’t disappoint. Even if the water level is low, there should be some larger pools that will offer great reflections which won’t be there in the higher water times. On this day, I had the best color display I have seen in years on Richland, the only tree that had already dropped it’s leaves was the large sweet gum on the upper right of the the photo. In the fall, the water tends to be clear so you can see down to the bottom in even 4 to 5 feet of water.

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.

06/30/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Summertime sunset over Pinnacle Mountain

Summertime sunset over Pinnacle Mountain

Taken with a Canon 1D MK IV, Canon 24-70 Lens @F11, iso 250, Multiple exposure technique used to create photo. In the summer months it’s often very easy to catch a late afternoon thunderstorm rolling in behind Pinnacle mountain. On this evening the light had started out with just a bright sun with very few clouds, but as the evening approached, bank of thunderheads rolled in to the left of Pinnacle. The wind seemed to die down quite a bit, so since I was using older Canon equipment with a very limited dynamic range, I went ahead and shot a 4 shot bracketed exposure. I was able to catch the sun just as it was starting to roll down behind the ridge behind Pinnacle. The contrast between the dark thunderhead and the high cirrus clouds was impressive and I stayed around for as long as could before it got too dark.

06/18/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Early springtime sunset at Haw Creek Falls

I was able to catch the setting sun at just the right angle

Taken in 3 parts with a Phase One IQ260 and Rodenstock 40mm lens, Arca rm3di camera with a CL-PL filter. This image will be featured in my up coming show at Cantrell Gallery. I am featuring locations in Arkansas that I am always drawn back to. Haw Creek Falls, is not the tallest waterfall in Arkansas or the most dramatic, however it’s a beauty. Haw Creek runs over a huge ledge that runs back about 100 yards and has created in effect a natural dam. There is pool behind the falls that is a great swimming hole in the summer months. The way the trees lean down to the water just makes for a great photograph. Working a sunset at Haw Creek can be very problematic, most times there will be someone standing on the ledge and you have to time out your shots. Also in the later months of summer the sun will be going down directly over the center of the valley which makes for a much more difficult shot. In this case, mid April, the sun is still over to the far left and on this evening as it set it cast an amazing line of light down the valley of Haw Creek. This effect only lasted about 10 minutes, just enough for me to figure out where to stand to get the best vantage point. On this day, the entire main ledge had water coming over the top which always makes for a great shot. I took this photograph as a series of stitches using an Arca technical camera, the rm3di. As the light was already at a low angle, I did not need a neutral density filter, just a polarizer to help cut the glare off the water. I was blessed this evening as there was almost no wind blowing which made for a very detailed shot.