06/13/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Sunset and Distant Thunderstorm at Sam’s Throne

Sunset and distant thunderstorms at Sam's Throne

Taken with a Fuji X-E1 18-55 lens @ 18mm and F11 iso 200, image taken in 3 vertical series and converted into 1 horizontal image.   I can never get enough of the vista from Sam’s Throne in Searcy County, Arkansas.  This spot is surround by red/yellow sandstone bluffs that really will catch the setting sun.  In this view, the sun had already dropped below the hills in the distance, however there was still plenty of light available.  This day had started out with a cloudy and overcast sky, which as the day wore on, started to open up.  By sundown only one large storm was still visible way off in the distance and the light hitting it really made the thunderheads pop.  One of the most beautiful things about Sam’s Throne is the way the hills overlap off into the distance.  This is the valley of Big Creek which is one of the largest tributaries of the Buffalo National River.  The bluffs around Sam’s Throne are a favorite for rock climbers in the state.  It’s a great place to spend the day.  I took this shot my my camera in the vertical orientation in 3 segments, and then stitched them into 1 image that is in the landscape orientation.  This allowed me to have much greater overall resolution.

03/15/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Moonset over Downtown Little Rock between the bridges

Moonset_over_Little_Rock

Moonset over Downtown Little Rock between the bridges

Taken with a Nikon D800, 14-24 lens @ 14mm, iso 200 F 7.1 for 2 seconds, 2 part nodal pan featuring the moon-set.  I like to spend time at this spot since it provides such a great view of both downtown Little Rock, and the various bridges over the Arkansas River.  Since December of 2013, the all the bridges except the I-30 bridge are now lit up with a red light at light.  This makes for quite a scene and is well worth the trip down even though it’s not in the best part of town.  In this view you can see both the old Junction Bridge and the Main Street Bridge immediately behind it.  This photo was taken in several parts as I had to shoot for the skyline, and then expose separately for the moon.   The reflection was near perfect, but there was just a slight ripple on the water, however most of it seemed to be over on the Little Rock side so the moon’s reflection was not blurred that much.  The sun was just starting to rise in the background behind the I-30 bridge.

 

 

02/21/14 Featured Arkansas Landscape Photography–Moonset and sunrise over Downtown Little Rock

Downtown Little Rock Sunrise

Sunrise and moon-set over Downtown Little Rock

Taken with a Nikon D800 Nikon 14-24 Lens at 20mm, F 7.1,  1/20th of sec exposure, ISO 200.  Photograph developed from a single file.  The view of Downtown Little Rock is a great place to catch a sunrise especially if you can find the Arkansas River still to allow for the best reflections.  I made this trip with Todd Smith, another noted photographer in Little Rock.   Todd and I were also very lucky to have a setting waning moon directly over the city. This when combined with the sunrise rise lighting the clouds in the background made for a wonder shot.  Once again the Nikon D800 did not disappoint me in that I was able to work up this from a single raw file, something that would not have been possible in my days with Canon.  In the distant background you can also see a flock of birds that were flying down river.  What I liked the most about this shot is how the sun was just starting to rise and was only hitting the Regions and Stephens buildings.  In the foreground is the Junction bridge and the Main street bridge is directly behind it.  Since late December, Little Rock has been lighting all the bridges at night with a bright red light.  Some of this light is responsible for the color on the water in the foreground.

 

 

02/01/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Sunset from Flatside Pinnacle

Flatside Pinnacle sunset wintertime
Flatside Pinnacle sunset wintertime

Wintertime sunset from Flatside Pinnacle the beginning of the Ouachita mountains.

Taken with a Phase One IQ160 Digital Back and Rodenstock 28mm lens @ F11 iso 50 for approximately 1/30 of a second.  If you have a few hours one winter afternoon, take a drive out to Flatside Pinnacle and work up a sunset.  This area is not too far from the city, and takes about 40 minutes to get there.  From Flatside you have a view to the west that is one of the best in Arkansas.  Here you can see the beginning of the rolling Ouachita mountains and in the distance Forked Mountain.  Flatside is not a hard hike so you can bring some extra equipment if you like.  It’s also a great place to position yourself to watch a storm roll in from the west in the summertime.  Looking to the right just outside the scope of this photograph, you can see the other tallest peaks in Arkansas all lined up, Mt Nebo, Spring Mountain, and of course the tallest Mt. Magazine.  Great place to spend to off time.

 

01/24/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Wintertime on Richland Creek featuring Shaw’s Folly Rapid

Wintertime on Richland Creek featuring a view of Shaws Folly Rapid

Wintertime on Richland Creek featuring a view of Shaws Folly Rapid

Taken in 2007 with a Canon 1ds MKII, Zork Adapter with Mamiya 35mm lens, F11, ISO 100, for 1.5 seconds.  Richland creek is one of the most scenic spots in Arkansas, offering hiking, kayaking, and camping opportunities.  The creek is one of the major tributaries of the Buffalo National River and has good flow most of the year.  By far the best parts of the creek to hike are the upper reaches.  Here you have have approximately 6 miles of creek and about 5 miles are just studded with great photographic opportunities.  If you work the creek in the wintertime be aware that the water temperature will be around 41 to 45 degrees F.  Dress warmly and look for safe places to cross.  Richland has a strong flow throughout and it will fool you quickly on a crossing.  During the winter you can often find great ice formations either in the creek or along the bank and many of the waterfalls that come along the creek will be frozen.  It’s an easy place to look for a unique photographic study, just find one of the spots like the one in the photograph and setup.  Richland is loaded with spots where house sized rocks have fallen off the surrounding bluffs or have been moved downstream during epic flooding.  Enjoy!

01/12/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Wintertime reflections of Pinnacle Mountain

Image of scenic Arkansas

Wintertime Reflections of Pinnacle Mountain

Taken with a Nikon D800, Nikon 14-24 lens @ 18mm iso 100 with no filters.  One spot I never get tired of visiting is Pinnacle Mountain.  There is always a shot to be taken, either on the climb up or in driving around the mountain.   To many a 500 foot tall peak is not a mountain, but Arkansas it does seem to quality since the tallest spot in the state is only 2700 feet, the summit of Mt. Magazine.  Arkansas will usually get one or two snows that will dust the higher spots.  Pinnacle can be climbed from pretty much any side but most prefer to come up from the west side (the opposite from this picture), the east side which this image shows is a bit more challenging and is more of a rock hop to the summit.  I like to try to catch a reflection shot of Pinnacle when I feel the conditions are right.  On this morning I had just a bit of breeze but I was still able to get a close to mirror reflection.  The pond is a small catchment on the back side of the mountain.

 

01/05/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Dry Creek Falls in the good times

Dry Creek Falls in the good days before the ice storm

Dry Creek Falls in the good days before the ice storm

Taken with a Nikon D1x (remember that camera?) lens most likely Nikon 28-70 at 28mm, F11, for approximately 1 second, iso 200.  There are some places in Arkansas that are special for me.  Dry Creek (yes that is the name) was one of the best little hidden gems in the Ozarks.  This little creek runs for about 3 miles before emptying into Cave Creek which eventually runs into the Buffalo River.  Dry Creek Falls is about 2o to 25 feet tall and is unique in that it’s in a grotto that drops away from level ground so if you don’t know what you are looking for, you will walk right by it.

I made my first of many trips to Dry Creek Falls with Jim McDaniel who lives near by.  Jim, I hope you are well.  That day was a cold and wet January day and I only remembered that I wanted to come back to the falls with a good camera.  The spot is really beautiful and is surrounded by different trees species that in the fall and spring really can add some great color to the scene.  There is a classic pool below the falls and it was a great swimming hole for years.

In the past back in the 20’s and 30’s locals would come down to the base of the falls and have church services.  I probably have hiked down to Dry Creek falls about 20 times but on the day this picture was taken, it was the best.  The water was running at a great level, and the fall colors were just perfect.  I was using a Nikon D1x 6MP camera which just did not have enough resolution to really capture this scene.  I am glad I caught it that fall since I never was able to get the same wonderful fall scene again.  I made several trips during the spring, but all my fall trips were dry runs (no pun intended).

Sadly in the 2009, Arkansas suffered through one of the worst ice storms in recent history.  The trees around Dry Creek falls were damaged severely and the scene wonder of this spot was ruined.  Now all that is there are broken tree tops and mass amounts of trash and broken off trees that have caught up below and at the edge of the falls.  Many of the trees that rim the grotto have broken off or worse died and now are just standing dead trees.  I tried to hike down to the falls in 2010 with Bob Shull and almost got lost since the trail had been so badly damaged by the winter storm and what looked like a small tornado.  We eventually started to walk down the creek as the road that you normally follow was blocked by so many downed trees.  By far the most amount of damage was at the falls themselves.  They will never really look the same and it may take 50 years or more for the area to fully recover.    One more testimony to just how fast nature can take change the way things look overnight.

 

01/03/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Circle in the Clouds on Mt. Magazine

Mt Magazine clouds circle

A Circle in the Clouds on Mt Magazine

Taken with an iPhone 5, all settings automatic.  Every once and a while I will take out my iPhone 5 and shoot a shot of something that has caught my eye, something that is changing too fast for me to get out the “real” cameras.  On this day, I was headed back over to the south side (Havana Arkansas) of Mt. Magazine when I saw this really amazing cloud formation.  I knew that by the time I setup my other gear this scene would be gone, as clouds are constantly changing.  I shot a couple of shots before I finally got the iPhone to realize I was trying to expose for the sky and not the foreground.  I am not a big fan of the iPhone camera, just way too much noise and not enough details, but the world seems to think that this type of technology is the future of photography, which is a bit sad.  Ok I guess if you want to post it on Facebook or Pintrest  or whatever the most current instant photo gratification website is at the moment.  For it was the fact that is one cloud was just sitting in a perfect circle and all the other clouds were moving away from it, almost like the way a water drop creates a ripple.  The sky was also full of jets that day and I just left the contrails alone.   The original image had so much noise in it (which surprised me since I had so much light) that I worked it up in both Lightroom and Photoshop and then added a bit of Clarity from Topaz.  I re-discovered Mt. Magazine in 2013 and plan to make many more trips there as it’s such a unique spot in Arkansas.

 

12/07/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Fall scene from Mt. Nebo Arkansas

Images from Mt Nebo Arkansas

Fall Scene on the road to Mt. Nebo–Click on image for a larger view

Taken with a Nikon D800, 14-24 lens, F 5.6, iso 200 single exposure.  In my travels throughout Arkansas, I had only been to Mt. Nebo on one occasion and on that day it was raining.  Mt. Nebo is a large mass formation that starts a chain of mountains that terminates in Mt. Magazine.  Mt. Magazine is the tallest spot in Arkansas at over 2700 feet tall, Mt. Nebo is around 1200 feet tall, which is surprising when you see it since it appears to be much taller.  Thanks to Chris Kennedy, a photographer based in Russellville, I was able to get a much better tour of Mt Nebo this fall.  Mt Nebo has some excellent photographic locations and is great place to travel for a sunrise as it overlooks the entire Arkansas River Valley from Russellville to Petit Jean Mountain.

This shot was taken in the mid afternoon as is some of the best fall color I was able to capture this year.  I had spotted this area on our first trip but the light was not correct.  When I made a 2nd trip to Mt. Nebo, I was able to line up this shot perfectly.  The light was blending in from the right hand side of the frame and the illumination of the left side of the road was near perfect.

This photograph is another example of the amazing dynamic range of the Nikon D800.   I had left my truck about 1/2 up the road and just started walking along the road.  I did not have a tripod and there was a bit of wind blowing.  I also had a situation where the lighting was an extreme range, bright on the left side and very dark on the right.  I also have to be aware of the center of the shot since I did not want to blow out the sky in the center which had the most light.  I picked iso 200, and exposed for the center of the frame.  I was using a CL-PL to help pull out more of the colors of the fall trees and it added about -1.5 stops of exposure.

When working up the shot in post, I used Lightroom and was able to control the exposure in the center of the frame and pull up the extreme shadows on the right hand side.  In the past, with previous digital cameras, I would have had to make at least 2 separate exposures and thus would have needed a tripod.

This shot was taken along Hwy 155 which is the only road to the summit of Mt Nebo near the old bench road.

 

11/20/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Arkansas nighttime photography

Nighttime photography has become one of my greatest passions in the last 4 years.  I have expanded into all types of varieties but still tend to mainly work with traditional landscape settings.  Within the state of Arkansas there are so many different subjects that I have interest in working with.  These range from scenes along the Buffalo River to views of the Little Rock skyline.  Within all of these shots I tend to tie in working with the moon for illumination since it provides such a amazing amount of light when used in the correct proportions.   I have listed some examples of what can be accomplished in a this gallery.

[complete_gallery id=”1210″ class=”aligncenter” ]

Here is some information behind each image in the gallery.

  1. Nighttime view from the Lodge on Mt. Magazine.  This is a single exposure taken with a Nikon D800e for approximately 15 seconds with a 14-24 zoom lens at iso 200.  In this shot was was trying to capture the full effect of the rising moon but not allow the moonlight to totally blow out the surround stars.  In the right hand portion of the night sky you can make out Orion.  The moonlight provides a wonderful blue hue to the night sky and eliminates all the of yellow color which is generated by local light pollution.  I had to take a few extra shots of the lodge since the interior lights were blown out by the original 15 second shot.
  2. Big Dipper over Roark Bluff on the Buffalo River.  Using a Canon 5D MKII and a 15mm fisheye lens, I was able to capture this shot in a single exposure.  The big dipper is directly over the middle of the bluff and is pointed almost straight up.  Over the course of one night the Big dipper will rotate around the north star and eventually will rotate below the bluff.  All of the light on the bluff was provided by the moon which was about 3/4’s full.
  3. Ghost walkers at Sam’s Throne. Taken with a Canon 1D MKIV and 15mm fish-eye lens.  On this shot I used the fish-eye lens to accentuate the effect of the pine trees on both sides of the road, in effect framing the shot.  Some campers had built a large bonfire nearby and it provided an excellent source of local lighting.  During the exposure of the shot, I had some people walk by with head lamps on which just added to the overall effect of the shot.  This was a single exposure for about 30 minutes and I was lucky to have the fire burn overexposure on the shot.  The moon was still barely out when this shot was taken and gave the excellent dark blue color to the sky.
  4. Midnight at Sam’s Throne and moonset. Taken with a Canon 5D MMKII, 15mm fish-eye lens at iso 2000 for approximately 20 seconds.  This shot is one of my all time favorites.  The night was very calm and thus all the trees were not blurred by the wind.  I was able to place the moon in the small pine tree to the right of center of the shot which kept it from overexposing the shot.  The moon provided an excellent amount of light to both the rocks in the foreground and the bluff line in the distance, not to mention on Sam’s Throne itself.  This was taken as a single exposure.  There was considerable noise in the sky, but by using Lightroom to develop the shot I was able to get a very clean final image.
  5. Lightening Strike over Pinnacle Mountain.  Taken with a Canon 5D MKII and 24-70 lens.  For this shot I was forced to move to the shelter of my car since the air was filled with static electricity.  I placed the camera outside the car on my tripod and then triggered the shot with a remote release.  I took several shots that night close to 20, but only got this one which captured the blot of lightening directly over the top of Pinnacle mountain.  This is an example of just how much luck is involved in capturing just the right shot. 
  6. Star trails over Roark Bluff on the Buffalo River.  Traditional nighttime shot allowing the earth rotation to create star trails.  I kept the shutter open for a full 45 minutes and then had to wait another 45 minutes for the camera to write a dark frame.  The resulting image was one of the best night shots I ever captured up on the Buffalo River.  This night was dead calm and the sky was totally clear of clouds with the temperature around 42 degrees.  Just perfect conditions for nighttime photography.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © Paul Caldwell, Photos of Arkansas