08/22/16 Featured Arkansas Landscape Photography–The washing machine on the Cossatot River Southwest Arkansas

At August 22, 2016
By paul
In Featured Arkansas Photography, Uncategorized
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Cossatot Falls on the Cossatot River, one of the most impressive water features in Arkansas.

Taken with a Canon 5D MKII and 24mm TS-E lens, with a CL-PL and ND 0.9 filter installed, exposure time approximately 1.5 seconds.

You can find some excellent photographic opportunities on the Cossatot River, along with some of the best Arkansas whitewater. Go down there anytime the river is running over 500 cfs (cubic feet per second) and you can expect to see a lot of kayakers running the falls.

I like to hike the 6 falls when there is about 100 to 400 cfs max running the river. This allows you to make easy crossings and you can still get down close enough to the river to get some great angles. The river will run muddy right after a rain storm due to the massive amount of timber clear cutting in the area, so plan on heading down a day or so after a big rain.

You can easily hike down the entire left side (left side facing downstream) and there are 6 separate ledges which the river cuts through. Each has a unique rapid and name:

Cossatosser, Eyeopener, BMF, The Washing Machine, Whiplash, and Shoulder bone.

If you make it down there, remember that the sun will move across the river from left to right so the some of the best photograph will be early in the morning. The falls run due south. There are a ton of huge rocks that line the river and each of them will allow you a spot to setup for some great photos. The washing machine, featured in this photo has some of the best angles up on top of the ledge, but you need to cross over right above this small rapid. If the river is running too high, this can easily become a hazard so be careful. All the rocks are covered with slim moss and will be slick.

The rock is sandstone or something close and in the sun will take on a wonderful red-orange hue so try to make it on nice sunny day.

Late October Sunset at Sam’s Throne–03/31/15 Featured Arkansas Photography

At March 28, 2015
By paul
In Featured Arkansas Photography, Uncategorized
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Sunset from Sam’s Throne in the Arkansas Ozark mountains

Taken with a Phase One IQ180 and Arca rm3di with Schneider 43mmSK lens, iso 100 @ 1/125th and F11. This was a interesting evening as there was a wedding going on at the same time. I was pretty amazed to see anyone trying to get married in a wind that was blowing as much as 30 mph at times. I kept trying to move to stay out of their way, however they wanted the bride and groom to stand where they could be in the sunset. Oh well, I am sure they don’t remember me with good feelings. Something to remember if want to have a wedding in a public spot. This shot for me was a winner and I was impressed with the Phase One IQ180 which I was blessed to use on this day. The conditions were less than perfect as I was shooting into direct sunlight and the wind was blowing close to 30 mph at times and really never stopped, which can be a common occurance at Sam’s anytime of the year.

To make matters worse, I was using a CCD Phase One IQ180 and knew that I was going to be limited in the shutter speeds I could use. I also knew that I more than likely would get some massive flare since I was shooting directly into the sun. I have seen that the Schneider’s don’t create as much of a damaging flare as the Rodenstock lenses do. At the time of this shot, I was using a Rodenstock 28mm and the Schneider 43mm. I knew I wanted the wide range of the 28mm, but I also knew that I would pay for the use of the Rodenstock with massive damaging flare. So I used the Schneider and was very happy with the result.

I did not use a CL-PL as I was concerned that I limit the amount of available light and thus create too much noise. Instead I took a series of bracketing exposures. I took this shot in a vertical series, but the Schneider is not noted for a great amount of hyperfocal range ever with tilt, so I figured I would not use the lower parts. After looking at the shot, I liked the center segment the best and just went with it. It’s going to be hard to see in this shot, but I was able to stop most of the motion at 1/125 of second shutter speed. The Schneider created a wonderful solar flare, which reached all the way through the shot. Many times such flares are faked later on Photoshop, but this one came from the aperture setting of F11. There were some contrails to contend with, but overall the colors I was able to pull from this shot still make me pretty happy.

08/20/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Bliss

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

05/21/12 The Long Road to my return, please be paitent

Late afternoon vista from Flatside Pinnacle

Thank you for coming to www.photosofarkansas.com You may be a new visitor or a past visitor, but to both I ask you to be paitent. In the past when visiting my site, you would have found a website that was dedicated to showing photographic images from throughout Arkansas. These images were contained in several galleries which were specific to the various geographic regions of Arkansas i.e. Ozark Mountains, River Delta. My site was a compilation of over 8 years of hard work, many revisions and new ideas. It contained articles about photographic products, technique and locations. There also was a blog that was focused on my travels throughout Arkansas. Unfortunately, due to a total lack of professionalism by my former web administrator, in early April 2012 my entire site was lost. I have been able to salvage most of my images and some of the articles, but most of the written work was lost. I am in the process of rebuilding my site and for the next year it will be a total work in progress. My main goal for now is to get my galleries back on-line so that a visitor can enjoy once again my photographic vision of Arkansas. I appreciate your patience as i get things back in order.

Paul Caldwell