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.

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.

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+.

10/02/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Branch in the Fog on Roark Bluff

Oak Branch in the Fog on Roark Bluff

Taken with a Canon 5D MKII, Canon 24-70 lens, F 7.1 at 1/40th, iso 400. When I am out working in the early morning, I often try to find shots where the fog can act as a major effect in the shot. On a morning like this, the fog did not lift for almost 3 hours but as it started, the sun briefly highlighted this lone branch which was just starting to leaf out in spring. Many people have looked at this shot and felt that it was taken in the fall, however if you look closely you can see that the oak leaves are just starting to open. This lone tree has taken a beating over the years but each time I come back to this spot it still there and and survived for another season of snow and ice during a typical Ozark winter. During the time I took this shot you could hear trucks and cars moving around in the valley below and people’s voices, but as the fog was so thick you couldn’t see anything. This is a great time to work the Ozark Bluffs and not just on the Buffalo River, but the Buffalo tends to allow for more fog.

09/11/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Falling Water Falls in Searcy County

Falling Water Falls in early November–Click on image for a larger view

Taken with a Canon 1ds MKII, Canon 24-70 lens @24mm, F14 for approximately .5 seconds, iso 100. Falling water falls is one of the easier spots to get to in Arkansas. You can drive right up to it! Unfortunately this works against photography since you almost never find these falls without someone standing at the rim. I have never really understood the need to walk out and just stand there, but I guess there is some necessary fulfillment that some folks need. On the weekends, you can always expect to find a crowd here so if you are thinking about a trip, try to plan it on the weekdays and try to get there early.

07/27/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Sunrise throught the trees

Sunrise through the trees in Pulaski County, Arkansas

Click on the photograph for a larger image.

Taken with a Sony Nex-7, Sony 18-200 Zoom lens @ 30mm, F5.6 1/125th of a sec, iso 400. I like to drive along the rural roads in Arkansas to look for scenes like this one which was taken in western Pulaski county, Arkansas. This image was taken in late April before the effects of the drought began to really show in the state. This is a typical rural county road, which is only about 1 lane wide. The state of Arkansas has thousands of miles of roads like this and such roads are a great place to head out and look for a spot to photograph that is off the beaten path. I used a tripod to take this shot and it’s not a HDR composite which I would normally do in a scene like this. The Sony Nex-7 was able to handle the exposure range fine at iso 400 with a single exposure.

07/23/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Lightening Strike over Pinnacle Mountian in Pulaski County Arkansas

Lightening stike over Pinnacle Mountain in Pulaski County Arkasnas

Lightening strike over Pinnacle Mountain in Pulaski County Arkansas

Taken with a Canon 5D MKII, Canon 24-70 Lens at 24mm, F2.8, Bulb exposure, tripod mounted camera. This image will be added to my favorites, mainly because of just how hard it was to take. I had been photographing the sunset from the other side of Pinnacle mountain when this storm started to blow in. The early lightening drove me off and I headed around to the west side hoping to get a shot of lightening over the mountain. By the time I made it over, the rain was starting to fall and lightening was flying all through the air. At first I thought I could stand outside my car, with my tripod and take the shot, but soon I started to notice my arm hairs standing up so I choose to move back to my car. I put the tripod outside the car window and then setup my remote release so that I could hit the shutter when I first started to see lightening out of the corner of my eye. I just set the lens to infinity and F2.8 hoping to get the most light as possible. I captured this shot on the 3rd attempt. What amazed me was the different colors of blues that were in the sky as the lightening went off. The orange color off to the left of the image I didn’t notice until I looked at the shot.