12/24/15 Featured Arkansas Landscape Photography–Patterns in the Rock on the Cossatot

Patterns in the Rock on the Cossatot River

Taken with a Canon 1ds MKII, and 100mm Macro lens, ISO 200.

The Cossatot River has some of the most unique rock formations in Arkansas. They are sandstone mixed with Quartz veins. The rocks tend to work their way across the river in rows and ledges and the river creates small channels through the rocks. The most famous of these would be Cossatot Falls, where there are 6 separate ledges going across the river.

I love to work the Cossatot, both in normal wide landscape shots but also like to spend time looking for macro shots. There are hundreds of spots like the one in this photograph, where the river has cut down the main ledge, and smoothed it over like sandpaper was used. Many of these will contain small depressions, that will catch rainwater.

This photograph was taken late in the fall season after a rain. The leaves were captured in the rock and the puddle just added to the scene for me. The smallish quartz veins that were running through the rock added some nice contrast. The rock in the Cossatot can appear pink when the sun is hitting it directly but there are some nice grey ones also to make for a colorful composition. In this photograph, you can see a bit of the pink showing up in the lower left corner.

The Cossatot is a long 3 hour drive from Little Rock but the area is remote so you can often find yourself working the falls all by yourself. If you are heading down that way, also consider the Little Missouri River, near Langley Arkansas. The Cossatot is in the southwest corner of Arkansas in the Ouachita mountains.

12_02_15 Featured Arkansas Landscape Photography–Autumn afterglow at Sam’s Throne

Sam’s Throne Afterglow in the Arkansas Ozarks

Taken with a Canon 1ds MKII (16MP), multishot bracket for exposure, Canon 24-70 @ 24mm F 11 iso 200

This an example where it pays to work with older files, in this case, way back 2004, with more modern software. I have taken a lot of sunsets at Sam’s Throne, however this is still one of my all time favorites. When I purchased my Canon 1ds MKII, which had 16MP, I started retracing many of trips to places I loved to go as I felt that 16MP would be about the maximum in resolution for a long time to come. We all know that changed pretty quickly. However on this evening, I found the best shot was after the sun set as it painted a wonderful afterglow in the sky. Sam’s Throne was just starting to change for fall but there was plenty of color around. To make the shot perfect, the couple of clouds that rolled into the frame helped to breakup the solid sky.

Sam’s Throne is one of premier climbing spots in Arkansas but it’s also one of the best for photography. You have a huge bluff line that runs at least 1/2 mile or longer and allows for wonderful views of the Big Creek valley. In this view you can see the Throne itself and all the rolling hilss that work their way off into the distance. The forest here is a good mix of both pine and deciduous trees, mainly Oak, and Gum but there are also some nice Maples scattered though the valley. One of the best aspects of Sam’s Throne is the fact that you can drive very close to the bluffline and you only have about a 1/8 of a mile walk to get started. Sam’s Throne is a great place to camp also as there is now a primitive campground with about 10 sites.

As this series of shots was taken with an older Canon Digital camera, the noise in the shadows was excessive. The 1ds MKII was not noted for extreme dynamic range. Back in the day, I shot almost everything in brackets knowing I would need multiple shots to get the exposure coverage I needed without excessive noise even at base iso or one step up. I had worked this image many times with various HDR software toolsets, but never really received the output I was looking for. Now that Adobe Lightroom has an excellent HDR tool, I decided to go back and try this shot again. The result was impressive and I found a much better overall image. The big advantage to HDR in LR is that Lightroom leaves that output as an .dng, in essence a raw file. This means you have all the flexibility of a raw file but with the added exposure blend, and you can still use the excellent Lightroom Toolset. I have started going back to a lot of my early Canon photography and working it back in LR and the results have been impressive.

06/14/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Fall scene at Gunner Pool Dam

Fall scene at the Gunner Pool Dam–Gunner Pool Campground

Taken with a Canon 1ds MKII, iso 100, Canon 24-70 lens @24mm F8, for approximately 3 seconds. Gunner Pool campground is one of the scenic gems tucked away in the middle of the Arkansas Ozark mountains. This photograph was taken in 2008 in the middle of a wonderfull fall photographic season. The night before it had rained and the small creek that creates gunner pool was starting to run over the top of the dam. Many people feel that gunner pool is in Sylamore Creek, which is right next to this spot, however pool that the campground is named for is the one created by the dam. Sylamore creek is a wonderful spot to camp, and has one of the best campgrounds in Arkansas. It’s always pretty crowded so if you are planning a trip up there in the summer, plan on getting there early and on a weekday if at all possible. The lower 5 campsites at gunner pool are along Sylamore creek and they the best ones. There is also a great swimming spot in Sylamore creek which is bordered by a nice bluff.