06/10/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Springtime at Cedar Falls on Petit Jean Mountain
- At June 10, 2013
- By paul
- In Featured Arkansas Photography
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Taken with a Phase One P45+, Mamiya 35mm F3.5 Lens at F14, iso 50, Exposure for approx 1.5 seconds. Here are my print prices if you would like to purchase a print of this photograph My website features many photographs of Cedar Falls on Petit Jean. Petit Jean is about a 40 minute drive from Little Rock and is one of the largest State Parks in Arkansas. It’s not a well known fact that before Hot Springs National Park was created, there was serious consideration to make Petit Jean a National Park instead. Cedar Falls is one of the highest “real” waterfalls in Arkansas. There are many other spots where water will run over a bluff during a heavy rain and create a temporary waterfall, but not many of them flow year round. You can hike down to the base of Cedar Falls from a trail that starts up at the back of Mather Lodge. The trail itself passes many very pretty spots that may warrant a quick stop. This photograph was taken at the peak of spring when the single red bud at the base of the falls is in full bloom. One of the features of Cedar Falls is that there is almost always someone standing around the base of the falls and they tend to be in the way of a good photograph. On this day, I was lucky enough to have the falls to myself for almost 2 hours and that was plenty of time to capture some great images. This photograph was taken with a Phase One P45+ Medium format digital back and a Mamiya 645 camera.
09/02/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Cedar Creek on Petit Jean Mountain
Taken with a Phase One P45+, Mamiya 35mm F3.5 lens @ F14 for 2.5 seconds. When hiking along Cedar Creek one must always consider the views of the creek below Cedar Falls. I like to call this area the rock fall as so many large rocks have fallen down from the area bluffs. The best time to photograph here is after a good rain which will give you the best water features. When shooting water like this, I will always use a slower shutter speed, in the 1 to 5 second range. To accomplish this I use a circular polarizer and a neutral density filter. The ND filter allows me to reduce the amount of light coming into the camera to allow for the longer shutter speeds. The main issue you will tend to have here is the blur caused by wind. To compensate for that, consider taking a shorter exposure at around 1/60 of a second. This will help to stop the leaves and reduce the blur. Later in post, combine the two images. You may have to remove your ND filter to gain a fast enough shutter speed. Petit Jean is about a 45 minute drive from Little Rock and is great place to go and spend a day exploring.