11/12/15 Featured Arkansas Landscape Photography–Haw Creek falls in Autumn

Haw Creek Falls Arkansas Ozarks
Haw Creek Falls Arkansas Ozarks

Haw Creek Falls in Autumn, what could have been for 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taken with a Canon 1ds MkI, and and Canon 24-70 lens, iso 200.

I had to dig back a few years to find this, as it goes back to 2004, but since Arkansas had such a terrible fall in 2015 I have found myself doing this a lot lately.  Haw Creek has some wonderful fall color displays but catching the falls with water in them and fall colors is one of the harder things to do.  On the afternoon I caught this shot, I have been driving around looking for late fall color, stopping at both Falling Water Falls, and Richland Creek, but neither of them had much water.  For some reason the rain that fell the night before did hit the Haw Creek drainage harder and the falls were running.  I almost did not make the driver over from Lurton on Hwy 7, but was glad I did.

I was able to setup and get this shot before the sun moved over to the lower left of the frame.  As it was the sun was perfect hitting on both the falls and the pool below.  Note the green color, which is common to all Arkansas Ozark streams, but seems to be more prominent in the fall and winter.  I have always assumed it’s due to the limestone content in the water.

I shot this photograph in 3 separate segments as I was wanting to get more overall resolution.  The older Canon 1ds MKI only had 11MP and that’s just not enough for a large print.  Now that Lightroom has added a stitching solution, I am going back to a lot my older Canon work, either from the 1ds or 1ds MKII as both cameras captured great color, but I was using either a totally manual stitching method or a Zork adapter.  Using Lightroom’s new solution makes for a much faster stitching process and you are left with a dng file.  This allows you still use Lightroom’s excellent tools on the image as if it was a raw file.

This year, the colors were terrible at Haw Creek, mainly brown.  The water level was actually pretty good for a few day’s and I ran into a few photographers up there, but I didn’t even get my camera out.  The trees just didn’t have any life to them.

 

11/10/15 Featured Arkansas Landscape Photography–Springtime View of Haw Creek Falls

Haw Creek Falls, waterfalls in Arkansas
Haw Creek Falls, waterfalls in Arkansas

Springtime View of Haw Creek Falls in the Arkansas Ozarks

Taken with a Phase One IQ260 and Arca rm3di tech camera/40mm Rodenstock lens

This is a typical day at Haw Creek falls, and I was again lucky to be there without anyone else to stand around and get in the way during the shoot.  Haw Creek is a lovely smallish creek that runs in the Big Piney Creek, not far from these falls.  The falls are impressive since there is a large ledge that runs all the way across the creek and in higher water conditions the water will start to consume the entire ledge.  I like to catch water about like this, just enough to keep most of the ledge in play but not too much to flood out the rocks below the falls.  To get this shot, I used my Arca rm3di camera which allows movements like a large format camera with my digital camera back.  The shot is actually a composite of 3 images, Left, Center and Right.  The Left and Right segments represent 16mm of shift in those respective directions.  This allows you to create a very high resolution panorama without any of the issues like parallax.  The lens I used was as 40mm Rodenstock HR-W which allows for an excellent field of view when shifted.

You have to be careful when working Haw Creek as there tends to be a lot of wind blowing down the creek.  In most cases, I prefer to take a 1 to 4 second exposure of the water which in most cases will have a lot of wind blur in the trees.  So you have make sure to cover the tree movement with a second series of exposures around 1/125 to 1/250 to stop the wind movement.  It’s a simple process to combine the files later since I am using a tech camera and the movements are very precise.  To allow the longer exposures I used both a Circular Polarizer and a Neutral Density filter.    The polarizer will help with glare on the water and rocks and adds about 1.5 stops of exposure to the shot.  As this was a bright day, I had to use a 1.2x ND filter.  When I was taking the faster exposures for the trees, I left the polarizer on, but took the ND filter off as I no longer needed the extra exposure compensation.

As I already mentioned, Haw Creek Falls, tends to be overrun with people during the peak times of the year.  The best day to go is a Monday as there will not be as many people at the campground and thus less traffic around the falls.  There are some great swimming spots above the falls in the large pool that is created by the ledge.  It’s a great place to head to when you know you have some water running in the creek.

 

 

 

 

09/28/14 Featured Arkansas Landscape Photography–Midnight at Haw Creek Falls

Haw Creek Falls Arkansas Photography
Haw Creek Falls Arkansas Photography

Haw Creek Falls at Midnight in Searcy County

Taken with a Canon 6D, Canon 16-35 lens, at F4, iso 400, 2 hour time lapse photograph.  This photograph was obtained by taking a series of 2 minute exposures from 10:00 pm to 12:15 am at Haw Creek Falls in the Arkansas Ozarks.   I used a Canon 6D and a focal length of 18mm to take a series of 2 1/2 minute exposures.  Each exposure was taken as raw file and developed in Lightroom, then I stacked them in Adobe Photoshop to capture only the motion of the earth over 2 hours which created the “trails.  The blue color to the sky is from the moon, which was just a bit past 1/2 waxing.  The moon adds both excellent ambient illumination to the night sky, giving it a blue hue, and also greatly adds to the landscape portion of the photograph.  There was no light painting used on this photography, it’s all the light from the moon.  I prefer this greatly over using artificial lighting, by painting as the moon just works better.  You can read more about this technique in an article I wrote: Stacking for better nighttime photography.   This photograph was taken in April of 2014, and spring was very late this year as can be seen in the trees on both banks of the creek.

I been working for a shot like this from Haw Creek for over 3 years.  Catching the conditions all together can be harder than you think.  You need a good flow of water, but not too much, as was present in March.  The moon needs to be waxing for this shot, not waning or you will be up way to late waiting on the moon to appear.  A clear sky is needed, with no clouds if possible and this does not always work out, as over 2 hours it’s quite common to see a front blow in.  Also it work best if there is little to no wind.  But since I am stacking I usually can find one of the stacks that has less wind noise than the rest.

This shot has it all, as you have great water, running over most of the ledge, and excellent play of shadows on the foreground.  I am looking to the northwest, you can barely see where the north star is up in the upper right corner of the shot.  It’s not very easy to get a good shot of the falls and the north star from below the drop, but the wide angle lens I was using did grab a nice portion of the sky.  Of all the photograph I work with, nighttime stacking takes by far the greatest amount of time, both in the capture of the images and post processing, however I love the look of what I can create.

 

 

06/18/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Early springtime sunset at Haw Creek Falls

Haw Creek Falls Springtime Sunset
Haw Creek Falls

I was able to catch the setting sun at just the right angle

Taken in 3 parts with a Phase One IQ260 and Rodenstock 40mm lens, Arca rm3di camera with a CL-PL filter. This image will be featured in my up coming show at Cantrell Gallery.  I am featuring locations in Arkansas that I am always drawn back to.  Haw Creek Falls, is not the tallest waterfall in Arkansas or the most dramatic, however it’s a beauty.  Haw Creek runs over a huge ledge that runs back about 100 yards and has created in effect a natural dam.  There is pool behind the falls that is a great swimming hole in the summer months.  The way the trees lean down to the water just makes for a great photograph.  Working a sunset at Haw Creek can be very problematic, most times there will be someone standing on the ledge and you have to time out your shots.  Also in the later months of summer the sun will be going down directly over the center of the valley which makes for a much more difficult shot.  In this case, mid April, the sun is still over to the far left and on this evening as it set it cast an amazing line of light down the valley of Haw Creek.  This effect only lasted about 10 minutes, just enough for me to figure out where to stand to get the best vantage point.  On this day, the entire main ledge had water coming over the top which always makes for a great shot.  I took this photograph as a series of stitches using an Arca technical camera, the rm3di.  As the light was already at a low angle, I did not need a neutral density filter, just a polarizer to help cut the glare off the water.  I was blessed this evening as there was almost no wind blowing which made for a very detailed shot. 

 

09/27/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Springtime at Haw Creek Falls in the Arkansas Ozarks

Haw creek falls in the Arkansas Ozarks
Springtime at Haw Creek Falls in the Arkansas Ozarks

Springtime at Haw Creek Falls in the Arkansas Ozarks–Click on image for a larger view

Taken with a Phase One IQ160, Rodenstock 28mm Lens, F11, iso50, for approx 1 second. If you like to spend time in the Arkansas Ozarks, but don’t want to be too far away from Little Rock, then consider Haw Creek Falls.  With the new policies from the National Park, and Arkansas State Parks, you never know when the adjoining campground will be open, however if the gate is closed, feel free to walk around it and head to the falls.  You can also access the falls from the Hwy 123 side of the creek.  Haw Creek is one of the classic ledge drops that are famous throughout the Arkansas Ozark mountains.  Here the creek drops over a ledge that is about 6 to 7 feet tall and has a interesting break in the middle where the watercourse changes directions.  I like to photograph Haw Creek many times during the year and on this day I caught it about as good as it gets with just enough water in the creek and a just darn near perfect sky and no WIND!  It takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to get to Haw Creek and it’s well worth the drive.  This photograph will be shown in Cantrell Gallery for the next few months please stop by and take a look if you get a chance.

07/08/12 Featured Arkansas Photography–Haw Creek Falls in Better days (before the drought of 2012)

Haw Creek Falls in north central Arkansas ozark mountains
Haw Creek Falls in north central Arkansas ozark mountains

Haw Creek Falls in north central Arkansas ozark mountains--Click on photo for a larger view

Taken with a Canon 5d MKII, Canon 16-35mm lens @ 16mm, iso 100, taken in 5 exposures ranging from 1/5th to 5 seconds. Haw Creek will always be one of my favorite spots in Arkansas.  I try to go there many times during the year.  I spent 3 nights there in late March and early April in 2012 working the night skies.  It’s a great spot for this as you can get a waterfall and not have to walk too far into the woods.  Of course you always have to work around the usual Arkansas locals and their flashlights and cigarettes. As the night wears on most of them will leave or pass out.  The best times to work Haw Creek are during the week nights as the number of people will be much less.  The campground at Haw Creek is open through the fall and is one of Arkansas’s best small campgrounds.  NO HOOKUPS for those who prefer to bring along the house, but you can still drive your RV’s into the campground.  Note, if there is a locally heavy rain, be prepared to wait out the creek.  I would not attempt to cross Haw Creek if you can’t see the metal posts that the forest service has by the concrete slab.  These are about 18 inches tall and if you can’t see them then the water in the center of the crossing will be over 24 inches deep!. Enjoy this spot.  However right now it’s dry as a bone as are all the creeks in Arkansas right now as we endure one of the worst droughts in recent history.

 

Copyright © Paul Caldwell, Photos of Arkansas