06/18/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Early springtime sunset at Haw Creek Falls
- At June 18, 2014
- By paul
- In Featured Arkansas Photography
- 0
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.
06/13/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Sunset and Distant Thunderstorm at Sam’s Throne
- At June 13, 2014
- By paul
- In Featured Arkansas Photography
- 1
Taken with a Fuji X-E1 18-55 lens @ 18mm and F11 iso 200, image taken in 3 vertical series and converted into 1 horizontal image. I can never get enough of the vista from Sam’s Throne in Searcy County, Arkansas. This spot is surround by red/yellow sandstone bluffs that really will catch the setting sun. In this view, the sun had already dropped below the hills in the distance, however there was still plenty of light available. This day had started out with a cloudy and overcast sky, which as the day wore on, started to open up. By sundown only one large storm was still visible way off in the distance and the light hitting it really made the thunderheads pop. One of the most beautiful things about Sam’s Throne is the way the hills overlap off into the distance. This is the valley of Big Creek which is one of the largest tributaries of the Buffalo National River. The bluffs around Sam’s Throne are a favorite for rock climbers in the state. It’s a great place to spend the day. I took this shot my my camera in the vertical orientation in 3 segments, and then stitched them into 1 image that is in the landscape orientation. This allowed me to have much greater overall resolution.
03/15/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Moonset over Downtown Little Rock between the bridges
- At March 15, 2014
- By paul
- In Featured Arkansas Photography
- 0
Taken with a Nikon D800, 14-24 lens @ 14mm, iso 200 F 7.1 for 2 seconds, 2 part nodal pan featuring the moon-set. I like to spend time at this spot since it provides such a great view of both downtown Little Rock, and the various bridges over the Arkansas River. Since December of 2013, the all the bridges except the I-30 bridge are now lit up with a red light at light. This makes for quite a scene and is well worth the trip down even though it’s not in the best part of town. In this view you can see both the old Junction Bridge and the Main Street Bridge immediately behind it. This photo was taken in several parts as I had to shoot for the skyline, and then expose separately for the moon. The reflection was near perfect, but there was just a slight ripple on the water, however most of it seemed to be over on the Little Rock side so the moon’s reflection was not blurred that much. The sun was just starting to rise in the background behind the I-30 bridge.
02/01/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Sunset from Flatside Pinnacle
Taken with a Phase One IQ160 Digital Back and Rodenstock 28mm lens @ F11 iso 50 for approximately 1/30 of a second. If you have a few hours one winter afternoon, take a drive out to Flatside Pinnacle and work up a sunset. This area is not too far from the city, and takes about 40 minutes to get there. From Flatside you have a view to the west that is one of the best in Arkansas. Here you can see the beginning of the rolling Ouachita mountains and in the distance Forked Mountain. Flatside is not a hard hike so you can bring some extra equipment if you like. It’s also a great place to position yourself to watch a storm roll in from the west in the summertime. Looking to the right just outside the scope of this photograph, you can see the other tallest peaks in Arkansas all lined up, Mt Nebo, Spring Mountain, and of course the tallest Mt. Magazine. Great place to spend to off time.
01/24/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Wintertime on Richland Creek featuring Shaw’s Folly Rapid
Taken in 2007 with a Canon 1ds MKII, Zork Adapter with Mamiya 35mm lens, F11, ISO 100, for 1.5 seconds. Richland creek is one of the most scenic spots in Arkansas, offering hiking, kayaking, and camping opportunities. The creek is one of the major tributaries of the Buffalo National River and has good flow most of the year. By far the best parts of the creek to hike are the upper reaches. Here you have have approximately 6 miles of creek and about 5 miles are just studded with great photographic opportunities. If you work the creek in the wintertime be aware that the water temperature will be around 41 to 45 degrees F. Dress warmly and look for safe places to cross. Richland has a strong flow throughout and it will fool you quickly on a crossing. During the winter you can often find great ice formations either in the creek or along the bank and many of the waterfalls that come along the creek will be frozen. It’s an easy place to look for a unique photographic study, just find one of the spots like the one in the photograph and setup. Richland is loaded with spots where house sized rocks have fallen off the surrounding bluffs or have been moved downstream during epic flooding. Enjoy!
01/12/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Wintertime reflections of Pinnacle Mountain
Taken with a Nikon D800, Nikon 14-24 lens @ 18mm iso 100 with no filters. One spot I never get tired of visiting is Pinnacle Mountain. There is always a shot to be taken, either on the climb up or in driving around the mountain. To many a 500 foot tall peak is not a mountain, but Arkansas it does seem to quality since the tallest spot in the state is only 2700 feet, the summit of Mt. Magazine. Arkansas will usually get one or two snows that will dust the higher spots. Pinnacle can be climbed from pretty much any side but most prefer to come up from the west side (the opposite from this picture), the east side which this image shows is a bit more challenging and is more of a rock hop to the summit. I like to try to catch a reflection shot of Pinnacle when I feel the conditions are right. On this morning I had just a bit of breeze but I was still able to get a close to mirror reflection. The pond is a small catchment on the back side of the mountain.
01/05/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Dry Creek Falls in the good times
Taken with a Nikon D1x (remember that camera?) lens most likely Nikon 28-70 at 28mm, F11, for approximately 1 second, iso 200. There are some places in Arkansas that are special for me. Dry Creek (yes that is the name) was one of the best little hidden gems in the Ozarks. This little creek runs for about 3 miles before emptying into Cave Creek which eventually runs into the Buffalo River. Dry Creek Falls is about 2o to 25 feet tall and is unique in that it’s in a grotto that drops away from level ground so if you don’t know what you are looking for, you will walk right by it.
I made my first of many trips to Dry Creek Falls with Jim McDaniel who lives near by. Jim, I hope you are well. That day was a cold and wet January day and I only remembered that I wanted to come back to the falls with a good camera. The spot is really beautiful and is surrounded by different trees species that in the fall and spring really can add some great color to the scene. There is a classic pool below the falls and it was a great swimming hole for years.
In the past back in the 20’s and 30’s locals would come down to the base of the falls and have church services. I probably have hiked down to Dry Creek falls about 20 times but on the day this picture was taken, it was the best. The water was running at a great level, and the fall colors were just perfect. I was using a Nikon D1x 6MP camera which just did not have enough resolution to really capture this scene. I am glad I caught it that fall since I never was able to get the same wonderful fall scene again. I made several trips during the spring, but all my fall trips were dry runs (no pun intended).
Sadly in the 2009, Arkansas suffered through one of the worst ice storms in recent history. The trees around Dry Creek falls were damaged severely and the scene wonder of this spot was ruined. Now all that is there are broken tree tops and mass amounts of trash and broken off trees that have caught up below and at the edge of the falls. Many of the trees that rim the grotto have broken off or worse died and now are just standing dead trees. I tried to hike down to the falls in 2010 with Bob Shull and almost got lost since the trail had been so badly damaged by the winter storm and what looked like a small tornado. We eventually started to walk down the creek as the road that you normally follow was blocked by so many downed trees. By far the most amount of damage was at the falls themselves. They will never really look the same and it may take 50 years or more for the area to fully recover. One more testimony to just how fast nature can take change the way things look overnight.
11/20/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Arkansas nighttime photography
Nighttime photography has become one of my greatest passions in the last 4 years. I have expanded into all types of varieties but still tend to mainly work with traditional landscape settings. Within the state of Arkansas there are so many different subjects that I have interest in working with. These range from scenes along the Buffalo River to views of the Little Rock skyline. Within all of these shots I tend to tie in working with the moon for illumination since it provides such a amazing amount of light when used in the correct proportions. I have listed some examples of what can be accomplished in a this gallery.
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Here is some information behind each image in the gallery.
- Nighttime view from the Lodge on Mt. Magazine. This is a single exposure taken with a Nikon D800e for approximately 15 seconds with a 14-24 zoom lens at iso 200. In this shot was was trying to capture the full effect of the rising moon but not allow the moonlight to totally blow out the surround stars. In the right hand portion of the night sky you can make out Orion. The moonlight provides a wonderful blue hue to the night sky and eliminates all the of yellow color which is generated by local light pollution. I had to take a few extra shots of the lodge since the interior lights were blown out by the original 15 second shot.
- Big Dipper over Roark Bluff on the Buffalo River. Using a Canon 5D MKII and a 15mm fisheye lens, I was able to capture this shot in a single exposure. The big dipper is directly over the middle of the bluff and is pointed almost straight up. Over the course of one night the Big dipper will rotate around the north star and eventually will rotate below the bluff. All of the light on the bluff was provided by the moon which was about 3/4’s full.
- Ghost walkers at Sam’s Throne. Taken with a Canon 1D MKIV and 15mm fish-eye lens. On this shot I used the fish-eye lens to accentuate the effect of the pine trees on both sides of the road, in effect framing the shot. Some campers had built a large bonfire nearby and it provided an excellent source of local lighting. During the exposure of the shot, I had some people walk by with head lamps on which just added to the overall effect of the shot. This was a single exposure for about 30 minutes and I was lucky to have the fire burn overexposure on the shot. The moon was still barely out when this shot was taken and gave the excellent dark blue color to the sky.
- Midnight at Sam’s Throne and moonset. Taken with a Canon 5D MMKII, 15mm fish-eye lens at iso 2000 for approximately 20 seconds. This shot is one of my all time favorites. The night was very calm and thus all the trees were not blurred by the wind. I was able to place the moon in the small pine tree to the right of center of the shot which kept it from overexposing the shot. The moon provided an excellent amount of light to both the rocks in the foreground and the bluff line in the distance, not to mention on Sam’s Throne itself. This was taken as a single exposure. There was considerable noise in the sky, but by using Lightroom to develop the shot I was able to get a very clean final image.
- Lightening Strike over Pinnacle Mountain. Taken with a Canon 5D MKII and 24-70 lens. For this shot I was forced to move to the shelter of my car since the air was filled with static electricity. I placed the camera outside the car on my tripod and then triggered the shot with a remote release. I took several shots that night close to 20, but only got this one which captured the blot of lightening directly over the top of Pinnacle mountain. This is an example of just how much luck is involved in capturing just the right shot.
- Star trails over Roark Bluff on the Buffalo River. Traditional nighttime shot allowing the earth rotation to create star trails. I kept the shutter open for a full 45 minutes and then had to wait another 45 minutes for the camera to write a dark frame. The resulting image was one of the best night shots I ever captured up on the Buffalo River. This night was dead calm and the sky was totally clear of clouds with the temperature around 42 degrees. Just perfect conditions for nighttime photography.
11/01/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–A sign that nature will always win
Taken with a Canon S95, iso 200. After a long hike along Richland, I came across this sign near my truck. I stopped for a minute to take a few photographs of it since it showed in just image what’s going to happen eventually to anything man made, i.e. nature will always win. Here you have a wilderness boundary marking sign that has been almost eaten by a tree. This I am sure took many years and was helped along by the Stupid Redneck or many Rednecks that decided it would be a neat idea to shoot a “helpless” sign. Note the entire left side is gone from what looks like a shotgun blast. This always amazes me as this sign is near a trail head and you never know who might be coming up the trail. However even taking the man made destruction, I found that fact the tree was starting to eat the sign and in about another 15 years, more than likely the sign will be gone, the tree should still be there. Sadly Arkansas did not receive anywhere enough rain to bring up Richland during the this fall so I tried for some other spots. Richland is definitely a magic spot and one of favorite spots to photograph in the U.S. not to mention Arkansas.
10/18/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Sunrise through the rocks on Petit Jean Mountain
Taken with a Nikon D800, Nikon 14-24 lens @ 14mm, F 8, iso 100, exposure bracketed in 4 series. Petit Jean State Park (which was able to stay open throughout all of the stupid government shutdown) has some wonderful places for sunrise/sunset photography. The mountain has one long section that runs along the length of the Arkansas River and the eastern most end has a great view of the river as it turns due west towards the city of Morrellton. During certain times of the year, you can catch the sun where it will briefly (for about 5 minutes) totally illuminate the rocks below the summit. I have worked this spot hundreds of times over the year, but didn’t realize that this scene was possible until last December. You can also see on the large rock to the left what appears to be the profile of a face. On this day there was just a small amount of fog in the valley off in the distance and when the sun popped up over the horizon, the glow was amazing. I took this photograph with a Nikon D800 with 4 exposure brackets but due to the amazing dynamic range of the D800 at iso 100, I only ended up need 2.