Featured Arkansas Landscape Photography–October sunrise on Mt Magazine
- At March 25, 2016
- By paul
- In Featured Arkansas Photography
0
October Sunrise on Mt Magazine
PLEASE NOTE: All of the photography of this website is the property of www.photosofarkansas.com and is copy right protected. Do not copy any of the images on this site to paste on Facebook, Pintrest, or any other website without the permission of Paul Caldwell. Years of time have gone into capturing these photographs, please respect that. I do not take copy right infringement lightly. If you have a need to display any of my work on your site ASK me before you Copy & Paste.
Taken with a Nikon D810 and 14-24 Lens @ 14mm and F 5.6 ISO 250 exposure bracketed in 3 frames
On Mt Magazine, the view in late October back to the east can provide some amazing sunrises. The sun will rise right out in the center of the frame and when you have clouds the light can be fantastic. In this shot, I was on the 3rd floor of the lodge, but you can work from any floor. All the rooms on the lodge open out to the back side and have a southward facing view. Mt Magazine is the “border” of the end of the Ozark mountains, as all the mountains to the south are in the Ouachita Mountains. So you get a excellent view of the beginning of the Ouachita chain that runs from here to the southwest corner of Arkansas. In the view looking back to the east, you can see Flatside Pinnacle way off in the distance also. Flatside is 1,500 feet tall and is a great photographic area also.
Later in the spring and summer the sun will move back to the left and will rise out of view, so the best times to catch a sunrise, is October through early February. In 2015, the fall colors in Arkansas sucked, yes, they were that back. Mt Magazine tends to have a pretty good display even in the years like 2015 and I guess this is due to micro climate that Mt Magazine has, being 2,700 feet tall. But what made this shot were the clouds that came across the sky right as the sun came up. The sun is in the dead center of this shot, but is filtered by the band of clouds that are right on the horizon, but these same clouds allowed the light to reflect upwards and just popped the clouds towards the top of the frame.
I used ISO 250 on this shot as there was considerable wind blowing I wanted to start my exposure stack with a higher shutter speed. The Nikon D810 does a good job here, not as well as it would have at base ISO of 64, but I was still able to stop the motion of the trees and get the shot. The camera was mounted to tripod so alignment was not an issue. I used the HDR feature of Adobe Lightroom to merge the 3 exposures and Lightroom did a very good job on this shot. In this shot you can see the rock bluffs of Mt Magazine and then one row of the cabins that can be rented. There is really no way to get this shot without also getting the cabins in the view, so I just include them. Off in the distance you can see a couple of the rolling ridges that create the Ouachita mountains.
02/25/16 Featured Arkansas Landscape Photography–Sunset Falls on Mt. Magazine aka Chris Kennedy Falls
Sunset Falls on Mt Magazine in the Arkansas Ozarks.
PLEASE NOTE: All of the photography of this website is the property of www.photosofarkansas.com and is copy right protected. Do not copy any of the images on this site to paste on Facebook, Pintrest, or any other website without the permission of Paul Caldwell. Years of time have gone into capturing these photographs, please respect that. I do not take copy right infringement lightly. If you have a need to display any of my work on your site ASK me before you Copy & Paste.
Taken with an Nikon D810 & 14-24 lens @ 14mm, F11 ISO 64 through 400 in a series of bracketed exposures, combined into a single photograph in Lightroom.
In Yosemite National Park, there is a famous spot where during the month of February you can catch the setting sun illuminating a slender waterfall. Once the angle of the sun moves past a certain point the light falls beyond the waterfall. The problem is there tends to be over 1000 people lined up to get the same shot, so it’s really become a common shot. Still a thrill to get, but 1000’s of copies floating around the internet and in various galleries.
By pure chance, one of my friends, Chris Kennedy found this place on Mt. Magazine. I am sure this creek has a name, but I felt it fair to give Chris title. I have seen thousands of waterfall shots taken in Arkansas, but I have never seen one that features the setting sun, both in the shot and illuminating the waterfall. I knew of a different spot a bit further down on Highway 9 and had mentioned this to Chris to check out. During that trip, he found a second series of waterfalls, just up the highway, and while he was photographing them, he realized that it was possible to catch the sunset on the waterfall. Chris sent me a shot the next day and I was transfixed! Chris mentioned to me in passing that the trip to the base of this waterfall was about like the hike down Big Devil’s creek from Hill Cemetery, a hike I had made many times, so I was not too worried about it. I had a lot to learn.
Highway 9 heads up the south side of Mt. Magazine out of Havana Arkansas. On the way up you will cross several small creeks that really just runoff from the summit of the mountain. The largest creek in the area Shoal, starts up on the other side of Magazine and runs to the north. As you wind up Hwy 9, you will come to a spot where two small creeks cross the highway and then come together. This spot has obviously been photographed many times before as there is a worn down trail to a vantage point. This creek now bounces down a very steep gorge over many more waterfalls, and disappears out of sight headed south. While walking along the highway, Chris spotted a higher waterfall, much further down the creek, and headed down the hillside to get a better view and in the process discovered this wonderful view.
The waterfall, is actually in 3 parts and in this photograph, you are viewing only the top part of the waterfall, which is also the highest single point. It’s about 20 to 25 feet tall from the very base. The creek then winds around the shale bluff and makes two more nice drops before emptying into a nice pool. The sun in January, is at just the right angle to shine on the base of the falls, providing a beautiful shot. Chris told me that you only have about 10 minutes to catch the light before the best part of it moves away from the falls.
I headed up to this spot with Dr. Todd Smith, (and will tell more of that story on my blog), and we were both able to get to the base of the falls just in time to catch this shot.
A few points of consideration:
- This waterfall has one of the most dangerous approaches I have ever attempted in Arkansas in over 40 year of hiking this state. You are hiking down a pitch of at least 55 degrees or more at times and it’s all loose rock
- About 1/2 of the way down you will hit a band of large loose rock that is full of pitfalls and places to break your ankle, there is an old crashed car laying in this part of the decent. This is a steep enough spot that if you lean too far backwards, you will fall.
- The last 20 feet to the base of the waterfall is along a 55 degree pitch, where if you slip, you will be headed straight down to the bottom 10 feet below. The area is just a muddy hillside and very slick
- When you are photographing the waterfall, you need an extremely wide angle lens, and a full frame sensor, (no APS-C cameras) if you want to get both the full waterfall and the setting sun. I used a 14mm lens
- Make sure to pack a series of filter and a tripod as this shot has to be bracketed.
- The trees above the waterfall are moving all the time due to the force of the water, so plan on shooting at least one frame at a faster ISO and shutter speed to stop the motion
- The hike out, well, lets just say it’s not for the faint of heart. It’s ten times worse than the hike down as the entire hillside is just loose rock, so you may climb 3 feet just to slide back 1.5 feet. The use of a rope on the last 50 feet would be strongly advised and something I plan to bring the next time I attempt this shot.
- You can try to come at the falls from a little bit further down the highway, but trust me the going is not any easier as the forest floor is just a bunch of broken rock and it make for very difficult footing.
- It’s very apparent that some blasting was done for the Highway above here and the rock just all fell away down the hillside and is very loose, footing is very tricky.
Overall this has to be one of the more unique places I have ever worked in Arkansas and have been to many. I would not attempt this hike alone, as there is just too much a risk, and I was glad to have Todd and Chris with me both times I headed down to the falls. This hike will give you just a bit more appreciation as to just how high Mt Magazine is and steep. The result is well worth the hike.
Paul Caldwell
01/30/16 Featured Arkansas Landscape Photography–December sunset from the summit of Mt. Magazine
Sunset from the summit of Mt Magazine looking towards Havana Arkansas
PLEASE NOTE: All of the photography of this website is the property of www.photosofarkansas.com and is copy right protected. Do not copy any of the images on this site to paste on Facebook, Pintrest, or any other website without the permission of Paul Caldwell. Years of time have gone into capturing these photographs, please respect that. I do not take copy right infringement lightly. If you have a need to display any of my work on your site ASK me before you Copy & Paste.
Taken with a Fuji X-T1 and Fujion 16-55 lens, in 2 landscape segments and converted into a panorama in Photoshop
In December I was able to take sometime off and spend the Christmas weekend at Mt Magazine Lodge. The weather I had hoped for was snow but instead the daytime temperature was in the high 60’s, (and they say we don’t have global warming going on!!), but at least it did not rain while were there. The days in December are quite short but I was able to get some wonderful sunrise and sunset shots from below the lodge.
In the summer months, the sun will set behind the main part of Mt. Magazine, so the best time to grab a sunset shot is in December and January. During these months the sun will just barely be visible on the far right side of the shot. However to capture both the famous trees below the lodge, you will need to work your shot into a panorama. There are many ways to do this, but on this evening, I went with the fastest method, which was to just take two horizontal shots and then merge them back into one final image later one. This is usually an easy process, but on this evening, there was a lot of wind blowing so I had to bracket not only for the light but to stop the trees blowing on either side of the shot.
There are many great spots to capture the view from the summit of Mt Magazine, but this has to be the most famous as it features the Bonsai Juniper tree that is used in all the literature from Mt. Magazine and is the emblem used by Mt Magazine State Park. I have never been to Mt Magazine when the large cedar tree on the right side of the shot was alive, but standing as it does bare against the sky makes for an interesting shot. In the valley below you will see Blue Mt. Lake and the town of Havana. The two peaks off in the distance are both about 1,500 feet tall, and the one of the left is Blue Mountain. You can easily see the boundary of the state park, as it’s where the pine trees begin, as all of the hillsides below the state park have been cut.
The clouds this day were most impressive starting out with a nice band just above Blue Mountain and then a large group formed just around the sun which made for an even better view.
Mt. Magazine morning Vista–12/14/14 Featured Arkansas Photography
Morning Vista from Mt. Magazine
Taken with a Phase One IQ260 & Rodenstock 28mm HR lens, with an Arca rm3di, image created by combining 2 nodal pans. Mt. Magazine, which is the highest spot in Arkansas at around 2700 feet, has some wonderful views. One of the best is from from rock ledge below the Lodge where you have a wonderful view of the Blue Mountain, and Blue Mountain Lake off in the distance. This view is looking southwest, and shows the fall colors at peak or near peak. The deciduous trees in the area include, Maples, Hickory and various Oaks. You can also see the effect of the massive amount of forestry cutting in the lower valley which is beyond the boundary of the State Park where all the trees are now pines. These are not the natural pine to Arkansas, the short leaf, but instead Loblolly and or Slash pines, both of which were planted after the clear cuts were made. All of the lower foothills of Mt. Magazine are covered in this type of tree.
This is a hard shot to get in one frame with a 4:3 ratio camera like the IQ260 Medium Format back, so I worked in a series of pans, where I set the 28mm Rodenstock at a spot on my tripod that was close to the nodal point for the lens. This allowed me to pan across the scene and then combine the images into one larger frame later on. On this day, the sky was a radiant blue with some very high cirrus clouds that were rolling in from the west. With a tech camera like the Arca rm3di, and the Rodenstock 28mm lens, this type of shot is a bit more difficult since you have to correct for the color cast the lens creates. I used the Rodenstock Center filter on the lens and a linear polarizer to enhance both the blue in the sky and fall colors, as the sun was over my left shoulder and provided perfect conditions for polarization.
This is popular spot on the weekends, but during the week, most times you will not find anyone around so plan your trips accordingly. Make sure you take enough time to drive around the entire summit of Mt. Magazine as there are many great vantage points for photography.
01/03/14 Featured Arkansas Photography–Circle in the Clouds on Mt. Magazine
- A Circle in the Clouds on Mt Magazine
Taken with an iPhone 5, all settings automatic. Every once and a while I will take out my iPhone 5 and shoot a shot of something that has caught my eye, something that is changing too fast for me to get out the “real” cameras. On this day, I was headed back over to the south side (Havana Arkansas) of Mt. Magazine when I saw this really amazing cloud formation. I knew that by the time I setup my other gear this scene would be gone, as clouds are constantly changing. I shot a couple of shots before I finally got the iPhone to realize I was trying to expose for the sky and not the foreground. I am not a big fan of the iPhone camera, just way too much noise and not enough details, but the world seems to think that this type of technology is the future of photography, which is a bit sad. Ok I guess if you want to post it on Facebook or Pintrest or whatever the most current instant photo gratification website is at the moment. For it was the fact that is one cloud was just sitting in a perfect circle and all the other clouds were moving away from it, almost like the way a water drop creates a ripple. The sky was also full of jets that day and I just left the contrails alone. The original image had so much noise in it (which surprised me since I had so much light) that I worked it up in both Lightroom and Photoshop and then added a bit of Clarity from Topaz. I re-discovered Mt. Magazine in 2013 and plan to make many more trips there as it’s such a unique spot in Arkansas.
11/08/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–A view from the Lodge on Mt Magazine
Midnight view of the Lodge on Mt Magazine
Taken with a Nikon D800, Nikkor 14-24 lens, F 5.0, iso 400 for a 16 second exposure. One of the most favorite spots that my wife and I love to visit is the Lodge on Mt. Magazine. Since it reopened several years ago, it has become one of the most impressive spots in Arkansas. The Lodge is on the very top of the mountain and runs is situated in a north to south layout. You have a magnificent view to the south from the lodge and on a clear day you can easily see for 50 miles. In this shot I am looking due east. The moon was just past full and provided excellent illumination of the lodge and the night sky. You can also see Orion off to the right. The lodge has 60 rooms and there are also 13 cabins for rental. The cabins are 5 star and are well worth the rental. You can make reservations in advance for up to 1 year. Mt Magazine is the highest spot in Arkansas and in the Ozark Mountains and is the southern terminus for the Ozarks. The mountains you see when you look to the south are the Ouachita mountains.
10/24/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Sunset from Cameron Bluff on Mt. Magazine (a camera perspective)
Sunset from Cameron Bluff on Mt. Magazine, a camera’s perspective–click on image for a larger view.
Taken with a Canon 6D, 15mm Fisheye, F5.6, iso 250, handheld, iso 250. I love to work various spots on Mt. Magazine for both sunrise and sunset scenes. Mt. Magazine is unique in that it’s the southern most part of the Ozark Mountains and also the tallest spot in Arkansas at over 2700 feet tall. There are literally hundreds of spots to find great vantage points for sunsets/sunrises and I am constantly looking for new ones. On this evening, there wasn’t too much to look for, just a bright orb of the sun, so I decided to try something different and add in one of my cameras which is a Nikon D800. The fisheye effect of the 15mm lens added to the effect. You can definitely see that there is a lot of time before the peak fall color hits this spot.
10/06/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Sunset from Cameron Bluff on Mt. Magazine
Wintertime sunset over Cameron Bluff on Mt. Magazine–Click on image for a larger view
Taken with a Nikon D800e, Nikkor 14-24 lens at 14mm F11, iso 100, for approximately 1/250th of a second. Mt. Magazine at 2,700 feet is the tallest spot in Arkansas, and what is so interesting is that it’s south of the Arkansas River, and much closer to the Ouachita Mountains than the rest of the Ozarks. I like to work around on Magazine as there are several great spots to get sunsets and sunrises. I am hoping to get back to this spot soon with the fall colors soon approaching, and since the Buffalo National River is still closed due to the ignorance in Washington, Magazine may be a haven since it’s a state park not Federal. I still find it sad that the ignorance of a few hundred congressmen and senators has closed all the National Parks and similar areas down. Back to the photo, it was a single shot from a Nikon D800e and I exposed for highlights, then pulled up the shadows later on in post. The Nikon D800 family of cameras have an amazing range of dynamic range in the iso 100 to 400 settings.
03/07/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Midnight skies looking south from the summit of Mt. Magazine
- At March 07, 2013
- By paul
- In Featured Arkansas Photography
- 0
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.
03/05/13 Sunset over Cameron Bluffs on Mt. Maganize, Arkansas
- At March 04, 2013
- By paul
- In Featured Arkansas Photography
- 0
Sunset over Cameron Bluff on Mt Magazine in Arkansas
Taken with a Nikon D800e, iso 100, Nikon 14-24 Lens @14mm, F9, 1/1250 of a second, Single Exposure. I was lucky enough to catch this great sunset as the sun was just dropping over Cameron Bluff on Mt. Magazine last week. All day the weather had been overcast and hazy, but when I reached the summit of Mt. Magazine, things changed dramatically. The sky started to clear and the temperature dropped by as much as 20 degrees. The wind was blowing out of the north and I figured the wind chill was close to 24 degrees F. I had been working the opposite side of the Cameron Bluff overlook and just happened to turn around in time to catch a great sunset over the bluff. I did not have my tripod and with the wind that was blowing I knew I had to go to a very fast shutter speed to stop the trees in the foreground. I set the camera to iso 100 and then moved my shutter speed to 1/1250. The overall exposure was quite dark in the area around the bluff and the sun appeared to be overexposed, but as I worked the image up in Capture One 7 I was pleased to see that I had an amazing amount of detail still available to me in the hills below the bluff. My only issue was FLARE, which is a real problem with the Nikon 14-24 whenever you are shooting into the sun. I have a love/hate relationship with this lens as it’s so sharp but the issue with flare is terrible. I spent more time working on the flare issues than anything else. The 14-24 tends to create a rainbow looking flare and depending on the angle to the sun it can tend to dominate the lower portion of a shot away from the sun. As you are shooting into the sun and want the sun in the shot, there is no way I know of block out the flare at the time of exposure. The D800e was still able to give me a wonderful shot that I feel captured the moment perfectly!
From the Blog
- X2D Firmware 4.0 (What it missed) November 7, 2024
- 01/24/24 Sunset over Walton Heights and Pinnacle Valley January 24, 2024
- 01/22/24 Looking through the Keyhole on Roark Bluff–Autumn January 23, 2024
- 01/14/24 Sunset from Pinnacle Mountain Little Rock, AR January 12, 2024
- 01/14/24 Winter View of Pinnacle Valley January 12, 2024
- 01/12/24 Fall Scene, Pinnacle Mountain January 11, 2024
