06/18/18 Featured Photography–Clearing morning fog at Pinnacle Mountain

At June 19, 2018
By paul
In Articles/Reviews, Featured Arkansas Photography
0

Arkansas photography pinnacle mountain fog

Sunrise through the fog over Pinnacle Mountain

I have a great fondness for the valley of the Little Mamuelle River and Pinnacle mountain. On one side you have the river winding down to the Arkansas River and then across the mountain is Lake Mamuelle. The distinctive shape of Pinnacle makes many feel that Arkansas has a volcano, but no the top is really two separate peaks. Pinnacle is around 650 feet tall and on most mornings where there is fog, you will see the just the top of the mountain poking out. This day was unique since there was a large amount of fog over Lake Mamuelle, which was billowing up like a cloud bank. As the sun rose up, the sky was painted in a wonderful separation of pink to light blue and the sun hitting the face of the mountain just added to the scene.

I used my Phase One IQ3100 for this shot. I was using a tripod and the Phase One 75-150mm lens. However I still cropped into the shot at least by one third as I just wanted to have the mountain by itself. I used Capture One software to work up the raw file and then tweaked the final look and feel in Lightroom and Topaz.

Pinnacle is a great climb for those in good shape, you can climb it from either side from fully maintained trails.

written for www.photosofarkansas.com by Paul Caldwell. This article is copy write protected, please contact me for permission to reprint.

03/10/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Sunset from Flatside Pinnacle

Sunset from Flatside Pinnacle in the Eastern Ouachita Mountains

Taken with a Canon 1ds mkII, Canon 70-300 lens, F11, iso 200, Composite shot taken as a manual exposure bracket. If you get a chance to visit this area you won’t be disappointed by what you find. Flatside is the 3rd in a series of pinnacles that I consider to be the gateway to the Ouachita mountains. In Pulaski County, you have Pinnacle Mountain, then just a bit east from Flatside, there is Northside Pinnacle. These are followed in turn by Flatside and then Forked Mountain. Forked mountain can easily be seen in the distance from the summit of Flatside. Forked Mt. is a considerably harder climb than Flatside but the view from it’s summit is worth the hike. I like to shoot to the west from the summit of Flatside after the sun has dropped below the horizon as you then can pick up the rolling hills out towards the west. I worked this shot up from 5 separate exposures in a classic exposure bracketed series, which was required back when I was shooting with the Canon 1ds series of cameras, now with Nikon’s newer cameras like the D800, I should be able to get the same shot with 2 or 3 frames max due to the extra dynamic range of the Nikon sensors. The trail runs up the back of Flatside mountain and right now there are several large trees down that make the hike take a bit longer. The trail is an easy 1/4 hike from where you park your car.