White Rock Mountain Recreation Area

Gwendolyn Brooks

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When we moved to Arkansas, we had big plans for exploring the many beautiful spots of the state. I was a bit skeptical about taking my pregnant wife along, and she vetoed any trips without her. So that meant we didn’t travel much. Then the pregnancy turned complicated, and the baby came two months early deploying protective instincts that I never knew existed within me. With a preemie baby in the hose, I was not going to take any risks exposing her to outside elements. Finally, last month we got the good news, our baby girl has caught up on the growth chart and is well within the range of a full-term baby. We were overjoyed, but then we realized the world is still in lockdown.

So got back to looking over the photos from the only photo trip I managed since moving to North West Arkansas. While cataloging the images, I came across this shot of the beautiful Ozark national forest. I made the trip as the fall was in full swing, and the foliage was perfect. I was also playing around with Nikon’s focus shift functionality to get an edge to edge focus. I liked the evening light filtering in over the hills and the contrast in texture between the white rock cliff and the colorful foliage.

• David Icke.

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Now for the main attraction of the state park, that’s called white rock mountain state park. My relationship with fall photography has always been problematic. I look forward to it every year, only to get sidetracked by something or other and miss the fall foliage window. There is the Colorado trip where we missed peak color by mere days, two trips to the sierras when we watched gale-force winds strip the trees right in front of us, and finally the trip to NH and Vermont when I was too early and only saw any color near the Canadian border.

When I moved to Arkansas, I thought, due to the mild weather here, surely a prolonged fall weather will compensate for any planning related mishaps. Last year in November when my employer flew me in, fall was in full swing and looked spectacular. Unfortunately, my plans didn’t work out this year as well, there was an unusually early frost in Arkansas this year, and I fear it ruined the fall foliage. The colors on the leaves are not as vivid as last year and have a more burnt orange look instead of the vivid yellows and reds.

Direct sunlight, even the often magical golden light, emphasized the washed-out colors on the leaves. So I waited for the sun to go behind the mountains for a more pleasing light completely. I was not disappointed. The light hid the flaws in the foliage and gave me a decent composition of the classic view of the White rock mountain vista.

• Baltasar Gracian.

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White rock mountain has been a popular suggestion of my colleagues every time I have asked them about a good place to explore. I have heard about the vista of rolling hills as long as the eyes can see and about a cliff edge with the park’s namesake white rocks sticking out. The hardest part was convincing the wife to stay home, promises of a trip to Europe might have been made. Anyways, I got the green light to make the two-hour drive to the park.

We reached the park about an hour and a half before sunset, which afforded me some time to walk around and get a feel for the area. The main outlook point here provides a view of white rock cliffs and rolling hills in great fall color. Today's shot was taken about 5 minutes after sunset with the rocky cliff in the foreground and the beautiful Ozark highlands as the main focal point f the photo. The sky still had some colors to accentuate this classic high vista point shot. To make sure that I had end to end sharpness, I relied on Nikon D850’s focus stacking feature and then used helicon focus stacking software to render the final image.