Arkansas

• John Muir.

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Last year I made a trip to the beautiful Richland Creek area of the gorgeous Ozark National Forest. Unfortunately, I misjudged how rural this part of the state can be and ended up only finding one of the seven or so locations that I had in mind for the day. So naturally this I did some extra prep and decided to try my luck one more time. Falling water creek is one of the most exciting locations on this scenic drive, mainly because it's just a few steps from the road. The stream didn’t have the same water flow as last year, but it was still a wonderful place, and the patches of fall color made it even better.

• William Wordsworth.

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Chances are, if you have ever picked up a travel brochure of Arkansas, you have come across a photo of the stunning falling water falls. Unfortunately, it is pretty tricky to find for such a prominently featured waterfall. The waterfall is located in the Richland creek recreational area and is relatively easy to miss, as I found on my first venture. However, I was much more determined on my second visit and finally found the waterfall.

At most waterfalls, it is often difficult to compose a unique shot. The main culprit is the actual fall itself, being such a prominent subject often forces the photographers had when it comes to framing. But that’s not the case at falling water falls. The surroundings are very picturesque, and it's possible to compose images from atop the falls or from either side of the easily crossable stream. I also had the added advantage of fall colors and many very colorful leaves in the water. My main challenge was recovering some of the bright spots in the frame, but I like how this image turned out.

• Enoch Powell.

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The stouts point overlook at Petit Jean SP has two main views. One view overlooking the farms and forestlands of the Arkansas River valley and another of the mighty Arkansas River itself. I posted an image of the valley viewpoint a couple of days ago. Today’s post is an image of the Arkansas River view. This area is a popular spot, and getting a panorama composition without people in it was a challenge. Another aspect is that in mid-day shots like this, getting diffused light is a challenge. The day we had some cloud cover, but the sun was intense, so I had to wait for a large cloud to come in and cover the sun before taking my shots. Between the people enjoying the view and waiting for cloud cover, I spend almost an hour at this location to get the picture right.

I have been there twice and both times the water was not flowing much. There is during rains a third water fall on the far left, this time it was just a trickle

• Ansel Adams.

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Cedar Creek is one of the star attractions of the beautiful Petit Jean State Park. There are two significant waterfalls on this creek, one of them natural and another artificial. Cedar Falls is a natural waterfall, and it's pretty massive and has a trailhead from the visitor’s center to reach the bottom of the falls. The dam overflow from Lake Bailey is quite impressive, especially when the water flow is relatively high. It also has an excellent compositional opportunity using the stone arch bridge to frame the falls.

I took today’s post while walking to get to the location that will allow me to compose the dam overflow with the stone arch of the bridge. The trail was nice and flat, following the creek closely. After taking the shot I wanted, I decided to make a small hike out of it, explored the trail a bit further, and reached these cascades. It seemed like a gentle drop where the trail crosses the stream. The recent spring rain had transformed it into a mini cascade. I liked how the trees on either side of the riverbanks looked. I composed the image to use the river as a leading line into the forest. A tiny bit of Orton effect and a little dodging helped finish off the composition.

• Ellsworth Huntington.

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After moving to Arkansas, one of the first things I did was map out some exciting photo locations that we could visit locally. One of the spots that caught my interest was the falling water creek near Ben Hur, Arkansas. The reason was waterfalls, a lot of them along a short dirt road. Of all the waterfalls in the area, the Six Finger Falls stood out. I don’t think I have ever seen a waterfall like this, and I immediately marked it as a must-visit.

2020 bound me to home like everyone else, but I knew I wanted to give it at least a shot. So when my wife got restless from being cooped up at home and demanded an outing, I suggested the trip. The waterfall drive was pretty uneventful, but the waterfall was everything it promised to be from the images that I have seen. My first shot at the location was a standard panorama from the rock shelf, acting as a viewing platform for the falls. The turquoise color of the water was just an unexpected bonus. While the fall colors were not spectacular near where I live, the creek had some fantastic foliage around its banks.

• 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.

• Franz Kafka.

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Recently I had the opportunity to go to this fantastic waterfall called six finger falls in the Ozark national forest. It was my first time in the area, and my usual diligent planning strategy was thwarted by an unnecessary refresh initiated by my planning app. Plus, the waterfall did not have any signposts alerting visitors as well, and so finding the waterfall turned out to be a last-minute race against the fading light rather than a well planned and executed shoot.

From the images that I have seen online, there is a giant boulder in front of this waterfall, which provides an excellent vantage point to photograph the waterfall. Unfortunately for me, the water level was a bit high to access the boulder, and shooting from further back, the boulder blocked most of the waterfall. While it's disappointing not getting the image you had in mind, I have learned to use it as an opportunity to scout for other possible compositions. I am not sure if I am fully convinced with this composition, but it gives prominence to the rock's unique patterns that make Six finger falls unique.

Parker Hickman Homestead near Jasper Arkansas. The homestead was built between 1847 and 1849 by Alvin and Greenbury Parker. By 1912, the Hickman Family had moved in. The homestead remained in the Hickman Family until 1978. In 1982, the area became part of the Buffalo National River. In 1987, the homestead was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service

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.

• Meister Eckhart.

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The water level was high enough to tempt me away from crossing the creek when I visited the beautiful Richland creek wilderness area last year. But this year, we had an unusually dry summer and fall, which meant that we could cross the creek and get some interesting images, especially at the gorgeous six-finger falls.For the composition, my plan was simple. I wanted to use the strong patterns on the rocks to drive the viewer’s attention to the beautiful colors and the stunning evening light on the trees.

• 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.

• George Washington Carver.

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Our recent trip to Mt Magazine State Park was accidental. The plan was to go birding at Holla Bend NWR, but we couldn’t even enter the refuge due to flooding. We selected Mt Magazine because it was on our way back. I knew that Mt magazine was the tallest point in Arkansas but didn’t have high hopes for any exciting locations. I was counting on the sunset providing some dramatic light in the sky.

I didn’t have much luck getting sunset light at the park, but lady luck smiled at us regarding the outlook point. There were many breathtaking viewpoints within the park overlooking the Ozark highlands. Today's subject is the first viewpoint where we stopped. It had two massive rock walls to either side, but the vantage point jutting out was even more enjoyable. It was asymmetrical, and I could see miles of rolling hills in various shades of green. One of my favorite vistas from the park.

• Richard Bach.

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As I have mentioned in my earlier posts about the trip to Richland creek, my main focus was to find the stunning Falling waterfalls. Thankfully, I found the waterfall without any issues the second time around. Unfortunately, the conditions that day were not suited for waterfall photography. We had bright blue skies with light shafts coming through the foliage. It’s a bit frustrating as this part of Arkansas is mainly known for overcast skies, but such is the life f a travel photog. I had a plan, though; I knew since we were for all intentions in a canyon past noon, the mountains would block the intense light to the west, giving a bit more shade at the waterfall.

Thankfully my sense of direction was spot on, and once the sun started to go behind the mountains, I got perfect even lighting at the falls. And as a bonus, the strong sidelight on the trees gave me some vivid colors on the foliage. My only technical struggle was losing the details on the rock behind the fall. So, I bracketed the image, and thankfully that worked out perfectly. I am glad I waited for better light, as this is one of my favorite images of the gorgeous falling waterfalls.

• Stanley Kubrick.

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I have always been curious about waterfall photography. I still remember seeing a beautiful long exposure shot of a nearby waterfall and think that it was the most beautiful photo that I have ever seen. So when my dad gave me an old Pentax film camera, I couldn’t wait to shoot the small waterfall near my home. The only problem, I didn't have any film or enough money to process the film. So the wait lasted six more months before I managed to get everything in order.

I still remember heading there with my then best friend and impressing him by setting up the camera and clicking away, and it felt good. My thinking was simple, and I know the settings of the long exposure shot. I needed exposure to last a couple of seconds, and magic should happen. I remember the giddiness with which I went collect the processed image and the surprise when the image looked like a blank sheet of paper rather than the beautiful image of a waterfall. My disappointment was palpable, prompting the darkroom developer to come out and have a chat. He asked me what the subject and confessed to him what I had done. He patiently explained to me about the exposure triangle and how, by manipulating the exposure time manually and not compensating for it in any other way, changed the equilibrium of the triangle. I am forever in debt for that counsel. It put me on a path of learning, but life got busy, and photography took a backseat. I didn’t get to perfect my waterfall photography until much later. More on that later.

Today’s shot is of the Tanyard creek falls in full swing after a couple of days of rain. I haven’t seen the falls in low water, but from images that I have seen, it looked rather wispy and thin, but during this visit, we got to see it as a proper cascade.

• Rumi.

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A couple of weeks go I had a chance to head back to the beautiful Petite Jean State Park. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time before sunset, but I wanted to see how the viewpoint looked under softer sidelight. My first to this beautiful overlook was during mid-day, so I had high hopes. Unfortunately, I could not make it to the outlook before sunset, but we had the area to ourselves during twilight. We had some heavy cloud cover that day to the west, so there was very little light post-sunset.

But what stood out was how beautiful the landscape looked under softer reflected light. The calm Arkansas river perfectly reflected the pale blue color of the sky and the reddish-pink tones in the rocks seemed to pop out much better than daytime. Another factor was that without a colorful sky to compete against the stones with their vivid color and texture had a better chance to take centerstage.

• Michelangelo.

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The first time I visited six finger falls in the Ozark National Forest, I could not cross the stream and get to one of the better vantage points. Relatively high flow of water was one reason. Th other was that I reached the falls too late. With the sun going down fast, I didn’t have time to check for alternate paths to cross the creek. The first visit helped me plan our second visit much better, and on our second time at the park, we witnessed a completely different creek. I saw multiple places to cross and a much more subdued stream. Thankfully I could climb to the vantage point this time and wait out all the other visitors before the light went away.

From this vantage point, I could compose a shot of the falls area with water and avoid the dry parts. Fall colors were also concentrated to this side, making the image more colorful. After visualizing it for almost a year, I really enjoyed finally managing to take this image.

• Publilius Syrus.

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When I planned our trip to Petit Jean SP, one of the key attractions was the lovely Cedar Creek, an overflowing stream from Lake Bailey. I waited until after a storm passed through to ensure a decent water level. Our planning was not a futile effort. The lake was full, and the stream was flowing with peak strength. From Google Maps, I have learned that a small artificial waterfall exists right next to the Cedar Creek Bridge, and I have had the waterfall framed by the Bridge’s arch in my mind during the 3-hour drive to the park.

Turns out I planned this a little too well. The creek at full flow was not crossable, and the best viewpoint to take the shot of the waterfall through the arch is by standing in the stream. I had to walk a bit further for the stream to bend south for another shot at the same view. Unfortunately, it was not an unobstructed view. There was a huge fallen tree and some overgrown shrubs in my way. I also foolishly hadn’t packed my 70-200 for this trip and this composition required at least a 100mm focal length to give the waterfall prominence. Thankfully my d850 has enough megapixels to crop without too much of a problem. Hopefully, I get some more chances to try at this beautiful location.

The bridge was constructed in 1907 by the Illinois Steel Bridge Company