Swirl of color

swirl of color
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

I have been wanting this image for a long time, but never ran upon it at the right time or place, or light. Saturday I was out photographing with my friend Bob and we found some nice colors along the Cedar Falls located at Petit Jean State Park. It's about a .8 mile hike to the falls and the colors were the best we had seen over the past few weeks. The swirl of color I saw just as soon as we arrived at the falls and quickly began photographing the scene. This is a quick post of the image and this weekend I hope to do some more work with it to see how I can make it better.
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Indian Creek

Indian Creek is one of the most spectacular areas of Arkansas I have been in.  We went looking for water reflections for fall, but found no water.  What we did find was some very spectacular views of a box canyon I knew nothing about.  As we traveled down the creek the canyon walls grew taller as we hiked down the dry creek bed.  At about 2.5 miles into the hike we ended up at Arkansas Cave, which you can't go into due to endangered bats that live there.  Just a little further you can't go any further down the creek and you must go up the mountain.  I did not get a shot of the view up, but I did get a view from the top.

 

It is a tricky hike up and my friend Bob had to convince me to give it a try.  I know I could not make it up with my camera gear on because of the weight, but he took up my camera and tripod so I could take some images.  When you get to the top there is this small opening you can crawl through the mountain and get to the other side.  It is so cool.  Near by is the eye of the needle which I did not take any images of , but I was most amazed at the hole in the side of the mountain.  Here is a pic of me at the pass through the mountain.

 

I guess I would call this Indian Creek Pass, because that is the only way to keep going down the trail.  Very cool spot indeed.

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Elk in Boxley Valley

This was the scene at sun rise Saturday morning at the Boxley Valley on the Buffalo River.  The big guy at the far right of the image is an 8x8 big boy with all of his ladies.  There are a lot more, but they are not in the image.  Conditions to photograph were not very good and just about 2 minutes after setting up we were in a white out with the fog.  Maybe next weekend I will have a better chance of getting somemore images of this big guy.  This weekend should be a great time to be out in the woods.

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Fall colors today

I am out Friday and Saturday on the Buffalo River trying to get some fall colors.  The colors are vibrent in spots, but that is it.  There are colors, but a lot of browns this year.  I guess we did not get enough cold snap before the leaves started turning.  Today I will be looking at reflections in the river and hope to find some along the Buffalo River today.  There were lots of folks out yesterday and I bet even more today.  I'll post some images as soon as I can.  In the mean time YOU need to head to the woods and enjoy!

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