Wordless Wednesday -Not So Much

I know, I know, fall is almost upon us. Here in Northwest Arkansas some of the leaves are already changing colors.  Some are still very green.  I fear that this autumn will not be as colorful as the past couple of years and that it may be much shorter lived.  So, while I wait for my favorite photo place to put on it's harvest festival of color, here are few images from the spring of 2014.

And now, a little gospel music to celebrate the one who has created it all.  Have a blessed day.

Revisiting My Happy Place

If you have been to this blog a few times you might recognize the place in the image below.  It is the spillway adjacent to a private lake in Bella Vista, AR.  I go there several times a year to photograph the water fall.  Every time I go, it is a different place.  Most of the time I will get an image similar to the one below and the primary difference will be how much water is flowing, based on recent rainfall.

 

As you can tell, there had been more rain fall prior to the image below.  The images were taken about two weeks apart. The image below was taken on August 19.

Back in May, we got a lot of rain and the falls looked like this.

When I took the image on August 19, I decided to get some images from an angle I had only done once before and there was much less water.  As the country comedian Jerry Clower used to say, "I got down amongst 'em."  Here are the results.

 I am no longer shooting from the bank, but I am actually in the stream bed. This is the area just above the falls in the previous images.  That water in the foreground is traveling to my left and forming the falls in the images above.  In the previous image above, I would be standing in about knee deep rapid flowing water.  Well, probably not standing.

If you move a little closer to these upper falls you get this image.

Behind that big boulder on the right in the one of the images above, you will find the primary source of the water flow.
The best time to photograph these images is early in the morning (within one hour of sunrise), or on an overcast day.  You need to be able to shoot with a shutter speed between 1 and 3 seconds in order to make the water silky, which means you must have a tripod and preferably a cable or remote shutter release.  If you have a DSLR camera, you set your ISO at 100 and your fstop as high as it will go (f16-f25).  Then you experiment with your shutter speed to get the look of the water.
I've got images of this water fall with almost no flow and I've got it frozen in the winter when temperatures were in the teens.  Like I said, every time I visit this place, it is different.  It is my photo happy place.  Find yourself a photo happy place and return to it often.  You'll discover just how photogenic it really is.
My plan is to enlarge a few of my images, frame them and hang them in the hallway of our home.  Have a blessed week-end.

Fun With Filters

 Original Image

 A Little Stained Glass Filter

When the image is kind of monochromatic in color, I'm not sure that there is much difference between stained glass and mosaic filters.

A Little Crystallize Filter

This filter adds a feel similar to the watercolor filter.  In PhotoShop Elements you can control the size of the crystals.

Not So Wordless Wednesday

Every photographer/picture taker has a favorite place to capture images.  This is one of mine.  Several miles from the house there is a small private lake (less than 100 acres).  This image is just down the stream from the spillway at the dam.  When it is hot and dry the flow can slow to little more than a trickle.  When there are several days of heavy rains, it can become a raging torrent.  When we get just the right amount of rain, it becomes one of the most picturesque places in all of Bella Vista, AR.  This week-end concluded one of those just right weeks.

I have photographed this spillway during every season of the year and in most every stage from trickle to flood.  Still, when it rains, you can bet I will load up my camera and head to this little piece of heaven on earth and take some new images.

One of these days I will put together a collection of my favorite images and share them with those few who choose to visit this little outpost in the blogasphere.

I'm thinking that one of these images just might make the final cut.  Eventually, I plan to print a seasonal series, frame them and display them in our home.  I can change them out with each season.

Wordless Wednesday

After the Rain

Wordless Wednesday - Spillway Revisited

Changing Seasons

 Click on images to enlarge

 

 

 Winter

 

 

 

 

Early Spring

 

 

 

Late Spring Rain

I find it very interesting how the same place can change with the seasons and the weather.  I have photographed this spillway of one of our local lakes several times and it is never the same.  

Wordless Wednesday

After the Rain
Click on image to enlarge

Wordless Wednesday

Below The Spillway