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Pines in the fog, Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas

The majority of time in the Ozarks we had blue skies and sunshine, but the few days with clouds, rain, or fog were actually the ones I enjoyed a lot more for photography. It seemed like we had to wait all summer long for the mood a foggy landscape can provide and that I like so much.

This meadow in Petite Jean State Park, Arkansas was actually an overflow campground, probably used in the summer when camping space in such a popular location is in high demand. Well, at his time of the year nobody was there and these wonderful pines, hugged by the fog, were just the right subject for a photo. Color’s didn’t play any roll and selecting black and white as my medium was a choice quickly made. A campground usually comes with some men-made facilities, like electrical outlet boxes, water faucets, or garbage containers. There were a few of these items visible between the trees in the background, but for such items, that just do not contribute to the photo, I don’t hesitate to use tools for content-aware replacement in Adobe Photoshop. What you won’t see in any of my nature images is sky replacement or any manipulation that changes the context of the subject.

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Palisades Overlook, Petit Jean State Park, Ozark Mountains, Arkansas. *Click on the photo for a larger view.

This was probably one of the most interesting vistas we enjoyed in the Ozark Mountains. Yes this is the same viewpoint I had already a few days ago but it was the day before Thanksgiving and sun and fall colors made for a great show at the edge of Cedar Creek Canyon. Down below in the background lies the Arkansas River Valley.

This panorama is stitched together from two photos. They were merged in Adobe Lightroom and it took less than a minute to do. It still amazes me how far this software has come over the years.

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Grasses in the river bed, Haw Creek Falls, Ozark Mountains, Arkansas

Today I have something for the more art-minded viewers. In my first blog post about the Ozark Mountains about a week ago I mentioned the challenge to find interesting details in the landscape. Deep in the woods of the Ozarks we checked out a campground at Haw Creek Falls. The summer was dry, not just in this part of the country, and many creeks and rivers have still low water levels and the waterfalls of Haw Creek were not very impressive  to say it mildly. But a hike with the camera on the exposed rocks in the river bed seemed to be promising. Harsh light can be your friend sometimes and these grasses in the river bed, that obviously had not seen a flash flood this summer, stood out against the dark background of the river nicely. The curves of the rocks gives us an idea how the water has carved out this valley over a long period of time.

And here is one of the aspects I like about the Nikon Z 6II, the first mirrorless camera that I use since exactly a year now. I really love the ability to set the camera into a particular picture mode and see a preview of the photo right in the viewfinder before I even make the click. In this matter I set it to monochrome. My presets in camera include a red filter applied to the image and relatively high contrast and sharpening. I still shoot in RAW mode, and if I don’t like the final result, it allows me to go back to color because all color information is still stored in the RAW file. In this case, with “Grasses in the river bed”, it was exactly what I had envisioned and saw in the viewfinder when the click was made, except for the fact that I cropped the final picture slightly.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, f/4, GITZO tripod GT2931 Basalt, KIRK BH-3 ball head  @ 200mm, 1/400s, f/4, ISO 100

OZARK MOUNTAINS (3) - THE WILDLIFE

To be honest, while traveling not very far south during our trip to Missouri and Arkansas I didn’t expect to watch a lot of wildlife during this late time of the year. Although we had forest in almost every direction all the way to the horizon in the Ozark Mountains at times, we saw very few White-tailed Deer. Luckily camping in a tent provides the great advantage to greet the first birds in the morning as soon they may appear, and say good night to the last ones (mostly the Cardinals) in the evening.

Golden-crowned Kinglet, a tiny bird I have seen only twice before. The branches of a Red Cedar are a perfect setting for making an image of this bird, but most importantly, that’s where the kinglet found little insects while gleaning quickly between branches.

The large Pileated Woodpecker seems to be more widespread in the Ozarks than here in eastern Iowa. We found a pair at every campsite. Making a picture is another story. They know how to drive a photographer crazy…

The Yellow-rumped Warbler is a bird that may not migrate as far south as many other warblers. To no surprise we found them still in southern Missouri during late November.

Female Northern Cardinal. Who needs an alarm clock if the first sound in the morning comes from the action of Northern Cardinals?

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Between rain showers, Palisades Overlook, Petit Jean State Park, AR

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in and around Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas. While we found mostly bare trees in the northern part of the Ozarks, fall colors were still present south of the Arkansas River. I made some photos of this vista from Palisades Overlook in nice sunlight with a blue sky the day before, but I like this shot between rain showers across Cedar Creek Canyon much better. Clouds moved fast through the canyon and the colorful trees below tell the story that fall finally came to an end here as well. An hour later we had a great Thanksgiving dinner at Mather Lodge, one of Arkansa’s historic treasures, built in the 1930’s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Beats camping food by far…😉

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,  @ 24mm, 1/250s, f/8, ISO 400

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Old barrage at Alley Spring Roller Mill, Ozark National Riverways, near Eminence, Missouri

Hi everybody, we are back from a road trip that led us through parts of the Ozark Mountains in Missouri and Arkansas. Not a time when most people travel with a tent as their daily shelter for the night, but despite a few cold moments we managed it well. Photographically spoken it wasn’t a trip with a lot of great vistas but finding interesting details in the landscape was the challenge I tried to take on every day. I hope you may enjoy some of the photos I share here in the blog during the next weeks.