Falling Water

This years fall trip to Arkansas was yet again amazing. This time we had awesome fall color but did not get blessed with the plentiful water flow as we did in fall 06, if only I could combine the two years.... lol

Member Mike Horn and I spent 2 days exploring the Richland Creek Area and scouted out all the good gems so we would know where to go on our next trip during wet season. As always our trip to Arkansas was a crazy one, we ended up losing light near Twin Falls and had to do the cemetery trailhead hike back in the dark which was no big deal until we saw fresh wet boot prints on some of the rocks and then have that erie feeling that someone is watching you and to add fuel to that fire I remembered reading some of Tim's journal archives a while back (I think one somewhere in 2002) and he had a similar situation in the exact same area between Twin Falls and Hamiltion Falls.... so that was a little freakie

Then the next day we missed the service road to Richland Creek Campground so we ended up taking a "shortcut" that we selected from the national map... Well that service road ended up being a bit hairy and we had my Rover teeter-tottering on three wheels for a bit while traversing the rugged Ozark terrain... good times... good times... I swear Ozark roads like this could give some of the most rugged roads of Colorado that I have explored a run for its money.

We made our way through the "shortcut" and ended up near Falling Water Falls in the early afternoon and decided to explore some of the Richland Creek Area and then head back to Falling Water at sunset. This image was taken on the trip back and was really the only waterfall action we saw all weekend.

In all the trip was a blast and I would have to say my Arkansas adventures always end up as some of the most memorable photo trips of my life... I really envy you Southwest Ozark boys!

And Tim thanks again for the replacement book, that book is gold!

Image Details
Canon 5D
Canon 24mm TS-E Lens
Image is compiled of two images, one shifted to the left and the other shifted to the right to obtain maximum resolution in a pano format.

Great new take on Falling water. I don't recall seeing this perspective before. Very well thought out comp. The bright reflection in the lower right draws my eye a bit, but otherwise, no complaints. Excellent job.

A very pleasing comp Mark. Rich color without being too saturated and a very nice perspective on the falls. I'll echo Dominic's mention of the LR being too bright. Great stuff!

Mark, great shot and I like your perspective. It was kind of a tough year for colors and water, but it looks like you found some color. What day did you shot this?

lol, the story makes me just laugh! The times we have partner are always memorable! Each trip brings in another chapter in a great big book, fun times!!!

Very cool shot mark, if only we had the water while we were there, but definately a great spot to return to!

WOW!

That sums it up for me...

Tim!

Thanks for comments folks!

Mike and I had a heck of a time keeping that bright spot from the skies reflection out of our comps, this image has it toned down a bit by the overall comp compared to other comps but I might just have to spend the time to properly brush the spot out.

Tom the photo was taken on November 3rd 2007

Mark, the reason I asked about the date was the colors looked about the same stage that I saw exactly two weeks earlier in 2006. This confirms my theory that the colors were about two weeks later this year. I wonder if it had anything to do with the freeze we got in late April? Do we have any climatologist out there that may know if that could be the reason?

Beautiful pic, sounds like an interesting journey :)

Tom your theory is correct... our fall trip of 06 was during October 22nd and the peak color was about the same as it was this year two weeks later in November. I think the late peak was caused by the unusual warm weather in October and November.

Beautiful photo, Mark. It's the kind of shot that would make me ask "WHERE is that?!" if I didn't know. My own theory on the late peak color was that all the trees had to start all over again after the late freeze we had Easter weekend.

Nice colors to the Autumn leaves and the blues of the pool, nice one Mark. Sounds like you had a lot of fun roaming around the Ozarks.

My theory is that we had too much water in September and early October. That tends to push the color back and more towards yellow/orange and away from red. We didn't have all that much red this year, and the colors were indeed late, in some cases two months late - black gums, sweet gums, sassafras, and sumac all normally bloom in September and early October and they did not turn much until late October or into November. We saw the color begin to turn several times in September and early October only to be stopped by rain. It happens every time we get too much rain - late, muted, yellow color. I'm not talking about rain in late October after the color is here like it was last year - that is perfect - but the early rains are what mess up the color. The best color is when we have dry conditions in September and early October.

Okay, lets throw in another theory about what happened this fall. You have your April freeze and your too much rain, which are both good, but how about an extended growing season? I hate to use the GW word (Global Warming) but I can remember back last Century when folks with gardens annually experienced a killing frost in early October that would wipe out their peppers and tomatoes. We don't see that happening now until sometime in November.

Good fall colors need a prerequisite of shorter days and cooler nights. We are still getting the shorter days (Thank you earth orbit!) but the cooler nights aren't happening until later in October. When the cholorphyll breaks down the green disappears leaving the yellow carotenoids we see in maple, sycamore, hickory, sassafras, etc. The reds are created in the fall when sugars are made during warm days and then trapped in the leaves during cool nights. The trapped sugars change chemically into anthocyanins, which appear purple and red. So, even though the change in day length continues to happen routinely, the extended warm temperature at night throws off the color cycle so we don't see the spectacular fall colors, i.e. less red. You may have read about how the New England tourism business has suffered due to disappointed and reduced numbers of leaf peepers.

Anyway, that is my theory and I'm stick'n with it.

Time to get out the color enhancing filter.

Best,
Don