Toltec Mounds Sunrise

Taken Friday morning before the park opened (located just outside of Little Rock). There are two main Indian mounds here that you can photograph, but there are others in the well-mowed park as well (you normally can't get into the park until 8am though). These mounds were laid out in line with the sun and moon - sunsets and sunrises at important times of the year line up with certain mounds just like rocks at Stonehinge. It is a neat place to hang out at and ponder life during those ages.

Sounds like a place I would like Tim. Very nice image of it. Looks like my beautiful skies were in Arkansas over the weekend instead of Kansas.
Did you use any filter for this shot? I'm about to buy at least 1 if not a couple of Singh Ray graduated ND filters, can't make up my mind on either 2 or 3 stop hard or soft. Just curious. Course I would like a LB warming polarizer also for my 77mm 17-40, but I need to go a little at a time, (so my wonderful beautiful wife says!) <-- just in case she reads this

Brad

Hey Brad, no filter - and you certainly don't need to buy any graduated ones - you have an infinite supply of them within photoshop, all colors, all f-stops, hard or soft and everything in between (just bracket exposures then blend together, or use the "photo filter" adjustment layer and gradient tool for colored grads) - plus you don't have issues with flare and/or dirt or scratches. You don't need a warming polarizer either - again, you have all you want within photoshop - you just need a normal polarizer, which can't be duplicated in photoshop. Spend your hard-earned money elsewhere - take your bride out to dinner and buy her some roses, and a new dress! Then hit her up for a new lens...

Thanks for the advice Tim. I have been using the gradient tool in photoshop lately and I actually like the results so I'm real happy to hear that advice from a pro. I will look only at a normal polarizer now. And I'm thinkin' my bride likes you already!
Thanks again.

Brad

Usually other brides don't like me since I cost them a lot of money, but in some households everyone gets equal pay so the wife gets to go buy lots of new stuff every time a new camera is introduced! One good friend/photographer that I know is married to a lady who just bought an airplane - he figures he can buy all the cameras and lenses he wants to now for a good long time - one of the few who has a spouse with a more expensive hobby than photography!

Very nice Tim. I like the range of colors in this shot from greens to reds to blues. The mounds are an interesting feature and it does tend to make one think what life would have been like during their heyday.

You're getting close to my home stomping grounds now. Nice shot. I'd encourage all to attend the presentation that they give at the visitor center. It's pretty interesting to contemplate the origins of these people. This area was the center of a pretty large society.

AND they have a summer solstice party at sunset - the only time you are allowed in the park after hours! The sun sets behind one of the mounds as lined up with a different mound - a mound party, yippie!

Wow, what a beautiful sunrise. I really enjoy exploring around places like this - wondering what it was like hundreds of years ago, and even wishing how nice it would be to travel back in time for just a few days.

Beautiful sunrise, Tim.