Today I purchased a years membership to Garvan Gardens in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  Since I'm more serious about my photography now, I thought this would be an ideal situation.  They have year-round photo opportunities!

After speaking at a men's retreat hosted by Flatwoods Baptist Church, pastor Joe Morell drove me around town.  He took me down to Blanchard Springs which was flowing with lots of water!

  On my way to Mountain View to speak at a men's retreat, I decided to stop in Heber Springs for some photos.  There are a few waterfalls there and we've had plenty of rain.  

We had an ice storm recently in Hot Springs.  The mountains in particular looked amazing with all the glistening ice on the trees.  I decided to head up into the surrounding mountains to see if I could capture some of the magic. This was the first shoot with my new Nikon D800.  First, I tried going up to West Mountain.  They had the road closed off though.  I guess some trees were down over the road.  So, I headed towards Hot Springs Mountain.  Score!  It was open!  I was a bit worried though as the ice had all melted at the base of the mountain.  Thankfully, the higher you went, the more...

Yesterday morning our town was covered in fog. I decided to drive up to a nearby mountain top with a clearing facing the east. I lucked out as the fog cleared at the top. I was treated to an amazing sunrise over a sea of fog with just a few mountain tops showing. The mountains looked like islands.  I did my best to capture the moment, but I don't think the pictures do it justice.  God certainly knows how to put on a display of beauty!

I had been chomping at the bit to get outside, explore, and take some pictures.  I had surgery just before Christmas which has kept me indoors for the most part.  I finally found time to break away and visit Petit Jean State Park!  The crazy thing was, it was mid-January and almost hit 70 degrees that day!  Typical Arkansas though... 1 day later and we're looking at possible flooding and maybe even ice storms on Sunday.  My brother joined me again as we set out on this journey.  We only had a few hours so we went at a pretty quick pace! Our first stop was Bear Cave Trail.  This leads...

I've learned that landscape photography puts you into some interesting situations.  If you really want a certain shot, you have to be willing to look a little crazy!  I've been wanting a sunrise shot over Lake Hamilton for awhile but wasn't quite sure where to go.  I used my favorite website, SunCalc, to see where the sunrise was coming from this time of year.  I guessed that the boat dock for the Clarion Hotel would be ideal so I headed that way when I noticed the great cloud formations in the sky this morning.  People really underestimate the time and effort that goes into planning landscape...

I posted an article before about how to shape your bokehs, but I didn't really talk about basic bokeh principles.  So, what in the world is bokeh!?  The word refers to the blurring effect you get with light in your photos.  In particular, most people think of portraits where the subject is sharp and in focus, but the background highlights are blurred into sphere shape or maybe something like an octagon.  This gives a nice, appealing photo.  It can also be used creatively to get other effects like I've done in these photos.

  I had the privilege of shooting senior portraits for Caina this weekend.  She comes from a great family that I've known for years so this was a fun shoot!  Oh, and poor Caina couldn't speak the entire time due to nodules on her vocal chords.  That makes for interesting methods of communication.  The above shot was my favorite of all.  Beautiful smile, captivating eyes, and a pretty little girl.  I'm just sure she can't be a senior though.  I mean, there is no way I'm old enough for her to already be a senior!!!

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