Beautiful but Bittersweet End to My Arkansas Waterfall Trip

Wrapping up my Arkansas trip with an amazing triple waterfall

Episode three of this series covered my morning stop on my last day in Arkansas, and this one covers my last stop (technically my last two stops, but I'll save details for the video). As I was driving between the two locations, I also realized that it was Mother's Day.

I couldn't have asked for a much better day in regard to experiencing two absolutely gorgeous waterfalls but, not surprisingly, that epiphany as I was driving brought a flood of emotions as it was the first Mother's Day since losing my mom.

I mean... come on! This was the view that greeted me as I finished the easy hike to the waterfall.

This second location I stopped at before starting my way back to Texas was well beyond anything I had imagined based on what I'd seen in the Tim Ernst guidebook. I was fortunate to arrive with no one else around - that would change as I stayed there working with different compositions and light - so I was able to record a fair bit of video explaining my approach.

Disclaimer: As an Amazon affiliate, I may earn a small commission - at no cost to you - for any purchases made via the above link to Tim's book.

Although it was mostly sunny when I arrived, the approaching front soon began to arrive and I found myself working in mostly overcast conditions.

As I picked up the pace of my photography a bit, worried that the dark clouds rolling in would start to produce rain (with a steep drive back out on a rough dirt road), I tried out a couple closer compositions. It was difficult to fully convey the size of this triple falls but I think, overall, I was able to do so fairly effectively between the three photos you see here.

I had to focus stack three separate images to get everything sharp for this composition. I don't often use the wide-angle "foreground object" method for scenes like this but I felt it worked well here. The three smaller rocks on the bottom left also helped provide a bit of balance within the frame to counter the weight of the larger rock on the right.

After I finished photographing at the base of the falls, I hiked up to the top to see if there were any potential compositions available, but nothing caught my eye. I did, however, get to see my first rattlesnake in the wild! That was quite the talk of other hikers as the word was passed along that it was hanging out on a rock face not far off the trail.

Although I wish I had planned more time for this trip - even beyond the additional day I would have had if the weather forecast hadn't turned for the worst - I'm really glad I was finally able to get back to Arkansas. Between familiar scenes and new ones, it was validation of just how beautiful I always imagined The Natural State would be in spring when everything is leafed out.

I also feel the quality of my videos, both in the clips I recorded in-field and my editing after the fact, took a significant step forward with this trip. From explaining far more "teachable moments" to just presenting my experiences with a bit tighter flow in general, I hope you'll give them all a watch (if you haven't already started, of course!).

Join Me Behind the Scenes

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I've already said plenty about video from this trip, so I won't say too much more... other than it really is worth seeing this final waterfall in action!

If you enjoy these looks behind-the-scenes of my photography, you can catch up on all my in-field videos here.

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