Arkansas in the Fall…

Posted on November 20, 2010 by jwj

Well I traveled back down to the great state of Arkansas for my fall trip, last week, decided to stay in Hot Springs on Lake Hamilton this year, since Mountain Harbor was completely booked with two events…but after giving it a lot of thought, deciding I was going to do some more photo shoots down closer to Hot Springs and would only have time to work one dig in for quartz crystasl this trip….it must made more sense to stay in Hot Springs this time.

I started researching places to stay in Hot Springs, dog friendly places no less, and checked with Jessica at the Hot Springs Convention Center, on locations similar to Mountain Harbor since I was kind of spoiled staying there the last five fall seasons…and she was quite helpful in coming up with several locations to check out, most of them located right on Lake Hamilton…and I also checked out a few private residences and condos that were available for rent as vacation homes and time shares. My budget was a little tight this year so I finally opted to stay at the Staybridge Suites on the south shores of Lake Hamilton, off Hwy 7 south of Hwy 270. It was one of the few dog friendly hotels in the entire Hot Springs area, and after staying there three nights, I couldnt have made a better choice, let me tell you !

Mom and I took off about 7 am Thursday morning and had a good drive down, I was actually monitoring my gas mileage on my Colorado pickup and didnt have to stop and fill the tank til I arrived in Fort Smith and dropped mom off at the home of one of her brothers there. She always spends a few days there shopping with a couple of my aunts and cousins while I vacation down in the Hot Springs area. Then on Sunday we join up with several other relatives and many friends at my grandfathers farm in Scott County near Waldron and have a big dinner there before heading home.

I still had a quarter tank of gas but found a good price in Fort Smith so I stopped to fill up and after doing the math, determined that once again I was still getting 25 miles per gallon. After a 90 min shoot just west of Fort Smith in the Roland area, I then drove on down toward Hot Springs…crossing the Fouche River south of Waldron….

…and then I headed on down to Y City where I picked up Hwy 270 east to Mount Ida and Hot Springs….I decided to text Randy, one of my Hot Springs models, who was planning to go to Coltons Steakhouse as soon as I arrived, and let him know I was going to be running just a little bit behind on my schedule…and luckily he was okay with waiting for me…I was about to starve by the time I got into the hotel in Hot Springs an hour later…there was a nice sunset on the way down but I never could find a good place to shoot it from as I drove down through there…

I got checked in quickly and cleaned up and then Missy and I headed north on Central Avenue to Coltons Steakhouse…Randy was there ahead of us and had a booth and a big glass of sweet tea waiting on me…I found Randy down there a few years ago and he is the guy that took me to the waterfall back in July that I shot at several times while there then. He also told me about Gulpha Gorge last year but I didnt check it out til July this year, and kind of still kick myself for not checking it out last fall, talk about a beautiful place to just drive or hike thru…more on it later….had a great dinner and visit with Randy again and then headed back to the hotel to relax and unwind…talk about a very pretty suite hotel…four stories tall, sitting up on a hill above Lake Hamilton and we had been assigned to the third floor with a nice view of the lake to the north…nicely furnished and a beautiful walkin dark gray marble shower with glass doors and big king sized bed with a pillowtop mattress…knew I was going to sleep well. I checked out the treadmill in the fitness center and got a good run in before heading to bed the first night.

Missy and I slept in just a little bit and then headed to Miller Mountain the next morning…arriving shortly after 7:30 and finding out we were the first arrivals of the day….after talking to Faith and checking in while Bill was bringing up fresh dirt piles, I drove over to the parking area and let Missy out to stretch her legs as I prepared to find some nice quartz.

Well I didnt have to wait long to find something nice and big…soon after lacing up my boots and grabbing my rake and bags, I ambled behind the truck to the first pile and found a very large quartz chunk with crystals all over one end and both sides…so I backed my truck up and loaded it right up…then decided to do some surface collecting while I had the place to myself….I filled half a bag with smaller crystals laying around in sight and soon after, another couple of folks showed up to look for quartz too…they turned out to be a nice couple from Topeka, Kansas, and were like me, just looking for anything pretty to take home…I helped them locate some nice crystals while digging into a few of the piles near the parking lot…I was mainly still surface collecting but if I located something, I would dig down and see what else was nearby and usually there were quite a few small clusters and points nearby. I filled two bags pretty quickly….within the first hour I dug out a couple of smaller clusters of smokey colored crystals…and was quite happy with them…decided even if I found nothing else the rest of the day, my day was complete with them…but as it was, in the five hours I was there, I did find quite a few nice singles and clusters…

…here Missy is seen on one of her many jaunts around the tailing piles checking things out…with the beautiful fall foliage in full display near the entrance to Miller Mountain Mine…

…and a little closer up here….well I decided to take the rest of the day off and just do a little sightseeing, so we packed up the rocks after wrapping them up and headed to Gulpha Gorge….taking the scenic route…and for those that havent been to this area, GG is the hollow that runs through the middle of the Hot Springs National Park, where the campground is located on the east side of the city….

and…

I was scheduled to shoot Randy later Friday afternoon, but he got called into work so I opted to take a nap instead and then shot the pretty sunset from the dock for the Belle Cruise Ship nearby…

When I pulled into the parking lot, they had just closed the doors and the lot was empty save for a firefighter from Malvern…while chitchatting with him, he told me that he came up there to watch the sunsets and he photographs them with his phone camera…I was able to ask him about fall foliage in the area and he told me it was pretty everywhere and he had the phone camera pics to prove it, too. While I shot with my digital Nikon 35mm camera, he chose to shoot some video using his laptop…I walked down to the dock where these fishermen were trying their hand, then I saw a speedboat approaching and was able to shoot it as it crossed the lake…

..and then the sun started sinking lower and here are the last few photos I took before heading to McDonalds for a McRib and some fries…

Saturday morning, Missy and I got up early and headed west to Little Missouri River Falls…a waterfall in the US Forest and a very pretty place I had been to several fall seasons to photograph…I figured it wouldnt be as colorful as it was around the Hot Springs area, mainly because it sits in a deeper valley than the lakes area…I decided to take a different route this time, Hwy 70 which runs southwest to Glenwood, then I would drive north on Hwy 27 and up to Norman, where I would take Hwy 8 west to the Crooked Creek Road turnoff…I had never driven out Hwy 70 but could see from researching mapquest that it was a straighter road and traversed alot of valleys instead of mountain ranges…it was a much better drive than Hwy 270 just for those reasons.

I drove thru Glenwood, nice little town…I have a photographer friend that lives there, but I hadnt heard back from him lately so didnt try to call him…then we drove through Caddo Gap, a name I had heard of several times but had no idea what was there…found out shortly that there wasnt much there, wide spot in the road and almost non existent except for a large school on the north side of town and the river that runs thru there named after it….and on over to Norman and then west on Hwy 8…we found some decent color not too far from the turn off to the falls…a country road off Hwy 8 had a nice canopy of color…....and looking at that rugged area and thinking of the climb up and the care one would have to exercise going up or coming down, maybe even dragging a deer out of there…I thought…better you guys and not me….wow….and last year they were running all over the place down there on all terrain vehicles and four wheelers…this year we saw very few hunters down there…

Well we drove on down to the parking lot at Little Missouri Falls and walked down the trail, and then down the staircase to the first set of falls……nice set of wood steps all the way down to the foot of the hill, then they poured concrete steps and ramps down to the rocks…so one could easily step out to the shelf that the water actually runs down on…

..this is the first set of falls…and there are a few cascades below these and then the last fall is nicely framed from up on the trail….

…and then we walked on down the trail to see if there were any other cascades or falls below…

..but we didnt find anything half a mile down, and since it was gun deer season down there, I decided we shouldnt venture much further down…we were hearing gunshots all around us afterall…and it was quite cool down there too…so we headed back to the truck and back to Hot Springs…

I decided to stop at a little waterfall next to a campsite on the way out…it stairsteps down twice off this little bluff….

…we headed back to the hotel and waited for Randy to get back into town from work, and then met him over at Gulpha Gorge to shoot the pretty fall foliage and creek over in the campground area….he was in need of some new photos for his portfolio.

It warmed up a lot from that morning so Randy opted for just a little hoodie jacket and holie jeans…we started up by the highway bridge over the creek, which has a concrete arch underneath that makes for neat framing and reflections….and I`ll just post the highlights of the shoot below…

…and then we moved down the creek and shot some sections where the foliage was stunning….

…this section of the creek along the campsites is a series of cascades and pretty fall maples on the opposite bank….we moved on down to the section of the creek on the other side of the road and found some big rocks to work with and a long pool below the rocks….

…this was shot back in the direction of the campground…I then got on the other side of Randy and shot him toward the pool below and liked what I saw backlit by the afternoon sun better….

…I saw a set of rocks down in the middle of the pool and had him move down there instead and shot him in a few poses that came out looking like an oil painting….

…and then he got creative with his posing…

and then he smiled for me…

After finishing the shoot, Randy and I headed for New China and had a great supper there…talk about a great buffet lineup of tasty food…wow there were five buffet tables of food there and two more loaded with desserts alone…

The next morning, bright and early, Missy and I got up about 7 am and found a dense fog covering the lake…we were waiting for a model on his way down from Little Rock…Pierre was referred to me by photographer friend DJ and I figured I was going to have to shoot his portfolio photos inside the suite, which wouldnt be a problem as pretty as it was, but I was hoping to get some outside shots of him as well…Pierre is a bodybuilder….well by the time he arrived at 8 am to shoot with me, alot of the fog had burned off and so we shot inside for about 45 minutes and then headed south to the Cool Blue Pool Falls for a few pics…disovered someone had trimmed back the brush quite a bit at the entrance to the Hole, probably a right of way issue…but it just allowed more sunlight to hit the rocks which was just fine by me…but I can tell you, the angle in the fall is much different than the angle of light in the summer…took a little bit to adjust to.

I decided to start Pierre in the bunker pants that a friend had given me, and see how they would look on his muscular torso…

and as you can see, he actually looked pretty good in bunker pants at this location…and after this next arty shot….

…this one was fun…he had never done anything like this so it was a new experience for Pierre…one he prob wont soon forget, lol…we headed for Gulpha Gorge after this. We walked over to the bridge and found the angle of light wrong, turned around and saw this great reflection, so decided to try a few artsy type shots here…..it was stunning and so we shot a few here first….Pierre shed his shirt and walked out on the bridge and struck some art poses for me….

…as you can see, Pierre is quite an art hottie and the scenery around him was highly saturated with beautiful colors….cant go wrong with a location and model like this……well we decided to go downstream to the location I shot Randy at the evening before and see what color we could find there in the morning light…and found some nice color and light there too…

..and I`ll leave you one with just a bit more color than these…

..yet another painting of art….after working with Pierre, I headed up to Scott County to meet up with Mom and several relatives at my Grandpa`s farmplace now being cared for by my Uncle Joe and Uncle Harley, for a great reunion and dinner before Mom and I headed for home….

…Uncle Joe always caters a great dinner with everyone cooking and bringing a side dish of their own choosing, and if you go away hungry there is def something wrong with ya..great food and great fellowship, finishing off yet another great mini fall vacation in Arkansas.

Nice clouds and sunsets lately…

Posted on November 8, 2010 by jwj

One can always tell when we are in the fall season or the springtime…get some great clouds and sunsets both times of the year…last two weeks have been really interesting……I caught this sunrise one morning as I got back into town….

and then the sunsets the last month or two have been really nice…God has a huge canvas and is clearly a Master Artist in my book….

and right down the street from me last week…our new Elmont Road Bridge over I-44….

and sometimes weather does play a part as seen in this July 2010 Sunset on Main Street….

and some of our churches make great foregrounds for sunsets of beautiful color…

as does our Sonic back in September….

…and the new fire station five back in July, again weather related…

and the other day I found this well defined tree to silhouette against a nice sunset color filled sky….

Mountain Harbor Resort In September

Posted on September 28, 2010 by jwj

Well I had a chance to drive down to the Hot Springs area and do some more quartz collecting last weekend, was contacted by members of the MAGS Rock Club in Memphis who wanted some advice on where to collect quartz in the Mt Ida and Hot Springs area…some members wanted to go to a quartz mine and the diamond mine too…while I dont care to sit out in the open dirt field and bake while hunting for elusive diamonds in the rough, I do enjoy going to quartz mines where you can normally find a truck load to take home…which I consider to be a sure thing, as opposed to an iffy thing in relation to diamond hunting, but to each their own I suppose.

I contacted Jimmy E, a buddy of mine from Minnesota and asked if he wanted to go, when I found out later that MAGS intended to go to the diamond mine one day and a quartz mine the next, and he said sure, he would love to drive down before winter set in and he couldnt go for awhile…so I gave MAGS my recommendations and Jimmy and I decided to go to Bear Mountain Mine south of Mt Ida and Miller Mountain Coleman Mine as well.

We decided to stay at Mountain Harbor Resort on Lake Ouachita ten miles east of Mt Ida, this is where I normally go and stay at for my fall vacation, very pretty place to stay and dog friendly as well. They have cabins and rooms and studios to stay in, campgrounds for RV`s and all sizes of camping, rent houseboats and party barges and fishing boats as well, even have their own Subway restaurant on their main dock. They also have their own Fire Department and just last year took delivery on a retired Coast Guard Cutter that was retrofitted as a fire boat and boy does it look impressive out there on the lake.

and here it is at sunset Friday night last week…

We had great weather while there, we drove down on Thursday and discovered summer was still lingering there, first three days were mid 90`s and humid, and then a cool front went thru on Saturday evening and the bottom dropped out on Sunday, dropping the temps to the lower 50`s when we woke up to head home. We went to Bear Mtn Mine to find quartz crystals….

The rest of the story on the quartz crystal hunting is on my rockhunting site, http://www.jwjrocks.com

Jimmy started for home Saturday afternoon and I stayed an extra night to visit with friends and photograph a model as well as a stunning sunset Saturday night on the lake.

..this is what it looked like when I first saw it…

..then it became this…..while to the south the clouds looked like ….

…this…..and then it kept getting deeper and deeper….like the next one shows….

and looking the other way we saw this one below early on….

A very nice end to a nice weekend in Arkansas….more on what we found later…

Fireworks in August

Posted on September 8, 2010 by jwj

One of the nice things about the end of August besides the hot summer days ending, is the St Anthonys Catholic Church Celebration weekend here locally…and they have a fireworks show each year on Saturday night…

this year I captured a nice gold and green pinwheel, one of those chance shots, you either get it or you don`t….

and this year I almost missed it, they started 30 minutes earlier than normal, since it was totally dark, and only lasted about fifteen minutes total….

…so I had to grab my camera and run up to the city park where I could get a clear view of the bursts and shot with the basketball court and baseball field below it…would have preferred to have shot it from the overpass instead, but oh well…

…sometimes you just get what you get.

Reflective Bridge in KC…

Posted on August 10, 2010 by jwj

I drove up to Kansas City two weeks ago to meet a friend moving to Iowa from out west and while there, I was able to capture some nice images of a pretty bridge at the new Waterfall Park behind the new Bass Pro Shop at I-70 and I-470 in Independence. It actually reflects well in the daytime and nighttime both…I decided to photograph it at dusk because the bridge is well lit at night with colored lights. It sure was pretty….

There is a nice waterfall not far from the bridge on the south side as well…

the one above is south of the road and the next one is on the lake side of the road and empties into the lake….

Tractor Trailer Fire….

Posted on August 8, 2010 by jwj

Sunday night, August 1st, I was trying to begin to catch up on the site when we were toned out for a tractor trailer fire…so I grabbed my camera and Missy and I headed for the truck…I heard the pumper and tanker respond and another driver waiting for a crew so I decided to go direct….we caught up to the tanker on the interstate a few miles out of town and I could see the pumper ahead of it a mile or two, and a heavy cloud of dark brown smoke looming above the pumper in the distance against the night sky…….we got on the scene and I parked in a driveway off the Service Road just past the old Kovacs Restaurant and grabbed my flashgun and walked across the road…helped Engineer Ray Enloe pull the hoseline and straighten the kinks out, and turned on my flash, and took the first shot of the tractor cab fully involved as the guys were bleeding the air out of the line and getting ready to attack the fire…

Dave and Gary bled the air from the hoseline and approached the tractor on fire….

and started attacking the flames from the Service Road side…

and….

I turned my flash off for the next shot….

and as St Clair pulled up on the opposite side and stopped traffic, their cab lights cast a pinkish glow on the smoke and steam….

and…

St Clair provided a crew to assist and even with the flashgun I was able to capture some neat smoke and motion images…

and…

and pretty soon it was under control and we were able to release a lane of backed up westbound traffic….

and there wasn`t much left of the cab and motor….

Long week…

Posted on August 8, 2010 by jwj

Its been a long week folks, and I was in the midst of getting caught up last Thursday morning when my dad called and told me to turn on the tv to channel two news…which is usually not a good sign of things to come, last time that happened, one of our firefighters was shot and killed in one of the cities I dispatch at, and two of our police officers shot and wounded at Maplewood…so I turned on the news and for the next three hours sat glued to it watching a very horrific accident scene unfold on I-44, just twenty miles east of me on a stretch that I drive to work three or four days a week. I knew the firefighters that were there and work with one of them at my dispatch center, so I texted him to see if he was there and confirm it was as bad as it looked on tv….

…Kurt said it was one of the worst ones Boles FPD had worked in a long time…over fifty schoolkids on two buses, one bus catapulted up in the air and the front of it resting on the cab of a semi truck pulling no trailer, a second bus had plowed into the back of the first bus heaviy, and then underneath one could barely make out a vehicle of unknown make and model, that appeared to be rolled up into a ball of twisted metal…you could see that firefighters had their hands full on arrival and had laid down a layer of foam as a precaution I`m sure, for a ruptured fuel tank, there was a ladder up against the side of the first bus and firefighters and medics were attending to several injured kids on the side of the interstate and in a shady area on the service road to the south side of I-44. It was definitely a bad accident scene and one of those that you never forget no matter how much one tries…

….I immediately stopped what I was doing and prayed for strength and comfort for those that were injured and hurt as well as the responders and law enforcement there working the scene…it was already hot that morning and firefighters and medics on scenes like that, wear heavy fire gear and protective clothing to keep them safe, so I knew they were gonna need as much help as they could get to safely do their jobs too. I texted Kurt again and asked him how the firefighters were holding up and he replied….hot but making it…..they had a job to do and they knew it, but thats what firefighters know and do all the time, its what we train for all the time and prepare for, but no amount of training can prepare one for this type of sight when you round the bend and there it is in front of you on arrival, either. Channel Two News was the first on the scene and provided coverage initially from the air with their skyzoom copter….

…and then later placed a reporter on the ground, which by then, there were reporters on scene from Channel Five News as well… my friend Jeff Small had arrived by then and was covering it on the ground from the east end and north side of the interstate…which gave us a view from that side and showed the expansive backup of eastbound traffic to the west….

….I later found out that several kids who were not injured but very frightened, had fled the buses and ran to the west and through the maze of vehicles backed up behind the scene, in fear that the strong odor of gasoline would catch fire and blow up, and thankfully several concerned travelers caught in the backup were able to slow and stop the fleeing children and convince them to get into their vehicles, in out of the heat and into safer environments until help could arrive. Several firefighters and medics made the walk west along the eastbound lanes and retrieved the children after arrival and took them to a waiting charter bus, provided by Mid America Coaches, who responded at the request of Fire Command, and later transported the non injured children safely to one of the St Louis area hospitals for treatment and checkup, which is routine in a situation like this.

I sat there for three hours watching this all unfold on tv and talking to Kurt about it, listening to the reporters as they heard from witnesses, and people driving by, and others who saw this and described the vehicle under the bus as first a car, then an suv, then a trailblazer suv silver in color…..then I suddenly received an email from my mom telling me that a good friend of ours, a fellow firefighter, had just discovered that his grandson was driving the pickup that was trapped under the first bus, it was a full size Z71 silver pickup that was rolled into a ball practically from the impact of the first bus crashing into the back of it and then finally resting on top of it….my friend`s grandson was trapped within it…there had been initial reports of two fatalities and most like me, presumably, had figured both fatalities were likely the driver and presumed passenger in the vehicle under the bus….it later turned out that Daniel was alone in the pickup truck and the other fatality was on the first bus, a young band student sitting near the back of that bus. Again I said a quick prayer for those involved and the families of those involved and the responders as well as their families and all of those involved in the incident, cause there are always people in the background that work these types of incidents and it can be just as stressful to them as to those actually on the scene. I relayed that info to Kurt as well and he told me that they had cut the truck open to retrieve Daniel from the pickup…he was joined by another chaplain from their department and they were going to say prayers for the families at that time….

Even though I didnt know Daniel personally, had never met him or talked to him, I knew his parents well, his grandfather is a close family friend and firefighter family friend as well, and I knew of his exploits in the area, having been a gifted athlete in football, baseball, and basketball for the past four years of high school, and he walked on to the Mizzou Tigers team last year and became a backup quarterback for them. Not many people can do that, walk on to a major college like that with quarterback abilities and fit right into things like he did. I had heard from several people that he had a throwing arm like a rifle, his aim was generally right on target and he had an impressive passing and rushing record. I went to a few of the Eagles football games in the past few years, difficult to do on my schedule of working nights, mainly on request, to provide some coverage for our local paper`s sports section, but always enjoyed watching and shooting the game. He made it enjoyable from the sidelines throwing passes and carrying the ball and advancing the team down to the goal line. Never met and talked to him, but never ever heard a bad word from anyone about the boy, either. Very nice, polite and kind and courteous….which didnt surprise me at all, knowing well who his parents are, two of the nicest people one would ever want to know in this area, and both come from good families and backgrounds as well.

The visitation was well attended, over two thousand people visited with the family at the church and their home over the next few days, and he was buried on the family farm from a pretty hillside view of the valley that he frequently hunted and fished through his young years. Everyone was amazed at the effect one nineteen year old could have on the lives of so many, evidenced by the number that showed up for the visitation and funeral. Family and friends are convinced though, had Daniel not been there at that time and place, to absorb the impact of the bus, many more lives could have been taken as well, had the bus impacted the semi instead. And there is no doubt where Daniel is at now, hunting and fishing and playing football extensively in the Heavens above. One day we will see him again.

Dramatic Skies This Evening

Posted on July 30, 2010 by jwj

Walked out of the store this evening about 7 pm, and saw a massive thunderstorm stretching the width of the city limits blowing in from the north and black as could be, with a neat rolling white cloud at the top and forefront of it…wondered if it might be a squall line so got into the truck with Missy and drove up to the top of the hill by our new car wash to get a better view of it coming in. I didnt have my camera with me, but the reason I bought my LG phone was because it has a 3.2 meg camera in it and boy did it capture the storm clouds really nicely. I had to shoot a few extra shots due to the width of the storm, but there were some really nice flowing lines on either end and it was very dark in the middle…

This is the first photo I shot, at the east end of town looking east…

and this was the second one, the middle shot as it was, the dark mass under the white rolling cloud out in front….

and the third shot shows the storm on the west end as it comes rolling across town from the north….I then wheeled back to the east to see what was happening on that end and saw this next one…

and saw more flowing lines to the east end with the spooky darkness underneath…

and then watched this dark cloud drop down….started looking around to see if there was a wall cloud closeby….luckily didnt see one….

and then I turned back to see this cloud on the east end of town toward Oak Grove Village….

and then watched as the cloud lightened up with some big fluffy clouds forming out in front of the darker clouds….

…and then looked back to the west and south and saw some interesting clouds on that end of town…

and then this twist of cloud formations to the east again, heading south, and then the rain started flying and I got the heck out of there…and that is all that we received was rain and very little noticeable wind even…pretty wild to be out in and photograph….

Miller Mtn Mine and Fireworks over DeGray Lake…

Posted on July 21, 2010 by jwj

My third day of vacation started late, I slept in after the long day of driving and then fireworks the night before, so Missy and I got a slow start to Miller Mountain Mine north of Hot Springs, arriving mid morning instead of early morning…and on arrival found only about half a dozen diggers already there digging away.

….the guy in the middle of the photo here, is Mark from the Joplin area, he and his wife Carol, were digging in the small pile next to me most of the day there and removed several nice single points from their pile, while I took several small clusters and plates, including a few smokies, from my pile…here is one of Mark`s finds…

…and some of mine….

I only meant to dig about five hours at the most, as my parents were driving down and I knew they would arrive about 4 pm and want to go to dinner by 5 pm…but I began finding so much great stuff, I wound up sticking around til 5 pm…and as soon as I got down off the mountain, my cellphone rang and my parents told me they were headed to dinner. I was at least an hour drive away so told them to go ahead and I would catch up later, I hadn`t even switched over to the other hotel yet and would have to clean up as well. I was very happy though, having filled four bags full of quartz crystals.

I drove back to Arkadelphia and saw my parents as soon as I pulled into the Quality Inn by the interstate, to check in for the remainder of the week. My parents were spending one night only, they would be staying at the DeGray Lake Resort Park Lodge the rest of the week for the family reunion, and I would have too, except for the fact that the Lodge doesn`t like pets inside. I showed the Manager and my mom some of the quartz that I found, seems the Manager of the Hotel is a big fan of quartz crystals too and mentioned that he had found some in his native country of India as well. From the way he talked, I believe he felt that quartz has healing powers too, as many Arkansans do as well.

I got checked in and cleaned up and then went across the street to Mickey D`s and got some supper and then headed to DeGray Lake to find a spot to shoot the fireworks that evening. I stopped at the Corps of Engineers picnic area by the Highway 7 Support Dam/Bridge and decided to shoot from there. I prob should have driven over to the Lodge and shot it from their grounds, but hindsight is always 20/20.

As it was, the only real problem shooting from my spot was that it seemed that very few bursts gained any real elevation, and its likely that I wouldn`t have thought that if I had been shooting from the Lodge lawn.Here are the boaters gathering on DeGray Lake prior to the sunset and fireworks show….

and I set up on the end of the peninsula there, close to a houseboat pulled up to the shore, which became part of my next sunset photo….

and as I waited for the setting sun to fade out, I was talking to a Hispanic family who had driven up from Hope, Arkansas…we talked til the sunset finally faded from the skies….

and then the show began…this show is set off by hand by members of the Bismarck Fire Department and other neighboring fire departments from one of the small islands behind DeGray Lake Lodge…but it was a very pretty show too…

and

and this one came out nice, the blur on the bottom left is a big party barge houseboat that was moving back and forth across the water all during the show…

he didn`t show up in all of my photos, wouldn`t have bothered me tho, I like motion like that….

and this one shows quite clearly the elevation problem, the lower one looks like it went off right on top of the shooters….

and more for your enjoyment….

Fireworks in Hot Springs, Arkansas…

Posted on July 18, 2010 by jwj

Well I drove on down to Arkadelphia after my shoot with Derek and Nick at Jolly Mill and forgot what a long drive it is across Highway 40, plus I hit rain about the Missouri / Arkansas line and finally made it down there…being the 4th of July weekend, I had made reservations at the Super Eight Motel there, reserving a suite for six nights as I had a family reunion at DeGray Lake nearby and had Missy with me, so didn`t think anything about it. I arrived around 4 pm and stopped to check in..boy was I in for a rude surprise…I always call and make reservations and I always ask for a confirmation number when I make that call, had that when I walked into the motel office, and had problems right off the bat, trying to understand the guy behind the desk…when I made the reservations three weeks prior, I had talked to a young lady who spoke good english, and this guy did not speak it well at all.

I`m not a racist by any means and I have nothing against people from other countries coming to ours for a better life, thats originally how our country started out, but if you move here, learn the language and follow the rules ! Thats what we would have to do as Americans if we moved to your country, wherever it may be, so that should apply to anyone moving to the US.…plus he was talking very loud and excitedly, which made it even more difficult to understand him…another couple came in behind me and waited, prob putting pressure on him, but then he finally tells me that their outdated computer system crashed on them and they had cancelled all reservations and given my suite to someone else…about that time, the female I believe I spoke to, came in and told me the same thing, in better english though. I wasnt too happy at this point, and then she offers me a room, at a much higher rate than the suite I was quoted for, and I explained that to her and she said that was the best she could do, at which my reply was, your best isnt good enough….and out the door I went…luckily I had spent some time online the past few weeks looking at lodging in the area, so I had a good idea for motel choice two and three, but being as it was the 4th of July, I thought I might be sol too…but there is a lot of National Forest around there, figured if nothing else, just pull over and camp out in the truck, those Chevrolet Colorado Crew Cab pickups are nice and comfy on their own.

Took me about an hour, but after checking a few places and going thru some rude and pushy clerks, as well as one or two nice ones, I finally found a room, and had to pay extra for Missy, but also found a nice hotel that didnt have any rooms available that night, there also happened to be a baseball tournament in the area that weekend…but when I told the manager what had just occurred to me at the other hotel, he was very nice and understanding and offered me a great rate for the other five nights I would be there, so after looking at a room that he took the time to show me, I accepted his offer and told him I would be back the next day. He spoke good english and you could tell he ran a very clean business there, the Quality Inn.

As soon as Missy and I got cleaned up at the pricey Comfort Inn, we headed north to Hot Springs, and I called Randy, one of my Hot Springs models, to let him know I was headed up to scout a parking spot and shoot spot for the fireworks over Lake Hamilton that evening and then headed to Coltons Steakhouse for a good steak dinner. They are an excellent place to eat at and I usually try to eat there at least once or twice when down there, great food and great atmosphere !

As I drove through Hot Springs and across Lake Hamilton on Highway 7, I noticed there were already several people lining up along the bridge to wait for the fireworks, but still plenty of places to park at as well. The Clarion Hotel management had graciously given me permission to shoot from their parking lot, but I wasnt allowed to park there since I wasnt a guest there, and believe me, it looked like they needed all the parking space they could get, they had a band playing out by the pool by the lake and quite a crowd there…I wasnt worried, though, it was only about 6:30 pm and there were still a couple of hours before they would start the show…drove up to Coltons in the middle of town and left Missy in the truck with the ac on, yes I left the truck running and the ac on for her, and went inside to have a good steak dinner….they were a bit full inside, but the bar was wide open and since I was alone, they offered me my choice of seats and I stepped right up to the bar.

I hadn`t been in there ten minutes and some gal came up to me and asked me if I had the pretty Colorado pickup out in the parking lot…I said yes, and she said ” hey mister, do you know you left your truck running and locked ? “…I started laughing and she asked what was so funny… I asked her if she had bothered to look inside and she said, well I tried but your windows are kind of tinted dark ….then I told her there was a black Border Collie inside and I was doing my best to keep her cool on this hot, hot day…and then she gave me a hug and said ” bless you hun, I`m a dog lover myself. ”

I take my responsibilities seriously when it comes to my dog, she goes almost everywhere I do, and on hot days, I leave my truck running and the ac on full blast for her, I love her to death, she`s my buddy girl.

I met up with Randy after dinner, he was tied up and couldn`t join me, but he took me out south of town to show me a beautiful waterfall he had found, that he thought would make a great photo shoot location, and after arriving and looking it over, I thought he was right…

As you can see it stairsteps down twice…in the upper pool there are actually three waterfalls…and a four foot deep pool beneath them…then it runs down over the Navaculite ledge about thirty feet to the next drop and there are two falls there, and a ten food deep pool under them…then a three foot deep stretch to a little manmade dam…some of Randy`s friends were there and I shot a few pics of them having fun in the water…Randy showed me the benefits of this location on a hot summer day real quickly….

…and then I scooted quickly back to Hot Springs to set up for the fireworks show.

Got back to the Hwy 7 bridge and parked on a side street, there were police officers directing traffic and it looked like people were parking on the side streets now, so I joined them…pulled in next to some people and asked if it was alright to park there…talked to them a few minutes, they were up visiting from Mississippi and said they would watch my truck for me…I left it running and the ac on for Missy and took my tripod and walked over to the bridge…found an open spot and set up my tripod there…figured as full as the parking lot was at the Clarion Hotel, it would make more sense for me to shoot from the bridge, plus they had a boat dock that would have been in my way too….

Now I have shot the fireworks from the Eads Bridge at St Louis and my own city park in Sullivan, and during the lull and wait for skies to get dark enough to shoot the fireworks, one normally gets eaten alive by the mosquitos…and I had left my spray in the truck…but there in Hot Springs, not sure what it was, but not one time did I get bit or even notice one flying around…and no one around me complained either….I was amazed…talked to some nice people there on the bridge while waiting for the show to start, lots of people visiting from Mississippi and Alabama and Texas, no one near us was from Hot Springs except for the police officer directing traffic right behind us, who was very nice and had his hands full at a very busy intersection I might add. Here is the bay out in front of me…

…the dock area across and on the right side of the photo, is the Power Boats docks, where the fireworks were shot from…Power Boats puts on the show each year I am told…and in the past few weeks getting ready to drive down there, I had researched and tried to find photos of past fireworks shows and could only find one or two photos of fireworks there…totally blew my mind. I had contacted Jessica of the Hot Springs Convention Center, and she put me in touch with Power Boats and then they suggested I contact the Clarion Hotel for permission to shoot from their property…..and thats how I wound up down there that evening…I love shooting fireworks photos.

Well it started getting darker and darker…more boats showed up for the best seat in the house…

….as it got darker, I noticed how many boats were sitting out in the bay by the bridge in front of us…their lights made it easier to count the number of them…and boy were there a bunch of them out there…

Pretty soon they fired off a test burst and it went well, so shortly after that, they fired up this rocket volley that sounded like an automatic rifle and looked like waves of red, white, and blue….

and then the show really took off…there was music with it, and it sounded great, seemed to be a computerized show much like the Fair St Louis Show….

and saw some different color combinations at this show…

and green…

and even saw some deep purple colors…

and some reds and golds….

even had a shot of a massive fireball at the base of one burst… prob a good thing the Hot Springs Fire Department had a truck there…

but the red burst prob gave off the best color in the sky above the water, def gave me better reflections too…

and yet I still liked the rocket volleys they had that night, lots of them too throughout the entire show….

blue and gold rockets here, then bursts on top of the rockets….

and a few multi color bursts as well…don`t ask me how long the show lasted cause I couldn`t tell ya, I was having a blast photographing it, it was one great show that night…

After the show was over, it only took about 30 minutes to get out of there, which I didn`t think was too bad. Next night was the fireworks show over DeGray Lake, see the next story for that one.

Jwj Photo blog

Just another WordPress site

Author Archives: jwj