One of the best places in Arkansas to photograph waterfalls has to be Collins Creek in Heber Springs. Because most waterfalls in the state are highly dependent on rainfall, it is hard to find many of them flowing from about May until probably about early to mid-October. But, Collins Creek does not have this problem. Since water is pumped into the creek from the nearby Greers Ferry Dam, the creek and the waterfalls are continuously flowing.
I have visited Collins Creek on several different occasions, and it seems that I find something new to photograph every time I go. And, this trip was no different.
Normally, when I get to my location, I almost immediately set up my camera. But, this causes me to put pressure on myself to start shooting the first things I see whether they are really interesting or not. This usually results in poor images and frustration. So, I decided to change up my typical routine, just a little bit, and see what would happen.
Arriving at the creek, I set my equipment down and took a few minutes to just look around. It wasn’t very long. Probably only five to ten minutes. But, it was enough time for me to clear my mind and just observe what was around me.
That was when I noticed these twin horsetail falls. I actually photographed one of these about a year ago, but I don’t remember there being a second one. It’s possible it wasn’t there the first time. But, given the consistency of the creek’s water flow, I suspect it was there, and I just didn’t see it.
With my camera and 24-70mm lens firmly attached to a tripod, I zoomed all the way to the 70mm focal length to frame the scene. This eliminated a large tangle of green foliage in the upper right of the frame, which I found rather distracting.
To smooth the flow of the water and create a silky effect, I needed to use as long of a shutter speed as I could get. With my camera on aperture priority, I selected an aperture of f/22 and set the ISO at 100. Using the exposure compensation dial, I reduced the exposure by one-third of an f-stop giving me a final shutter speed of 30 seconds.
Using the Basic tab in Lightroom’s Develop module, I increased the overall exposure of the frame slightly and reduced the highlights in the waterfalls. I also raised the shadow areas just enough to reveal some of the texture and detail in the rocks but not so much that they competed with the waterfalls for attention.
Going to the HSL tab, I made some color adjustments by increasing the red in the small leaf on the left and increasing the yellows and greens to provide a hint of color to the mosses and ferns. Because the scene was being lit by light from the blue sky, the water had a slight bluish cast to it, so I reduced the blues just enough to eliminate the unwanted color cast in the water.
Finally, in Photoshop, I used Neat Image to reduce the tiny amount of digital noise that was present and then applied Topaz Sharpen AI to sharpen the image to create this final photograph of the small double horsetail waterfalls on Collins Creek.