I apologize, it has been a VERY long time since I have made a blog post; I started this blog back in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. It’s intention: to follow the BLM movement in Ft. Worth at the time following the deaths of George Flloyd, Atatiana Jefferson, Philando Castille, as well as many others that I couldn’t possibly name in this moment. Afterwards, the blog developed into more of just my thoughts, mostly perspectives on photography and my explorations of nature; but having since really invested in learning the craft of cinematography, as well as a new job and a change of scenery, I may have not necessarily had the time, but I’ve absolutely had the intention of not only starting back up the blog, but also documenting my travels for a YouTube channel. Since then, I’ve captured a lot, but with my job keeping me busy and starting a business, these things have had to go on the backburner for quite some time, but no more. I’ve realized I’ve made too many excuses on why I couldn’t put this content out, mainly that it wasn’t ready, but really, I think I’ve allowed myself to feel burnt out. Maybe age is starting to catch up to me, but I will still live forever young. I will try to write some more about my travels between then and now, as well as some pretty important milestones, but most importantly, I will try to be more consistent about putting out more content for you guys, as well as migrating some of my stuff to a new website to distinguish from my artist work and my business. I won’t bog you down with any of those boring details right now, rather I will try to stick to the topic of which this blog post pertains, which is as follows:
We think of ourselves as Weekend Warriors, Sweet Pea and I, or at least I’d say I am for sure and that she is just happy to be there. Anyways, feeling adventurous, I decided we should go out east to Arkansas for the weekend, where we had a cozy waterfall cabin stay reserved. I’ll try to keep this part short, because it’s not pertinent, but I still am hella proud about it. Anyways, Air BnB is notoriously overpriced, but with a little sleuthing, you can find that most of their listings have their own sites, and if you get in touch with them directly, you can usually get a far better deal, especially if you pay in cash. We’ve done this in Eurekas Springs, AR; Panguiche, UT; and South Fork, CO. I can go on about this, but essentially, we got our Air BnB marked down from around $450 to $200 in cash in exchange for some content of our stay. Made the trip not only worth it, but also a tax write-off since I would technically be working during the trip. I will even be able to write-off all travel and food expenses we will have racked up along-the-way and during our stay. Took lots of reading and learning on how to set up my LLC, and I can go on-and-on, but that is not what this post is about.
Anyways, we were able to capture tons of footage of our stay, which was Horsehead Lake Lodge and Event Center in Clarksville, AR. I highly recommend this place for a stay if you ever find yourself in the area. I would go on about this place, but I will post a YouTube video and drop them in here once done so you can see. However, the lodging is not the highlight of this blog post, so I may just have to do it on another. We also made a trip out to Eureka Springs, which I got plenty of content of but will not be shown here. That too may need it’s on blog post. Now I’m starting to stress about all this writing. This may be my last. Who knows? I haven’t really decided. Just know my intentions are good.
HorseHead Lake Lodge, Clarksville, AR; HQ for the duration of our explorations
On the last day of our stay, we loaded up the Jeep and headed out for our main purpose of the entire trip, to get back to nature and see some waterfalls in the Little Missouri Falls area. A day filled with long-exposures, video capture, and drone coverage in one of the most pristine wilderness areas that I know of, and I’ve been to a few. Now, I wouldn't say that I'm an antisocial mountain man, but I tend to rate places based on not only their beauty but also by how often I run into people while exploring, and Little Missouri Falls is right up there at the top.
We thought we saw embers out there, and if it weren't for the smell and smoke we'd have thought it was in our heads. Our next thought was whether it was safe to go on. You hear stories about people getting trapped in fires. Although it didn't appear to be raging you can never really know, and by then it could be too late. The smoke was thick and blotted out the sun in a deep red-orange hue, especially the deeper we went on. The jeep is old as hell and beat to shit but I knew whatever situation we got ourselves into, we'd be able to get ourselves out. I'm usually calm and collected in risky situations, but I'll admit that once I saw the forest service fire control unit out-and-about, I wondered if it would be best if we turned back. We ended up following a truck a little way before coming upon another, which informed us that there were controlled burns and a lot of smoke, but no real danger. This was excellent news: Not only could we safely go on with our journey, but the controlled fires made for a unique lighting situation, and we were relatively all alone.
Our first stop on our drive was Crooked Creek Falls, located about 3.5 miles down Caney Creek Wildlife Management Area, a rocky road heading south from highway 8 in Black Springs Township, AR. I had been there before, so I was somewhat familiar with the area, although finding the falls is not difficult since it is close to the main road and a prime camping area. The drive alone will leave one in awe, but arriving to the falls adds a whole layer of majesty to the experience. Not only that, but the smoke also blotting out the sun and leaving an orange haze among the land and reflecting off the water surface, as well as the seclusion and atmosphere, made this quite possibly the best conditions for getting as much beautiful footage as I could without distractions or workarounds. This really allowed me to focus and dive deep into my cinematographer-state-of-mind, essentially allowing the camera to become an extension of myself.
My new main shooter is a Fujifilm X-T5, which has amazing in-body stabilization, high megapixel density of 40.2MP for highly detailed photos (although this means smaller photo sites, meaning less light hitting each site, thus affecting image in video; something we won't touch on right now), 6.2K video at 30fps w/ 4:2:2 10-bit color and eye/object detection, and a kit 16-80mm f4.0. Not the best lens out there, but Fuji makes great glass regardless, and I stack a couple of Tiffen filters, a Black Pro-Mist ¼ and HT Polarizer to be exact, as well as a Polar Pro PMVND II to cut down on light when necessary, so getting an interesting image is not hard to achieve. Not really that the scene needed it, considering all the smoke/haze already present, but the Black Pro-Mist adds a nice halation to highlights and a smokey fog/haze look without affecting my blacks, and the polarizer helps me bring back some of my color. It’s imperative for me to ensure that I get as accurate of a color and exposure representation for my photos in camera, regardless of the artistic choices I make in the edit. The truer to nature (no pun intended) the photo, the more realistic of a response I get when I make drastic changes in my edit. To help me achieve true color tones, I use an 18% gray card for exposure with a pure white side for my white balance, which on the X-T5, I can truly dial in on an X, Y axis. Then, I will occasionally (really, if I have the time or extra hands) use a color chart so I can isolate and tweak my colors for a LUT which I can apply to other images. However, run-‘n-gun situations, like the one I had found myself in this day, lead me to get where I kinda think the camera needs to be internally, and then dial in everything else to preference. Once we arrived to our first stop, we got out and used my card and then set out to shooting. Unfortunately, I didn’t capture this process on film, as I wasn’t thinking about it at the time, but I will try to do something along those lines in the future.
Exposure and color tools, like charts and meters, really shouldn’t dictate how you create your image; rather they should guide you so you can understand the limitations of your camera’s sensor and lens. I rarely use white balance presets, and I NEVER use AWB; instead, I use my Kelvin temperature setting, and use my charts to find true white. Of course, achieving true white takes time and practice, as well as an understanding of light itself. For instance, most would consider the sun as pretty warm in color, but in reality, the hotter something is the cooler it will appear, therefore, the sun would require a white balance of 5600K-6500K or more to achieve true white in outdoor situations, which when you look at the Kelvin scale, is of the color blue. However, shadows outdoors render a warmer image, at times around 4200K-4800K, and indoor scenes lit with tungsten can be around 3200K or lower. This is not a photography lesson, however, so I will have to touch more on this at another time. If this area of knowledge interests you, reach out and I can teach you a little more about color science.
Crooked Creek Falls is a gorgeous and peaceful area, and though I would like to try and put into words just how beautiful this place is, I’m afraid my words wouldn’t convey what was before me. Luckily, I captured content of the whole experience, from our drive to the falls to my time spent capturing footage of the area, which you can view here on my YouTube.
After capturing what I feel were some gorgeous snaps of the waterfall and my Jeep, Sweet Pea and I grabbed Hank (forgot to mention he was with us), our Yorkie/Jack Russel mix, and headed back out onto the road another 20-mile trip southish via the scenic route in search of our next destination, Little Missouri Scenic Spot Winding Stairs on Eagle Rock Loop. Yes, it’s a mouthful, and just as hard as it is to remember its name, it was to find, which we were unsuccessful, but I believe we made some progress. This path took us through the rest of Albert Pike Rd, onto Hwy 369, then west on Hwy 84 before heading north on Golden Rd. to Winding Stairs Rd. We even went a little off-roading (map said it was a trail, but it was not, or at least no one had been through in a very long time) and had to reverse ourselves out of a tight spot.
After we got off the “trail” and back onto Winding Stairs Road, we went along another route, this one being the road itself, to another spot that would supposedly get us near where we were going. Like I said, we did not succeed in finding the spot, but we got a little more familiar with the area and what is accessible and even came across a river that was great for photographing and getting some drone shots. Of course, this part of the trip is documented and will be on my YouTube channel as well.
If you like my content, please subscribe to my YouTube channel De La Cruz Visuals LLC, as well as my Instagram @pedroskias to keep up with my adventures and travels, and follow my business Instagram @delacruzvisualsllc to see some of the work I’ve been doing and some of the brands I’ve been teaming up with. Thanks for giving this blog a read, and hope you enjoy the video!
