I joined the Arkansas Outdoor Photography Club (AOPC) late last year and have really enjoyed the fellowship with other photographers.  They are in Little Rock which is a bit of a drive for me so I was thrilled when they put Hot Springs on the calendar of places to shoot!  We got together June 8th and had a great time!  I’ve shot downtown Hot Springs a few times already so I decided to go for some of the more unusual angles, locations, and processing styles to vary things up.  

This first shot just screamed for black and white IMO.  I shot through a window into one of the bath houses.

I’ve never gotten a photo of this fountain that I really liked so I went with a completely different approach this time.  Odd angle, froze the water in place, and did some retro processing.

And another of the fountain.  Went with more normal colors this time and a sun flare.  Meh…

This next shot was an attempt at HDR to give it extra pizzazz.  It turned out ok I think.  Nothing spectacular.

I’ve learned to try and shoot some of the people lately to capture more of the local feel.  This was one of the drivers for the horse drawn carriages.  What a killer hat!

Wasting some time near Brick House Grill.  Our fearless leader for this trip was Ted on the left.

A little fun with some black and white.  Something about this scene drew me in.

This building is pretty awesome really.  It is hard to capture the “feel” of it though.  The old, weathered bricks, the broken windows… I’m diggin’ it.  I wanted to cut down the power lines and move some cars though!

Reflections of the mirrored bridge.

Another place begging for black and white…

Again, I was going for unusual scenes and creative processing.

I loved this little gem of a spot!  Never noticed it before. I wonder what that machine is inside the doorway…

The old train depot:

I’ve never really tried HDR at night until now.  This was an experiment more than anything.  Wanted to really grab the colors from the neon lights to give an interesting vibe.

Light streaks!  Fun to catch those moving cars with a long exposure.

More light streaks.  this time I tried to make the fountain across the street part of the scene.

What an awesome car!  I think this was a ’36 Buick in great condition!

And finally a shot of the bikes lined up downtown.  Had to wait for a break in traffic.  If you’re Ted though and tote a D4 with machine gun speed, you just step out, fire, and leave.  He cracked me up as he would just step out into the middle of the road and fire away!