CLOUDLAND CABIN JOURNAL - MARCH 2005
Cloudland Cabin Cam, 3/31/05, 7:01am, a SPECTACULAR spring morning in the wilderness today! | ||
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CLOUDLAND CABIN JOURNAL, updated 3/31/05 a few last wildflower photos for the month 3/29/05 OK, ok, so I got a little carried away with posting photos this month and require a third Journal page - sorry about all of that, but I just can't help it. I want you to see what I see. And today (or actually yesterday) is no exception. I'll get to that in a moment. It is spring break around here, at least for Amber, and the house remains dark and quiet at our normal hour to rise for school (5:30am). Today the cabin filled with some incredible glowing red light, and since I was awake anyway, I got up to see what it was all about. It was, of course, the predawn color over in the east, and it was very nice. I ran downstairs, grabbed my little camera, and raced outside - this color often doesn't last too long. I could tell that I had already missed the peak of the color, but fired off a few shots anyway. I often will joke at my slide programs about shooting images in my underwear, and today was proof of that - nothing on but my underwear, and it was a wee bit chilly outside, especially considering the fact the wind was blowing, and I was standing barefoot in water! Such are the hazards of being a near-nude nature photographer. I had originally planned to spend this entire week down in the southern part of Arkansas shooting photos, but I am still here. Seems like things continue to pile up that need to be attended to, but that is OK. After working all morning in the cabin, I packed up my camera gear and headed out the door. It was a bright sunshinny day with blue skies and warm temps - not exactly the sort of day I look to shoot in. But I wanted to take this opportunity to go down to the bottom of Whitaker Creek and see how the flock of yellow trout lilies was doing - they should be about right now with all this rain and sunshine. Since this particular stand of flowers was far upstream, I headed on over towards the Crag before going down below the bluff. And since we did have plenty of water, I continued on along the bluffline to Haley Falls just to see how it looked. There was plenty of water at the falls, and it looked and sounded great. I knew the harsh sunshine would not allow any "normal" shots of the falls, but I figured there would be some nice stuff looking out from behind the falls, and I was correct. There was a bit of moss or whatever growing along the edge of the bluff at the top of the falls, and it had grown down more than a foot over the edge. The sheets of water pouring over and off this moss looking kind of neat backlit by the sun and backed with the blue sky, so I spent some time "working" the scene trying to come up with a good combination of f-stop and shutter speed to make both the moss and water look good. The moss itself was being tossed around by the moving water, so I had to stick with a fast shutter speed. Normally I would want a very slow speed to blur the water. Turns out when looking at the images later in the evening (with Amber sitting on my lap - she is my WORST - or best - critic!), my/our favorite shot was one with a fast shutter speed that stopped the rushing water. Live and learn. That is also why I spend a lot of time and effort to take different photos of the same scene. With film, I probably would have shot 100 or more images of this scene - with digital, I only shot about 25 or 30 - the difference is that with digital I KNOW I have an accurate exposure, but with film in odd lighting situations like this one you really have to experiment or "bracket" you exposures a lot to make sure you got it correctly. With digital you just look at your digital exposure meter (aka the histogram) and know you got it pegged.
There was also some neat stuff going on at the very base of this falls, so I shot some images of it as well. The base of waterfalls has always fascinated me, yet even though I have photographed perhaps hundreds of them in the past 30 years I have never been completely satisfied with any images. I expect I will be pointing my camera at many more in the years to come.
I left Haley Falls and headed on down the very steep terrain below the falls until I came to the Lower Fork of Whitaker Creek. One of my main goals besides looking at the yellow trout lilies, was to hike on up the main branch of Whitaker Creek and then climb up onto the big bluff and visit what is always the first serviceberry tree (aka "sarvis" aka "popcorn tree") in the area to bloom - it is a GIANT one that we can easily see from the cabin, even though it is about a mile away. When I reached the Lower Fork I had planned just to follow it on down to Whitaker Creek, which is where the trout lilies should be. However, when I got to this smaller creek I became mesmerized by all that was going on there with sunshine and shadows and rushing water and bright green moss. So I spent the next couple of hours exploring the photographic possibilities, and trying as best I could to make some headway on down towards Whitaker Creek without killing myself - the going down there is pretty tough!
I don't normally shoot when the sun is shining, especially in the deep woods, but one thing I was fascinated by and kept pointing my camera at today was the shadows of trees and branches. Many times I stopped and set up a shot only to find out that those darn shadows MOVE with time. And sometimes even a few minutes of movement would change the composition of a scene completely. Oh well, I did have a blast shooting them, and all the photos were FREE! When I finally arrived at Whitaker Creek I was not disappointed - there was an entire hillside COVERED with yellow trout lilies! Of course, not all of them were in bloom, in fact probably only about ten percent were in bloom, but it was quite an amazing sight just the same - thousands and thousands of plants up and down the hillside and along the banks of the creek. There were places where the ground was literally solid trout lily leaves. And other spots with other wildflowers and various plants mixed in. But mostly trout lilies. So I was in heaven for sure. The only problem was that the wind was blowing pretty hard, and those bright yellow jewels shining in the afternoon sunshine were dancing around like crazy - I need flowers to be perfectly still before I can take photos of them. And another problem I had was that there were TOO MANY flowers - where to start! I dropped my camera pack and tripod and spent some time just wandering around this hillside of flowers - sometimes down on my hands and knees, trying to be so careful not to step on any of them. With all of the thousands of wildflowers growing together up on the hillside, the one image that I finally settled on to shoot was a pair of flowers growing right down next to the stream - they were so close in fact that from time to time the wind blew spray from a nearby small waterfall right onto the flowers! I love water droplets on wildflowers. So I decided that is where I would make my stand, and I set up my camera gear to make a portrait of these two little cuties. One thing you have to do most of the time when shooting wildflowers in sunshine is create a shadow on the background so that the flower stands out more - if you just get down and shoot away the flower will simply get lost in the bright values of the forest floor (hint, hint). I always carry an umbrella anyway - even on sunny days - but also a black cloth that I use for various reasons. Today I had the umbrella set up on the ground to cast a shadow on the ground behind these flowers, and also had the black cloth over the umbrella to create a darker background, plus had the cloth poked out a little bit to cover up a very bright leaf the umbrella did not cover up. The legs of the tripod were spread out nearly flat - I needed a really low angle for this shot. And since the sun was coming in and hitting the front of the macro lens, I had to set up a special shade to block the sun. The entire setup took me about ten minutes to get in place, and it all looked sort of strange, but that is what you do in order to get the best macro shots of a wildflower. OK, I was all set. Now if the WIND would just QUIT! I spent about 30 minutes down on the ground once I got this shot all set up, waiting for the wind and shooting several different compositions of this lovely flower pair. Most of that time was spent quietly waiting, which gave me a chance to simply soak up the surroundings. It was a very nice little spot, and I can see why all these wildflowers decided to set up housekeeping. I finally got a series of shots that looked good, then spent some time taking photos of the creek. By then it was time to head back to the cabin - I never did go any farther upstream, nor climb up to the top of the bluff to visit the sarvis tree. Oh well, the best laid plans of mice and men...
On my way back up the steep slope I noticed the incredible RED color of the sandstone bluffs above, shining through the trees in the late afternoon sunshine. I have always admired this rock face, but since the trees grow up so close to the base of the bluff, there is really no way to get a clear shot of the rock. Today was no exception - just one of those scenes you can only "photograph" with your own two eyes and then move on. Humans have the ability to see through the trees and capture the feeling of a scene like this where a camera simply cannot. But as always I went on up to the base of the bluff and looked around for a shot anyway, knowing there was none. It was a very warm afternoon and after the steep climb out from below I was hot and sweaty. I found a large drip coming down from above and just stood under it, with the cold water splattering off of my bare head - felt REALLY good! While I was standing there being refreshed, I happened to look down at my feet and noticed a cobblestone of small rocks along the drip line of the bluff, and at one point where the rocks merged with a carpet of bright green moss. Hum, time to dig out the camera once again! Funny how sometimes something will be just wonderful, and then the next minute the EXACT same thing will be quite painful. Such was the case with the drips from the top of the bluff. Once I got the camera gear all set up to shoot the cobblestone and moss, as I bent over to take the photo those very same drips that had been so refreshing began to drill frozen holes into my back - OUCH, they hurt! Sometimes all this nature photo stuff is quite painful, but I do it all for you.
I climbed up through the bluffline and began to make my way along the top of the bluff, and son of a gun, there was a beautiful sarvis tree in full bloom and glowing in the afternoon sunshine. I stopped and set up and shot a series of images. I love these "popcorn" trees - they often seem to live right at the very edge of the top of the bluff, where the view is best! Later on, back at the cabin, Amber helped me pick out the selection of images from the day to post here. We both hope that you have enjoyed them!
03/31/05 I took a little time off this afternoon to get out and shoot a few more wildflower photos. The sun was out and the wind was blowing pretty good. I have learned to deal with the sun when shooting macro shots - in fact I sometimes prefer sunshine for them. But the wind is something I really can't do much about, other than to wait. I spent a lot of time today sitting on the ground, or on my belly, with my hand on the cable release and the mirror in the camera locked up, just waiting. Waiting for even a SECOND of stillness that often didn't come for several minutes at a time. Then when it did finally arrive, I fired off frame after frame after frame - or sometimes just a single frame before the breezes returned again. At times that is very frustrating, but it is just part of the job. Here are a few shots from today, the last day of a very wonderful wildflower month of March...
HAPPY MARCH TO YOU, AND THANKS A BUNDLE FOR SHARING IT WITH ME - see ya next month! | ||
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