CLOUDLAND CABIN JOURNAL - OCTOBER 2004 Click here to go to Part A, 10/1 - 10/20 All photos in this Journal are available as Fine Art Prints
Cloudland Deck Cam 10/30/04 6:40am, predawn SLIDE PROGRAMS SCHEDULE POSTED HERE | ||
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UPDATED 10/31/04 10/21/04 Early in the morning today, and it is cool and very froggy outside. I don't know where all this fog is coming from, but I sure do love it. The forest is moist this morning, and the color will be rich and wonderful when it gets light. We took a drive yesterday over to the Jasper area (while bombing the cabin) and the color along the highway between Jasper and Ponca were quite breathtaking - especially all the underbrush and smaller trees like sassafras and dogwood. The colors were melt-in-your-mouth variety, and also the kind that is difficult to photograph.
After inspecting a potential site or two for color, we stopped and had an early lunch/late breakfast at the newest restaurant in town - the Boardwalk Cafe. It is the reincarnation of the old Dairy Diner that burnt a while back. The Diner had grown weary in several ways and it was time for a change anyway. This new place is really nice, smoke-free, and completely different from the old Diner. They are only open for breakfast and lunch, but we hope one of these days will expand into dinner as well. On the way back home we took a slight detour down into the Steele Creek area along the Buffalo River. The tops of all the ridges were still engulfed in fog, but below a certain level it was clear. As we rounded the bend and the full height and width of the incredible Roark Bluff came into full view, we stopped the truck and got out to admire this magnificent chunk of rock. As luck would have it the towering trees on our side of the river at the base of the bluff were quite colorful, so I got out the camera and took a few photos. I have always wanted to do a panoramic image of this scene - the bluff is REALLY long and impossible to get it into a single photo from the straight-on view - and it looked like this was my opportunity. I set up the camera and tripod and fired off seven carefully-aligned shots, side by side. When you do this sort of thing you will get the very best results if you camera and tripod are perfectly level, and if you overlap the images by as much as 50%. When we got home later I "stitched" the photos together and the result is a "small" photo that is 45" wide - there is a reduced copy of it here (you will have to scroll to see the entire photo, and if you are reading this months later, the photo may no longer be available). I am going to revisit the files and produce an even larger photo - one that will actually be eight feet long (the maximum width that the current software can produce). Next we parked at the end of the road and headed out to take a few photos - Pam went down to the river to see if she could find some reflections, and I headed up the Buffalo River Trail towards Ponca. I knew there was a nice overlook at the top of a bluff called Bee Bluff up there, and I wanted to see what sort of photo I could get today. When I got up on top of the bluff I found a very nice view indeed, and spent the next 30 minutes taking photos. As it turns out though, the scene would have looked a lot better if the sun had been shining. While I was up there I could look down and see some folks out for a ride on their horses, and they were getting ready to cross the river. Pam and I both had radios, so I called down to her to run upstream to where she could get a view of this crossing and to get her camera set up and ready when the horses crossed. From my perch I could see her way down there on the gravel bar. It was kind of fun watching all of this unfold, and letting her know when the horses would be arriving. She found a really neat spot to photograph the horses and got a great shot of them. (My bride has been shooting a lot of photos lately, and she is getting pretty good at working in the digital darkroom - these are just guide prints for her to paint from, but some of them are really good - a little competition never hurts!)
I later joined Pam down on the river and we spent some time wandering around and looking for more photos. It was a glorious day outside, with the color and the weather and the river and the bluffs and my best buddy in the entire world right next to me.
Just about the time we arrived back at the cabin the sun had finally burned through all of the fog. I scrambled to plow through a pile of chores that had to be done, then rushed out the door and headed back to Steele Creek - there were three photographs that I wanted to take with the afternoon sun shining, and this might be my last opportunity to do it while the colors were still good. When I drove towards Steele Creek I planned out my strategy of how I was going to photograph all three scenes with a limited amount of time. I had it all figured out, but when I arrived I realized I was about an hour too late! One of my main scenes would not work at all - the sun had already moved too far and part of the trees that I wanted backlit were in shadow. OK, plan B - I still had two scenes to shoot, but which one to do first. I decided to climb back up on top of Bee Bluff and see what it looked like, but I knew the sun was dropping quickly and my time was short - I strapped on the heavy camera pack and rushed into the woods. It is at times like these that you realize you are both getting old and are hopelessly out of shape! When I arrived on top I found the light and color that I had been hoping for, and quickly set up and shot a series of photos while perched at the very edge of death. OK, one in the bag, let's get onto the next stop.
My next scene was from the top of Roark Bluff, a location I had photographed many times before. I drove to the other end of the recreation area, knowing full well that part of my intended scene was already falling into shadow as the sun continued to drop like a rock. As I was splashing across the river towards the hill that I needed to climb, I looked over and realized there was a great shot from that very spot, so I stopped and set up the tripod right there in the middle of the river and fired away, all the while the shadows were moving rapidly. OK, got another one in the bag, and extra one at that!
I headed up the REALLY steep hill that had no trail at all, fighting my way through thick brush and green brier vines. Once I got on top I made my way on over to the edge of the bluff, then crawled out onto the very end of this narrow fin of rock and juts out to the perfect vantage point. The light was moving fast, but I had to be extremely careful as I inched along - one slip and the value of all those prints of mine hanging on walls around the country would instantly become much more valuable - if you know what I mean. I have been to few places in my life and photo career that are at once both as spectacular and as dangerous as this location. I held my breath and tried not to look down and inched along. Finally I reached the far end of the fin, then set up the tripod legs and mounted the camera onto the top of the tripod. The scene before me was changing by the second, so I had to hurry, yet still be 100% sure of myself while holding on for dear life. Turned out the shot was not what I had hoped for, but I got some nice images anyway, and a good dose of adrenalin to boot. My trip back down the mountain was much more relaxed, although I slipped several times while crossing the river and nearly dunked my camera gear!
When I got back to the cabin we all went into overdrive - I had lost most of a day of printing time that I really needed, so I got the printer fired back up again and jumped back into that chore. But at the same time we had to process a rather large book order - 125 copies of Arkansas Spring that had to be autographed. So while I worked at the computer, Pam unpacked and spread out books across the counter top and as I sent prints to the printer I would autograph all of them, then back to the computer to work on the next print. This went on well into the night until all of the books were autographed. These will be very special books - each one given to the VIPs that will attend the opening of the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock next month. As we were signing them we wondered who would get that copy of the book - if you watch any of that, or even attend, make note of the VIPs that are there and know that they will take home one of these books that were autographed in the middle of a hectic day here at Cloudland! Daylight is beginning to creep into the landscape this morning. It is still quite froggy, and the wind has started to blow. I had planned to make yet another quick trip down to Steele Creek to photograph one scene that we found yesterday that requires early sunshine, but I won't be doing that now since it appears there will be no early sunshine today! No matter - we've still got a ton of work that I need to be doing here anyway. Thank goodness for Starbucks Mocha! And, of course, since I just complained about the union dock workers yesterday, we got word that our shipment of books and calendars HAS been unloaded off the ship, has cleared customs, and is heading our way - YIPPIE! It will probably arrive early next week, so all of you who have pre-ordered calendars or books know that they will be shipping in just a few more days. And for those of you who have not ordered yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!!! It will take us at least four trips into town with our big trailer to haul all 12,000 pounds of this shipment back here, and we will have to handle each box twice - I'll get to move 12 tons of books next week! (we really need a fork lift, but just can't justify it to use only a few times a year) 10/22/04 We've been up in the clouds for a couple of days now - never saw past Mom's meadow all day yesterday or today. There was a heavy mist in the air, and froggy all over the place, all day long, and all night long too. It finally broke late today just about dark - I was able to look out and see the canyon below, and Beagle Point beyond. It has not been foggy elsewhere lower than us, but the fog layer has just been sitting on a 2,000 foot floor for these couple of days. No real rain to come out of it, but lots of nice, moist air. Yesterday I remained in the cabin all day long, running up to the office several times as my only escape. We were able to get all of the autographed Arkansas Spring picture books packed up and ready for UPS pickup for delivery to the folks in Little Rock who will be putting them in gift baskets for all of the VIPs going to the Clinton Library grand opening. It was great to get that order (we gave them a heck of a deal on them), but it took a large chunk out of our short days here. Late last night, after I had gone to bed, we wondered if UPS had indeed picked up all the boxes - he had not arrived yet by dark. The boxes were under cover, but if left out all night in this thick fog would have soaked up some of it. So I put on my slippers and bathrobe and headed out the door into the dark and foggy night. I took along a flashlight but it turns out I never used it - there must be a nice, bright moon up there way above the fog, and JUST enough of the faint light got through that I was able to see my way through the woods. Actually it was sort of creepy walking out there in this stuff, no really able to see more than a few feet in front of me (it is about a quarter mile hike up to the office through the forest, each way). There was almost no sound, even of my feet - the wet leaves covered up everything. I was up and at it early again today, and got to the END of the printing for the exhibit prints about mid-morning. I ended up printing about 75-80 prints, and will frame about 40 of them - only 30-35 will make it up on the wall, but I wanted to be prepared, and only select the very best framed images for this exhibit. By the way, I don't know if I can attach it here or not, but this is the post card mailed out by the university today. Once we make the final selection I will post a gallery here (sometime next week).
Once the final print came out of the printer and was safely tucked away in its curing bin, I loaded up my camera gear and headed out to see if I could find something to take pictures of. I ended up back down at Steele Creek, way below all of the fog. I decided to hike upstream from the far end of the campground, along the base of the tall bluffs I had been on this week. There was absolutely no wind at all down in this valley, and the reflections on the water were really nice. I half hiked-half sloshed through the water until I found a nice spot out on a gravel bar that had a view of the towering bluff with many great sweetgum trees blazing away at their feet - all of that reflected in the water. Then much to my surprise when I pulled out my camera gear all of my lenses were FOGGED up! I know that if you leave your gear inside all night and then take it outside sometimes this will happen, but I left my gear out in the truck all night just in case. Very strange. I guess the temp was so much warmer and wetter than it had been inside the case, or something. At any rate, it would be more than an hour before I could take any photos, and as it turns out, I gave up on that one shot and headed back downstream again before I was able to take any photos. I spent another hour or so wandering around along the river, admiring the reflections and taking a few photos. It was so quiet and STILL down there! Pam sat there the other day and waited for the wind to die down for more than an hour and never got the photo that she wanted. Today it was just perfect, and she was in town running errands for her husband! Sorry babe.
Tonight we are getting the cabin ready once again for another photo workshop that will be here tomorrow. No post again until Sunday night or even Monday night - I'm covered up each day for as long as I am awake. I did not post a photo this morning because the scene was exactly the same as it had been the past two mornings - thick fog and no view! If you get the chance to get out and drive/hike around in the upper Buffalo River area this weekend I bet you have a terrific time. I don't know what the color is doing in the rest of the Ozarks, but it is about the best it is going to get around here now and for the next few days. I hope you get out and enjoy! (should have some grand color in many places next weekend too) Here is a link to some great elk photos that have been taken in Boxley Valley lately by photog Larry Roberts 10/25/04 Very strange weather this morning. I was soaking in the hot tub around 4am (way too much on my mind and I could not sleep). The nearly-full moon was low in the western sky, a few stars were shining above - peeking out through billowing clouds, and in the southwest, lightning - sending flashes all across the landscape. Before long it began to rain, and got a very nice little shower that lasted about an hour. The sun is up and burning through the clouds now, but it remains dim outside. Speaking of the moon, there is going to be a lunar eclipse later this week that you should take the time to view if you have clear skies - on Wednesday, October 27th. It will begin around 8:15pm, and continue through almost midnight, with the moon in the earth's shadow from about 9:30pm to 10:45pm. When this happens the moon often turns a bright orange color - should be something to see! Speaking of something to see, here are a few photos from the weekend of activities in front of my camera:
And here are a couple of infrared photos - the first one is of Tea Table Rocks and the second one from Bee Bluff (you should see these full-size on the big screen!):
One funny note from the weekend. We were down along the Buffalo River in Boxley Valley taking pictures of the river and reflections, then hiked across one of the big fields to get back to our truck. This was around 4pm, probably at least an hour before any of the elk appear in these same fields. When we emerged from the tall river cane to start across the field we could see at least a dozen cars parked along the highway at this one field, plus another dozen or more parked at the next field up. No elk in sight mind you. I guess everyone was just getting ready for the elk show that happens just before dark. Anyway, I'm sure we were being glared at the entire time as we hiked across the field. When we reached the fence line and climbed over the gate, I made a comment to the folks parked nearby - "OK, we've got them all untied and turned loose now and you should be seeing them soon." I don't think they were amused! We had a pretty good storm roll through the Buffalo River area on Friday night - got some nice rain but also a great deal of wind. By daylight it was clear a lot of the great color we've had this past week had been blown away in the wind, especially the sweet gum leaves - these have been the star of the show so far this year. While driving around on Saturday and Sunday it was tough to find much of that great color, although there is still plenty of green out there so we may get more colors yet. Saturday morning also brought us the first view since last winter of the big bluffline across the way at Beagle Point - so many leaves had been blown off that the bluff was beginning to show through. As the trees become more and more bare over there we'll see more and more of the bluff, and it will be our constant companion all winter and into early spring when it once again will go into hiding as the new leaves begin to grow.
(By the way, Glenn Wheeler is working on an actual guidebook to the Buffalo River and we hope to have it available next spring - you'll want to pack this one with you as you float the river, and you'll will be able to use the included maps and Glenn's text to find some wonderful places to camp, fish, hike, and enjoy the river.) We are expecting our 2005 calendar and Illinois Wildflower books to arrive in the next day or two, so you can go ahead and place your order for those as well. 10/28/04 It's about 4:30am right now and VERY noisy and bright outside - we're in the middle of a booming thunderstorm, and the cabin is lit up every few seconds with lightning flashes and shaking from the thunder. Some pretty good, hard rain is coming down too. It has been a rainy last day or two, and very, very hectic at Cloudland. Yesterday morning I was up at 3:30am unloading books - pulled about 8,000 pounds of them off of our trailers and stacked them onto pallets in the warehouse. While the work was tedious, I rather enjoyed being out in the night and working hard. The full moon was slowly dropping out of the clouds and setting out there past the trees. Aspen got tired of watching me take the same path from trailer to warehouse over and over again, and left me to return to the soft confines of the cabin. By the time the girls were up and headed out to school I had completed my job and hiked silently through the moonlit wilderness back home. On the other end of the book delivery Roy and Pam's dad Ron helped me load all of the books onto the trailers in Fayetteville, then Ron and I drove on into the early night with our heavy loads. I had already picked up about a half ton of books and calendars early in the day, and still have to make one more trip into town today for the last load. AND the author himself, Don Kurz, was at Cloudland yesterday to help unload one truckload of books. While he was here we made him sit down and autograph about 300 copies of his new ILLINOIS WILDFLOWERS guidebook (which, by the way, is a stunning book of wildflower photos combined with his expert knowledge - perhaps the best wildflower guidebook ever produced for any region of the country). Besides the many trips into town to pick up the books and calendars we've been manufacturing all of the framed prints that will hang in the John Brown University photo exhibit beginning next week. It has been a monumental task to get it all done, and has taken a crew of four a good long while, but we are now ALMOST finished with the bulk of the framing work! Pam has been paramount in the efforts, and has been directing the show while I worked on other chores. Her mom and dad have been invaluable and spent a great deal more time than any relative should ever have to do when paying a friendly visit! The bottom line is that I think it will be well worth your time and effort to travel to Siloam Springs to view this collection of mostly brand new prints that have been taking during the past couple of years (also includes a few old favorites). And YES, the reception on November 4th and the exhibit is open to the public and free of charge. I will post directions to the Art building at JBU in the next day or two. The new slide program will be shown at 7pm, but we'll be around from 6:30 to 8:30pm talking with folks about the prints, selling prints (both framed and otherwise), and will have a special sale on all our books, plus the new 2005 ARKANSAS WILD & FREE: BUFFALO RIVER COUNTRY wall calendar. Hope to see ya there! I still have a great deal of work to do putting the finishing touches on the prints before I deliver them on Monday, including writing a short paragraph about each image that will be displayed next to them. Goodness it is POURING down outside right now! The only hikes I've been on this week have been to and from the office, although it is not a bad hike at all. The forest has been wet and quiet - an elephant could cross the scene and you would never have heard him. I know these things because I often walk like an elephant in the woods, at least it sometimes sounds like it. But not this week - the leaves that have been piling up on the forest floor and the earth underneath have been very soft and silent. You feel like an Indian creeping through the woods, able to stalk your prey and walk right up on a wild bear, or even a springer spaniel, all the while being pelted with falling leaves. Speaking of those leaves, they have been falling a lot this week, which has made for some magical experiences while outside walking around, or even while driving the backroads - a shower of leaves all around is such a treat! The other day I was standing on top of a large smooth boulder out in the middle of the river setting up for a neat reflection shot of the fall colors. The wind was blowing so I wasn't having much luck with the reflections, but the scene was pretty nice just the same. All of a sudden a nearby tree decided to let go of it precious cargo and the air was filled with tiny yellow leaves gently floating to the ground. As I looked around I could see other trees letting go as well. Red and orange and yellow in motion as far as I could see. It was LEAF FALL going on, and I got to be right in the middle of it! No way I could photograph the motion and FEEL of it all, so the only thing I could do was to simply stand there and take it all in - and try not to fall in the river in the process. I was all alone out there in the wilderness for a private show as spectacular as you'd see anywhere. Sometimes my job doesn't really seem like one. And then I'll be up and working my little fanny off at 3 in the morning and it does again! Today is a week for birthdays - Pam's was on Tuesday, Bob Chester's is tomorrow, and my mom's was tomorrow as well. All great and wonderful people I have been privileged to know. I will continue to try to live up to their great standards of life. The heavy rains continue this morning. I suspect much of the color we did have left here in the upper Buffalo River area will get washed away with it all today, but there was also much green left the last time I was out this past weekend, so if you are headed this direction this weekend, I would say come on - the color won't be at peak, but your experience will be no doubt! I suspect there will be many great places for color in the Ozarks this next few days. And from the sound of things, there will be some nice waterfalls running today and perhaps even tomorrow as well - and on into the weekend for some of them in the lower drainages, all of that depending on how much of this glorious rain any particular area gets. I'll continue to do my rain dance, especially now that most of the books and calendars are safely tucked away in the warehouse. By the way, one last note before I put this to bed and get out of my night clothes and get to work - ALL of the images here in the Journal of late are available as Fine Art Prints - just visit the online store to place your order, and let me know exactly which image you want - you can either click on the photo in the Journal and find the file name, or just describe what it is and what date it appears in the Journal. Some of the recent images will be on the wall at the JBU exhibit too! I am, after all, a starving artist and welcome all business... 10/31/04 The day and month are almost over, but I needed to squeeze one last post in before the end of October. Today has been one freaky, weird, strange, and long day. All day long the power at the cabin has been surging and sagging, with the lights nearly blowing with intense power surges, and extreme dips in the power that have not only knocked off many of our household appliances, but also drained the big backup batteries that power the computers in the event of a power outage. The power never went completely off, but was low enough at times that our computers would simply not even turn on. Very strange. To start the day off I slept in until nearly 8am - totally exhausted from a very long week and not much sleep. When I did get up it was raining and blowing thick fog, and that continued all day long. The computer kept messing up, and the printer, and we messed up a bunch of our very expensive frames for the upcoming exhibit. Then we couldn't get the title cards that will hang with each print to work out. Kind of spooky all of it, like it was Halloween or something. I am happy to report that finally everything came together, and at this late hour the frames are all fixed, the title cards written, printed, mounted on foam board, and cut to the proper size. And the power hasn't surged in several hours. Hum, now what was that noise outside? October lived up to its billing as one of the very best months of the year at Cloudland. We had a ton of wonderful rain, some great fall color, and yesterday alone we must have had more than 100 people come by the cabin for a visit (I really didn't see too many of them because I was down in the dark classroom all day with photo workshop students, but Pam took care of everyone). Friday night I went into Fayetteville to give a slide program to some of Robert Chester's relatives - there were 56 cousins crammed into a conference room at the Days Inn - he is one popular guy (and we heard he had more than 200 folks for his birthday party at his cabin on Saturday). This is the first fall that I have really gone out and photographed heavily in a good long while, and even though I didn't leave the immediate area much, I still got some of the best fall photos I've ever taken (prints of some will be in the JBU show). But wait - there is still MUCH more fall color down in other parts of the state for me to photograph, and I plan to do just that in the next week or two - I'll find the time somehow. The trails and back roads are covered with freshly-fallen leaves, and with all of the rain we've had, those leaves are quite soft and quiet under foot. There are still leaves coming down from up above, and a hike into the forest - even a short one just up to the office - is a magical experience indeed. The dogs are all stirred up by something outside - the hair on Lucy's back is standing straight up, and aspen is growling an odd growl. The moon isn't up yet, but I think I'll go out for a short hike just to see what is going on, and to end the month out in the forest. I hope you've had a wonderful fall so far, and thanks a ton for reading my ramblings on here! Back to top | ||
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