CLOUDLAND CABIN JOURNAL - OCTOBER 2004 Click here to go to Part B, beginning 10/21 All photos in this Journal are available as Fine Art Prints
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UPDATED 10/20/04 a quick update 10/1/04 An hour after I zeroed the counter for this site this morning I checked in and found there had already been 67 visits to this page - guess I had better put something down for you to read today! The final count for the number of hits to this web site in September was 26,015... It is dark and dreary and rather nippy outside this morning, and for once since August if actually FEELS like fall is in the air. Supposed to get some rain, and we sure do need it. We've already had a good bit of "leaf fall" - mostly from trees heading into dormancy and dropping their brown leaves. Hiking down the trail or along a road the leaves cover the ground, and you get to do some swooshing as you walk. And it smells like fall - has all week long - all of those dead leaves on the forest floor smell so good! Early this morning my bride got back to the cabin after taking Amber to the first bus, and she came in and wondered if I had captured any of the color - "WHAT COLOR?" It was still mostly pitch black outside but the early pre-dawn light in the east must have been pretty nice - it had mostly faded by the time she alerted me to it - I had been working on the computer for nearly and hour and had not bothered to look up. Silly me.
The entire time I was out this morning both dogs were going nuts - growling and snarling with the hair standing up on the back of their backs. It was the same way yesterday evening - they charged out into the forest upset with something. I went out with them but they never could point me to anything. Whatever the critter it was still in the immediate area this morning, or just had been. I suspect it was a bear prowling around.
I've spent most of the past several days working on the new slide program which I'm going to call ARKANSAS WILD AND FREE. Actually I've been running tests on three different software programs trying to figure out which one to use. One of them is just perfect and will not only do everything that I could ever hope for, but also many other neat things as well - BUT it will not output the images in high resolution. I was trying to see if the motion in the slides it can produce would make up for the low resolution, but the jury is still out on that one for now. One of the other programs that just was introduced will allow me to make a slide program just like the old days, with fades and dissolves, AND keep the images in high resolution. But it is very limited beyond that. The third program can do more and keep everything in high resolution, but it does a terrible job with one key element. The REAL program that I bought last month (the owner's manuals weight more than 20 pounds!) to do all of this remains in the box - I have not felt qualified enough to mess with it for now, but it will no doubt be the program of the future once I can wade through all those manuals and figure it all out. So for now it looks like I'll have a great slide program - once I settle on the software and spend about a week putting the real version of the show together. I am able to use any of the photos I've shot with the different cameras, and this new show will include probably 100 or more new images that have never been seen before (other than here in the Journal). FALL COLOR UPDATE. We have not got any real stunning color here just yet, and even though we might not have a real blazing fall, what we will get might be from "top to bottom" at the same time - meaning that the entire "scene" may change color all at once instead of just the top of the hill or bottom of the valley turning with everything else being green. It just LOOKS like that is the way it is going to happen here at Cloudland - not sure about other places. The overall scene here is leaning towards the yellow-green side, with reds and oranges beginning to creep it. So it IS primed and ready for a terrific fall color display, but no telling just yet - that will depend on any rain we get. Stay tuned and I'll keep you posted. 10/4/04 Still a few minutes before sunrise as I write this, and it is my FAVORITE day of the week - Monday! I love Mondays - give me an entire week to get things done, although I am already starting out way behind with things I should have done last week still left to do. No problem. The beat goes on. We have had a great deal of color so far this morning - the eastern sky began to glow about an hour ago, then the reds, oranges and yellows spread across nearly the entire sky, thanks to a few streaks of clouds up above that were lit up by the rising sun. There is one lonely cloud down in the canyon - I can just now see it, hanging there above the almost-dry river bed, clinging to the side of the side of the canyon. I will keep my eye on it and see what happens - I expect as soon as the sun begins to hit the canyon wall the little cloud will lift up and expand, then catch a breeze and be off to parts unknown. There also seems to be somewhat of a layer of fog/clouds near the top of the canyon - very thin and transparent. I did not notice it until I was processing the deck cam from a little while ago - now I can see it clearly out the window - almost like the ghost of a real cloud bank that was there a week ago. We got about a half inch of HARD rain the other night, which beat down the dusty road, but didn't actually contribute to the water levels any. No matter - we'll take all the moisture we can get. We spent most of the day Saturday out on the Ozark Highlands Trail working - putting up new aluminum blazes on the stretch of trail from Hwy. 23 to the Hare Mountain Trailhead. Roy Senyard was out with four maintenance crews covering the same area, and Pam, Amber and I were putting up the blazes. There are some really neat things to see along this stretch of the OHT - the top of Hare Mtn. of course - but also some very nice stands of big trees. When you are putting up blazes you get to know the trees in a way you just don't if only hiking along. You get to handle them, prep them for the blaze, and then see how hard the wood is as you pound two aluminum nails into the blaze. Some trees are quite soft and take the nails easily, while others are HARD as a rock - you tend to bend a lot of nails on those trees! Soon you learn which trees are soft and which are hard - and I'm not talking about just "hardwoods" vs. "softwoods" - some of the hardwood trees are soft and some are hard. Unfortunately much of this section of the trail has been hit with the red oak borer and most of the red oaks are dead, or on their last legs. There were times when no sizable trees other than dead red oaks were around to put blazes on - it is best to pick larger trees for the blazes, but no use putting a blaze on a dead tree that is going to fall down soon! So we had to place blazes on many smaller trees. I had an eight-mile stretch of trail to blaze (four mile out and four miles back - you can only blaze while going in one direction), and not much time to do it in, so I had to hike at a pretty good clip. It was great to get out on mostly level ground and really stretch my legs out. The only problem was the just as soon as I got up to speed and going pretty good, I would have to stop and nail up a blaze! There is this one section of the trail that I hardly ever hike that goes through a dense forest of tall trees. I had always loved hiking through this section but hadn't realized until this day exactly what the trees were, even though I had painted blazed through this stretch before. It was really dark and grown up along this stretch, and the trail was little more than a tunnel through the thick forest. As I looked for the best trees to blaze I tried to see what species they were (easy or hard nailing). And what I discovered - much to my surprise and delight - that in this one special section of the trail the big trees were actually SASSAFRAS trees, and I mean some giants! And entire city of giant sassafras trees, and the trail winds right on through the base of them. Really nice, very nice. Switching lanes for just a moment, I am sitting here all bundled up while typing away - it is CHILLY inside the cabin this morning. Yesterday I switched on our new Lennox heater - it is an all automatic system that will keep the temp at an exact degree - which in our case has been 75 degrees all summer, but I turned it down to 72 for wintertime (and will probably tweak it down lower as it gets really cold outside). Anyway, our HEATER worked overtime all night long, and the temp INSIDE the cabin this morning was 63 degrees! So much for our new $16,000 heating system! The Lennox dealer will get a call first thing this morning - they obviously wired it wrong. Otherwise the system has worked quite well. The sun is up now, or at least it was a minute ago - I think it just ducked behind a cloud bank. It is very quiet and still outside, and a lot warmer than it has been. With nothing but blue sky above, I suspect it will get rather warm this afternoon. I'm going to put my boots on and take a quick trip down to the river before breakfast - I need to sweat a little bit. Hope you have a grand start to your week! 10/06/04 Late in the evening and I finally have a few minutes to sit down and type a bit. Been a busy couple of days, but I have been able to get out now and then and soak up some of the wilderness. Fall is sort of in suspended animation around here right now - no brilliant colors that started a couple of weeks ago, but then again not a lot of brown trees like we started to have either. The rain we had the past couple of weeks had slowed down the color change a little bit, but I really do think we are poised for some really nice color (contrary to popular opinion!). A couple of days ago I got to make a quick trip down to the river with Aspen (Lucy remained behind to guard the cabin). Very noisy walking in the woods with all the crunchy leaves - sounds like November around here! The river was low, bone dry, of course, but some of the trees along the river bank were colorful and reflecting in the pools of water that were hanging around. While there were no spider webs across the trail, I did find a couple of "orb weaver" webs with big fat, juicy orb weaver spiders in them, working hard on their webs. These are large (about the size of a dime-to-nickel for the main body), and usually quite colorful. I can tell you from first-hand experience though that they don't TASTE very good!
I left the house early this morning to make a run down through Boxley Valley just to see what was up with the colors, and the elk. The temp dropped from 51 degrees at the cabin to 39 degrees in Boxley - yikes! Once I got down into the valley I discovered that I was not alone. I passed a parked vehicle with a couple of photographers outside - with big lenses and tripods. Then another vehicle and more photographers, and there was a TV camera with this bunch. Then another TV crew. And another. Before long I could see vehicles and TV cameras stretched out on both sides of the road! And, of course, there were lots of elk running around in the fields in Boxley Valley. What the heck was going on - not just another normal Wednesday morning! One group that I passed contained a face that I recognized, so I pulled over and got out to see what was up. It was Jeff Beauchamp - one of the main gurus behind the Bedfords Camera and Video stores in Arkansas (that is where I shop for camera gear and have my large prints made - great folks). The Ark. Game & Fish was hosting a "media" event last night and this morning with the elk being the stars. Yep, that explained all the TV cameras and vehicles - looked more like a typical weekend in Boxley, or in Yosemite. I wondered around a little bit taking photos of the circus, and talking with some of the TV and other folks that I knew. Then all of a sudden a TV crew lady came running up to me and asked if I was a "local" - they wanted to interview a "local" that was there to watch the elk. As I responded "yes" several of my media friends began to snicker. So even though I really had just crawled out of bed and got behind the wheel to cruise Boxley, they slapped a mike on me and began to film - hope I didn't have any green stuff in between my teeth. I didn't actually know which TV crew was doing the filming, and it doesn't really matter anyway - we don't get too much local news out here, and we weren't here tonight to see it anyway. But if some of you did see me on TV, I apologize!
I am in full agreement with the current elk situation down in Boxley Valley, and the fact that they are becoming as much a tourist attraction during the "off-season" as anything, but my biggest problem with it all is that the national park service has not done squat to take care of the dramatic increase in traffic our tourists along the road in Boxley - they REALLY need to put in a wide shoulder and sidewalk at the very least - as it is now someone is going to get run over and killed if something is not done soon to take care of this. Unfortunately it often takes a tragic event before our government will lift a finger to do the obvious. I hope I'm wrong. Anyway, the big bull elk in Boxley are getting really active, and it is GREAT to stand there and witness the timeless ritual of the bulls chasing the cows and other smaller bulls around and making that incredible music. You have to be there really early in the morning, or late in the evening. Just watch out for the cars! I took Amber into Jasper for her last b-ball practice of the season. There is a really neat viewpoint on the Little Buffalo River literally just a few steps off of school property that I hiked down to with all of my camera gear. I wandered around a little bit and took a few photos - some fall color, but not all that much. I eventually took up a seat at the top of this neat bluff, and spent about 30 minutes looking down into the clear waters of the Little Buffalo. On one end of the pool there were not one but TWO river otters working. If you have never seen these little guys do their thing and you get a chance to you are in for a real treat. Few critters in the wild have so much FUN going about their daily chores! Back and forth, diving here and there, back up on the bank, chasing each other around - some of it was just plain fun, and you could see it on their faces. At the other end of the big pool at the base of the bluffs were quite a few fish, most of them just hanging out there in the still waters. There was a large school of shiner minnows in the shallows, a bunch of perch working the edges of the pool, and right out in the very middle sat a large smallmouth bass. He was king of this pool no doubt, and I think everyone knew it. The entire time I watched him he never moved more than a foot in any direction, although I do believe he snatched a snack or two that floated by. It was all quite peaceful and serine and made me wish I had my fly rod! It is quite noisy outside tonight - lots of "summer" bugs still around and making lots of music. Don't they know it's not summer anymore? In the middle of the day today as I was walking back down to the cabin from the office I stopped to listen to not one or two but THREE packs of coyotes howling at each other - and in the middle of the day! One was way up in the Whitaker Creek drainage, a second was right over across the canyon on Beagle Point, and the third was over on the other side of the Buffalo near Mossville. Sometimes you just have to stop and listen - their music is so wonderful! For those of you who are keeping up with all of this, just YESTERDAY, I discovered yet another slide-program-making software program, downloaded it, and began to learn how to use it. I think this is the one that I'm going to use for my fall programs. And since I have one scheduled for NEXT WEEK, I plan to get my fanny in gear here in the next few days and start working on putting together the new slide show. I am coming into the final approach in trying to get the soundtrack collected and all the equipment needed to output the music (I am having to purchase a new amplifier and a few other tools). 10/8/04, early, around 4am-ish...My mind continues to race through most of the night - just so much work to do and so many great new things to think about, and I often am only able to get a few hours sleep before being side awake. And tonight we had the added music of rain - LOTS of rain. In fact it has been POURING all night long! We've received at least four inches since dark, and it is still coming down. Can you hear me say YIPPIE loud enough!!!??? Of course, with all this lovely rain, I am predicting that the fall color will be delayed - a DRY fall is great for color and it comes quickly, but RAIN in the fall tends to mute the color, at least in the beginning, and pushes the peak color back a week or two. However, there is really no telling when or how brilliant the fall color will be - I predict it will be a great fall color season no matter what or when. I was up at 3-something yesterday as well, down working away at the computer when my bride's alarm went off at 5:30am. We seem to do pretty well, this family, getting up when it is still dark outside. Tis the very best part of the day for sure. Yesterday afternoon, after FEELING and looking like rain all day long, I had had enough, and decided that the only way I could get it to rain would be to strike off on a long hike with no rain gear. So I put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and headed out the door into the wilderness. Within 200 yards - just as I had reached the base of the big bluff below the cabin - it began to rain. And I'm not talking about a drop or two here and there - the sky opened up and it began to pour! Yippie coyote! Being the tough old grizzled mountain man that I am, instead of standing there and soaking up all the glorious rain, I opted instead to duck in under an overhand in the bluff, which is where I spent the next 15 minutes. Actually it was quite nice back under the bluff. I laid down and settled down into a foot-deep pile of dried leaves and enjoyed the show. The overall scene from back under there looking was one of early fall colors - yellows and oranges and reds and still lots of green. As the trees got wet that color intensified. The aroma of the dried leaves mingled with the strong smell of the RAIN, and it was just wonderful! The only problem I had was the fact that I actually wanted to lay back, close my eyes, and take a well-deserved nap. However, Lucy would have no part of that. Aspen was happy to run around all over the place inspecting every nook and cranny, but Lucy, she wanted to make sure I was OK. She spent every moment of my time under the bluff right next to me, licking my ears, crawling up onto my chest, and generally letting me know that nap time was over before it even began! Oh how wonderful that rain was! But all too soon it came to an end, and I crawled out from under the bluff and continued on my hike. The forest was just marvelous - seemed wide open and free and already cleansed with only the brief shower. Even though I was just wearing shorts (I have been wearing long pants for hikes through the deep forest since early summer), I was able to wander and ramble wherever I cared to through the forest and wasn't concerned about getting all scratched up. It was still quite warm (in the 70's), and while I did get rained on a little bit now and then during the rest of the hike, it was a warm rain and didn't bother me at all. Just about the time I arrived back at the cabin, the sky REALLY opened up and began what at the moment is a 12-hour steady downpour, and still coming down. (It is nearly 6am now, and my bride is up and working at the computer next to me, Amber is stirring and about ready for me to take her out into the dark and wet night to meet the bus - her last b-ball game of the season is in Jasper tonight. I don't really write that slowly, but have been doing other chores while writing this.) For those of you interested in waterfalls, I suspect that this rain will indeed get them up and running, at least this morning they will be. If the rain lets up here soon, I suspect the waterfalls will run off in a hurry. But, if the rain continues, we just might have some great waterfall viewing this weekend. It is so hard to tell, especially since other areas may not have had us much rain as we have had. Plus the landscape is so parched, most of that water will have already soaked into the cracked earth's crust, not running off at all. However, there is only so much the ground can soak up, so let's hope we have some nice runoff. It is probably a good thing that we are NOT at peak fall color right now, otherwise I would be forced to drop everything and head out and stay out shooting all day long today and tomorrow. Oops, time to load up Amber and head for the bus stop - I suspect I will add another note or two later today and will update you on the rain and waterfall situation if I can...For all of you that were doing a rain dance, WAY TO GO! AFTERNOON UPDATE, 2pm. The rains have stopped and the sun is out. I just took a quick trip out and about and you would hardly know we've had any rain at all. There is water in the puddles, but nothing running or even standing in the ditches. The Buffalo River is raging and muddy, but the level has already begun to drop from the highs of this morning. Most of the rain that fell was soaked up by the parched earth, and the rest ran off in a hurry. We ended up with (so far) about six inches of rain. That is just what the doctor ordered! Waterfalls that are up high in drainages have already shot their wad - unless we get a lot more rain they will not be running this weekend. Waterfalls down lower in the drainages - i.e. in the main river channels - will probably run today and perhaps into the weekend, but probably not all that much - this stuff is disappearing in a hurry. If we get rains all weekend, then the waterfalls would be nice, but no telling how much, if any, additional rains we will get. The colors are muted, and still mostly green in the trees, but it will still be one terrific weekend to out outdoors in the Ozarks... 10/9/04 We had a little more rain during the night - less than an inch - and it is very wet outside this morning. The Buffalo River is singing loudly this morning from down yonder, but the water level has come way down since yesterday - sometimes lower levels produce more music. The water is clear now - it was muddy most of yesterday. I suspect that unless we get a lot more rain today, waterfalls in most drainages would not be running too well, although ones lower in the drainages might be running some - very tough to say unless you are standing right there. We did not see much water running yesterday. The ground seems to be nice and saturated now, so a lot of rainfall would probably run off and produce some nice falls. Without a lot more rain, we'll have to wait until the leaves are off the trees before falls start to run well again - all that vegetation soaks up a LOT of rain! Still, waterfalls running or not, it is a great weekend to be out in the Ozarks! 10/11/04 The day is winding down this evening and the cabin is warm and cozy, outside it is cool and wet with brand new clouds that have been born all day long are out there trying out their new wings. There is a great deal of music drifting up from down below - the river is singing a delightful tune, as it has been doing now for four days. The waters of the Buffalo are once again flowing, and are clearing up after a weekend of rains that brought more than NINE inches of rain to the headwaters area. The colors have been looking pretty nice around here, and in a lot of places for that matter. Not really overall views that are terrific, but lots of individual trees and underbrush. Wet conditions will bring out every little last bit of color there is, and blend them together with whatever is out there. Saturday we all packed up and headed for the Ozark Highlands Trail for the annual OHTA Hike-In. It was misting while on our hike up, and cool, and well, it was just a wonderful hike in the early fall woods. Pam had a new pack that was packed full, and Amber's pack seemed a lot heavier than normal - she volunteered to carry all of the food! Of course, you realize what that meant - her pack was going to be EMPTY on the way back! Smart kid. She also volunteered to handle Aspen and his leash, what with his own pack can sometimes get tough to handle. She and I worked together to devise a plan, and I hooked Aspen's leach up to her pack - he acted just like a sled dog and nearly pulled her all the way up the mountain!
Once on top we had a fine get together with OHTA hikers from four or five different states - nearly 40 folks showed up. We all stood around the campfire and then feasted on a picnic table literally covered with foods of all sorts. After dinner and a business meeting, I stood around and talked with old friends that I had not seen in a coon's age, while the girls prepared out little nest in the tent. While our tent is a very expensive "expedition" tent, and cost more than $600 new these days, I have had it for 23 years, and it has seen better days. Expecting more rain, I opted to deploy a thick sheet of plastic over the top of the tent. Soon after we all snuggled down into our sleeping bags, sure enough the sky opened up and it began to rain - and it seemed to rain all night long, with plenty of wind to go along with it. I am happy to report - that for probably the very first time in my life - not a single drop of rain got into the tent! One funny note about being totally unprepared, or at least getting caught with cheap gear. When I had finished visiting with folks around the campfire and headed for the tent, I could not get my $2 flashlight to work. It was PITCH black out there, and I had a devil of a time finding my way back to the tent. I could not see my hand in front of my face - it was really dark. So I felt around with my feet and followed what I hoped was the makeshift trail that led away from the fire and out into the woods towards our tent - there were, of course, a couple dozen other tents in the area too. And once again, I am proud to announce, that even with zero visibility, and a head full of wild grape wine, I managed to find our tent on the very first try, and without running into any trees or falling down! I have been troubled this past couple of days - it has been pretty nice out in the wilderness with all the water and the color, yet I have a PILE of work to do at the computer and have been unable to get out with my cameras. By this afternoon I had had enough, and while a new slide program test was being "rendered" by my computer, I packed up and slipped out the door and headed for Dug Hollow - I wanted to see what the waterfalls were doing. Man, oh, man, it was WONDERFUL out there in the woods! It was cool and damp with just a little bit of mist coming down, and splashes of color all over the place from head to toe. I eased on down the hillside through the thick forest towards what I hoped would be some falling water, but my hopes were dashed when I passed this tiny old pond that almost always has water in it - bone dry today. What a let down. We have had about nine inches of rain since last Thursday, and you would think that SOME of it would still be here! I pressed on anyway. Low and behold even before I got within sight of the creek I could hear that beautiful music of waterfalls below me - YIPPIE! I slipped and slid and hurried on down to the water's edge - it has been so long since this drainage has seen waterfalls. The water was muddy - a little surprising after four days of rain up this high - and the level was actually higher than I had anticipated. I could see where the water had been much higher - probably last Friday right after we got 6-7 inches of rain overnight.
Since the falls were running even more than I had expected, and we do have color, I have decided to try to squeeze in part of a day of photography work tomorrow - and I will make sure to carry my polarizer with me! If I am successful, I'll let you know later... 10/14/04 It is raining here this morning, probably another 1/2 to 1 inch. The official count from the last rain was 10.3 inches. Very nice, oh so nice to have this rain in the fall! It is a wee bit chilly here today too - 45 degrees and dropping. Long shirt and jeans weather for sure. The last couple of days are somewhat of a blur, but I'll see if I can remember some of it. Two days ago we got up early, and after depositing Amber on the bus Pam and I headed out in the rain towards the Falling Water Creek area. We met up with Glenn over near Deer. The light rain turned into nothing more than a mist, then finally stopped altogether by the time we arrived at our destination. We drove around a little bit, stopping here and there to take photos. There was some nice color, but still about a week early. What we did have was plenty of water, and the water was clear. Falling Water Falls was running at about normal springtime levels, but the big sweet gum tree I had wanted to photograph with this falls was still green. We stopped at Five Finger Falls and the three of us all went different directions to shoot and draw. I waded the river to get the perspective from the other side. It was so good to see water flowing! Some good color here and there, but I had to work a little harder than normal - once again, another week on the color time would have been great, but we'll take the water! At one point I had to crawl up onto the root ball of a big tree that had been uprooted in over to get the shot I wanted - you should have seen my big tripod - I had to dig the pointed ends of the legs down into the root ball to get a steady plant, and I had to hold on for dear life to keep from falling off. But I got the photo I wanted, and somehow avoided dumping into the creek. We returned to the Falling Water Falls area and I hiked downstream a little bit to see what I could find. There is a side creek with a couple of nice waterfalls on it, but no color around them. I could see a bit of color downstream on the main creek through, but when I tried to cross it I must have picked the wrong place - the water level reached the critical mass point if you know what I mean, and my screams of panic went unnoticed with the sound of the waterfalls. But I made it to the other side safely and without getting my camera gear wet. That had to have been the SLICKEST river bottom I've ever slid across! As I made my way downstream I did find some good color and spent the next 45 minutes out in the middle of the creek shooting photos - much shallower downstream. At one point I came upon this really neat scene looking through a sweet gum tree to the flowing creek beyond, with lots of color, but I was unable to figure out a good spot to take a photo from - no tall root ball for me to crawl up on top of. Sometimes you just wish you were ten feet tall. After about ten minutes of messing with that photo I just gave up. However, in my search for a better viewpoint I realized there was a really neat overhang right next door, and so I ended up getting a good photo after all of a different scene. Life is like that sometimes - to quote John Lennon " life is what happens when your busy making other plans..." AND once I got that last photo taken, I discovered a way back to the car without having to cross the creek again! We had to make a run back home to meet Amber's bus - it was great to get out and do some shooting. I never did get a shot of the main waterfall that we drove all the way over there to shoot, but we'll be back next week for another try. Here are a couple of shots from the day (note that these are from a high-resolution camera and they don't reduce to the low-resolution for the web very well so may not look too good):
As soon as we arrived back home Milancy McNamara came by with Billy's newest painting, and we spent the next 30 minutes photographing it for their web page. We always get to see Billy's paintings before anyone else does, then Milancy takes them into town to get framing. This painting is of a waterfall located on the same guy's property that just purchased War Eagle Mill (he also owns the Basin Park Hotel and Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs - a very nice guy). As soon as Milancy left I sat down at the computer to begin the process of actually creating my very first ever digital slide program. I got into one of those work modes - out of necessity - and did not get up from the computer until about 3:30 the next morning. During that time I went through just about every single digital photo I have taken in the past two years - some 12,000 of them - selected and processed and sized about 100 of them, then placed them into order in the slide show creation software, then selected and added four pieces of music, then set up all the dissolves and pans and zooms and fades of the pictures to the music, then created and placed titles for the show. I love this computer stuff - that would have taken me a very long time to do in the old film days. Once I finally got the program just the way I wanted it, I began the process of "rendering" the file. This would take about six hours for the computer to do on a file this size. You see, with this sort of slide program software it creates 30 frames a second for the entire length of the show, and the program was about 17 minutes long, so about 30,600 individual frames were created from my original 100 photos. The file size of the completed and compressed program is 4.5 gigabytes! I was obviously exhausted at 3:30 when I sent the file to be rendered, but I didn't get much sleep because I kept running back downstairs to see how it was doing - worrying all the time that something would go wrong, and I did not have the time to start the rendering process all over again because I had to leave the house at 10am in order to get to where I was supposed to give the program at later in the day - the computer got finished with it at 9:30, so I was cutting it pretty close! I arrived at Petit Jean a little early and had the chance to make a quick hike on the Cedar Creek Trail. There wasn't really any fall color, but the creeks were running nicely from all the recent rains. It was a gorgeous afternoon with bright sunshine and cool breezes, although I did get a bit warm climbing up out of the canyon. My program was to a group of seniors who gather on the mountain each year at this time. The park staff puts on a number of different and interesting programs during the week, my new slide show being one of them. We ended up with 49 folks packed into this old pavilion next to the lake. One thing about digital computer slide programs - they almost NEVER work correctly! Something always goes wrong with the equipment, the operator, or both. And so I was most apprehensive about mine working, especially since this was my very first attempt at it, and also since I did much of the work in the middle of the night! Also, since I was so late getting it completed, I really hadn't ever seen the program before! So I held my breath and turned it on in front of the group after the lights went out. The music began but the screen was black - oh no! Turns out it was pure operator error - I had forgot to turn on my new digital projector! Once I got that minor feat accomplished the show ran without a hitch and the folks seemed to like it. Whew, one down, about 30 to go this fall. Pam had class in town last night and since I was gone too and we had to get a kid sitter for Amber - for the very first time ever for her! Amber was so funny about all of this - once she found out she needed a sitter she made up a list and went around and interviewed prospective sitters. Turns out we have two quite competent young ladies right out here on Cave Mountain that both ride the school bus with Amber. It also turned out that both girls wanted the job and Amber wanted both girls to do the sitting, so OK, no problem, we had two sitters for Amber! I have a feeling these three girls had a great time, and the first thing I was told was "when are you and Pam going out again?" So back to now. It is still raining, but only lightly, and the wind has picked up. We have some color around here, and the moisture in the air really brings it out. But we are still probably a week away from peak color in the upper Buffalo area, although some hillsides remain completely green and it may be two or three weeks before they turn. I had wanted to get out and shoot more today, but my plate is really full so I probably won't get to venture out. We've got a photo workshop this weekend, and have folks coming in from Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Got to get the cabin and the classroom ready, and at some point I need some sleep! Just now as I am typing this a bunch of fog is rolling in and the sky has opened up and it is pouring outside now - come on down rain....... 10/16/04 Early in the morning and I just have time for a quick update. First off, I must say that it is large, actually HUGE! And quite a remarkable piece of equipment. Late yesterday something I have been dreaming about for years finally arrived at Cloudland - an Apple 30" Cinema Display. Gorgeous is something I normally reserve for my wife and spectacular wilderness sights, but the image on this monster is just that - brilliant color and each and every pixel sharp from center to corner. I've been spoiled working on their 22" Cinema Displays for five years now, but I was really unprepared for anything like this! OK, ok, I'll stop gushing, but just to warn anyone who happens to come by the cabin - you will get monitor envy. OK honey, I'm set now, no more computer equipment for another two years... Yesterday I was down in Boxley Valley and on to the base of Roark Bluff early. How WONDERFUL it is to be out this time of the year - no finer days anywhere on the planet than in the Ozarks right now! It is crisp outside - 38 in Boxley yesterday, and probably about the same this morning. It is 47 here now, at 5am. Yesterday evening I returned to Boxley and walked around talking with some of the folks in the elk zoo. It really is something special to be standing right there on the pavement and get to watch and listen to these great bull elk bugling and chasing their mates around the meadow. I didn't even have a camera in hand, and just enjoyed the spectacle and beauty of it all. The cabin classroom is all set up downstairs for three weekend of workshops starting, well here in just a few minutes. We'll be meeting our group shortly and spend an hour or two shooting, then come back to the cabin for the rest of the day of classroom work. We've got folks from Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in the workshop this weekend. And there is one really cute young lady in the group today - my lovely bride. She went with Glenn and I to Falling Water the other day, took some photos, and surprised both of us last night by showing that she is a pretty darn good photographer and has already picked up some Photoshop savvy as well. Anyway, it is going to be a terrific weekend here in the Ozarks - some color here and there, but it will depend on the light and moisture content of the air (next weekend should be peak in the Buffalo River area). I hope you get a chance to get out and enjoy! I won't be able to make a post or deck cam until Monday... 10/18/04 It is early in the morning, well before first light, and the winds are howling outside as they have been doing all night long. Not a single drop of rain that I can tell has fallen, although the radar shows many colorful things going on up in the atmosphere, but all of them are sailing right on by us. The rivers around the area have a good supply of water in them - so much so that folks were floating the Buffalo up here this weekend - but the side creeks have mostly drained off and there is not much water in them - i.e. we could use some more rain please! (although I am not complaining - we've had some great water so far this month, and it is wonderful to see the creeks and rivers at this level) Had a fast and furious weekend, and this week will prove to be the same. I spent an hour or two out in the wilds with my photo students on Saturday morning, then the rest of the day here at the cabin classroom. We all were crowded in downstairs focusing on the large projection screen as we went through all of their shots and learning the most efficient workflow in the digital darkroom. My bride was upstairs baking homemade chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and apple crisp - always a favorite with the group! Some of the folks remained at the cabin Saturday night, and then we headed out again early Sunday morning for an entire day of shooting. Our first stop on Sunday was on the top of a tall bluff nearby to photograph the sunrise. We arrived in plenty of time to watch a large cloud bank move slowly towards and cover up the eastern horizon - so no sunrise photos this day. But it was kind of nice just to slow down for a little bit, and soak up so much of the wilderness that was spread out before us. Sometimes waiting for things to happen in the photography world is very frustrating for me (like waiting for the wind to stop), but often it is quite rewarding as well, especially if you get into the mind set that there is not a thing you can do about the light or the weather but wait it out. The rest of the day was spent visiting some of my old haunts where we had the best color. Some parts of the Buffalo River area are pretty good right now, but most of it is still days or perhaps even a week away from peak, a few areas even longer. One highlight of the day for me was when I came upon a wonderful scene - actually while I was making my way to another spot, so it was quite unexpected. There was only one really good view of this scene, and it was from a location that was situated next to a large chunk of rock that was about twenty feet tall - no firm earth for me to place my tripod on. I managed to get my tripod set up with one leg flopped up over the top of the boulder, another leg resting on a small crack in the side of the boulder, and the third leg up at a 90 degree angle and up against a nearby tree - you can't do that with most tripods, which is why I haul my large and heavy one with me. There was no place for me to stand either, so I just held on as best I could on the side of that boulder and was able to look through the camera to compose and expose, then eased back into a good position to trip the shutter via my cable release. I'm sure it would have made a funny photo - just Ernst hanging out there at work - thank goodness no one was around to snap a picture! But I DID get the photo that I wanted, and so all of the mess and fuss and danger of me and my equipment plummeting to the rocks below was worth it to me. Another great moment of note was near the end of the day as we were leaving one area, and we spotted a beautiful maple tree down by the creek backlit by the afternoon sun and aglow with color. The sun was going in and out from behind a cloud, and so the tree was changing color and intensity every few moments - it's like the tree was alive, and I guess it WAS! That is one of the things that attracts me to fall color photography - the leaves and trees do seem to come to life and glow with a great deal of personality much more so than at any other time of the year. (Please keep in mind that high-resolution photos look TERRIBLE after being down-sized to severerly for the low-res viewing of the web - the originals of all these look quite nice.)
So now it is Monday morning and it is getting light outside, and the trees are whipping around like crazy and there is much music in the wind. It will be a terrific week to get out and take pictures in the Ozarks, however I have 50 big color prints to create for a print exhibit at John Brown University in Siloam Springs that I have to get completed this week - so I won't be out and about too much, but I will try to take a break from my digital darkroom and go out and wander around a time or two.
LATE NIGHT UPDATE. Very strange day today weather-wise. It remained warm all day, with high winds that pelted the cabin on and on and on. First from the east, then from the west, then from the east again. Lots of clouds swirling around above, but no rain, or even the hint of moisture. Just hard, loud, twisting, turning, wind. And with that wind and warm temps came the yellow jackets - hundreds of them invaded the cabin today. They always pick a warm October day to arrive, and brother did they ever arrive today. Pam got after them in a hurry - they seemed to like her drawing room. She could be seen and heard much of the afternoon wandering around with a mini-vac in her hand, reaching up high to suck them up. I sat at the computer nearly all day and long into the night, working on the prints for the John Brown University exhibit. In case you are interested, this exhibit will run from November 2nd - Thanksgiving, with the opening reception and slide show on November 4th from 6:30 - 8:30pm. I'll have more details on the web page later, and here as well. From the looks of things, I think it will be a nice exhibit. I just finished working on a black and white version tonight of a shot I took last spring of the sandstone formations at Buzzard Roost at sunrise. Some of the prints will be pretty straight forward, while others will have a little twist, like this Buzzard Roost one being in black and white. I'll continue printing all this week, then spend most of next week mounting, matting, framing, and titling the prints. Only once did I venture out into the forest today, and I was blown away by the great beauty of it all (in case you missed it, that was a pun, and it was intended). Lots of reds and oranges and yellows in the trees, still a lot of green too. They all were in motion today, and the leaves were mostly folded up around themselves and thrust in the opposite direction of the wind. Not too many leaves in the air though - they were hanging on tight, waiting for just the right moment in the next week or two to peak and then turn loose and float to ground. You could tell they wanted to land nearby their home instead of being carried a mile away by the wind. Leaves are smart like that sometimes. I have been doing battle with the yellow jackets tonight - they are drawn to the light above my head (there are actually three lights up there), and sometimes they get all tangled up and fall down right on top of my head or shoulders or back - there is some quick scrambling going on for a few long seconds until I can locate the wasp and bash him in. Why don't I just turn off the light? Then they swarm to my monitor, and I'm not about to get any blood and guts on my new display! So far no stings, but it is just a matter of time. We hope to get a few hours free to get out and wander around later this week - and to set off some bug bombs. The Buzzard Roost print is just about out of the print, so I had better to see how it looks. Yup, looks pretty good to me! It's off to bed now for a few hours of shut eye, then I'll be right back here again well before daylight... 10/20/04 Another night in the jungle of wasps and we all survived without any stingers. It was warm, no actually HOT around here yesterday, and the wasps and lady bugs were swarming like you wouldn't believe! Looking out from inside the cabin you could see hundreds, even thousands of them flying around all over the place. I don't know what draws them to log cabins, but I have heard from many folks who have the very same problem. The wasps and lady bugs flock together, and when it comes time to bomb the cabin I hate to see all of the lady bugs die, but that is just a fact of life. I took one quick hike out to the mailbox and back yesterday to deliver the mail - just a delightful day to be outdoors, although it was rather warm. The color advances on here, and I suspect in this next week we will see the peak of fall color in this part of the Ozarks - don't know what it is like elsewhere. The big stand of maple trees that runs for miles through here is turning, but not really the fresh, brilliant reds and yellows that we are used to in years past - I'm still hoping that will happen in a few days. The printing has been going well - I've got about half of the prints for the exhibit at John Brown University in Siloam Springs completed. It is so fun to actually get to see some of these images in print! Almost all of these prints will be ones that have never been published or displayed before, although I will sneak in one of two of my all time favorites from years gone by. And a number of them will be panoramic prints - at least in their format - very wide prints. I'm printing one of those out right now, made possible via the 100 foot long roll in my printer (17" wide). I'm beginning to see more and more scenes in my head that are this format - not really true "panoramics" in that a very wide scene is captures, but rather I'm just cropping a wide slice out of the center or top or bottom of an image. One such shot I took the other day at Richland Creek - I knew it would make a great pano shot when I looked through the camera, and after cropping the bottom half of the scene yesterday in the computer, that vision was laid down on paper. Once we get all of the exhibit prints finished and I have the time, I will post a web gallery with all of the images in it - it will be better for you to actually go to the university and see the prints in person, but if you can't, you will still be able to enjoy the show! Since we now have a new dog door where the dogs and come and go without us having to lock the door each night to keep the cats out (the cats cannot figure out how to open it from the outside), I no longer have to take the dogs downstairs and unlock the door in the morning to let them. However they still think that I have to open it for them in the morning, so they wait around for me to go outside. Since I am getting lazy in my old age, these days I simply open the front door and let them out, although I will often go outside in the darkness myself to water the flowers at the same time. When I did that this morning at 5:30, I stepped into a world of fog - really THICK fog. I don't have a clue where that came from, and will have to wait until it begins to get light to see what it is all about. It was pure blue and sunshine all day yesterday, and everything is dry as a bone out there this morning. At some point today we are going to have to abandon the cabin and leave for a few hours in order to set off wasp bombs. Both of us have been glued to the computers all week, so it will be a great excuse for us to get out and enjoy the fall outside. I have this one place I plan to visit that has been haunting me for several weeks now - I've just been waiting for the colors to turn enough for a good photo, and I hope today is the day! CALENDAR/BOOK UPDATE. We learned that the new 2005 Arkansas Wild & Free calendars and Don's Illinois Wildflower books arrived at the port in Los Angeles last week. So far they have not been unloaded off of the ship yet - the unions continue their work "slow down" and refuse to get the job done that they are being paid to do. We are hoping they will get to our ship at any moment, and then it will take about a week for the shipment to arrive here. I am told we have just under SIX TONS of books and calendars! I'll let you know when they are on the way... Click here to go to Part B, beginning 10/21 Back to top | ||
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