November 24, 2019

"f/8 and be there" - Arthur Fellig (Weegie)

Three kayaks slipped into the channel in total darkness, with London-grade fog obscuring visibility to about 25 meters. Most sounds, few that there are in a backwater swamp at that irreverent pre-dawn hour, were attenuated by the thick mist.

Our guide, in the fourth kayak, entered the water last and then took up the lead position of a modified diamond formation. The guide turned his head-lamp around backwards so that we could see to follow him. A bright LED light, with a harsh white glare, was all we had to go on, and he was paddling fast. Our lights remained off, useless in the fog. Formation lights on the tail of the lead F-4 in a flight-of-four headed out on a pre-dawn strike mission .. in afterburner.

We were paddling upstream on the edge of a bayou (river) that coursed along the western periphery of the swamp. It was a mere 1.2 mile paddle, but we had done it the day before, and my arms felt like lead weights. Pitch black dark. Tighten up the formation, lest we lose someone.

Like a pre-dawn air combat mission, I eschewed food or coffee beforehand. Just a few sips of water. Nothing to stimulate biological functions. There would be plenty of time for a big breakfast, with lots of coffee, afterwards.

We arrived on target .. or, rather, at our photo destination .. just at the start of nautical twilight. The fog became more amorphous with the scant light, and then shapes began to loom from within the mist as the luminosity increased, gradually. Stumps. Snags. Cypress and Tupelo trees. The other three kayaks. Finally, enough light to start shooting.

Showtime!

Atchafalaya Basin Backwaters, Louisiana
November 2019

November 24, 2019

Swamplandia: A Week Kayaking Louisiana's Atchafalaya Basin

"Mirage"
Atchafalaya Basin Wetlands, Louisiana
November 2019


"Mist Rising"
Old Bald Cypress in the Atchafalaya Basin, Louisiana
November 2019


"Film Noir"
Cypress Knees in the Atchafalaya Basin Backwater, Louisiana
November 2019


"F/8 and Be There"
Deep in the Atchafalaya Basin Backwaters, Louisiana
November 2019

November 14, 2019

"The Last Picture Show"

I shot this in the Texas panhandle today. I really like it. This is a rough draft. I'll spend some time on this image when I get back home off this multi-week shooting trip.


Turkey, Texas
Sony A7-R4 w/ Canon 24-105

November 9, 2019

Six Days in the Atchafalaya Basin Swamp

After an intense week of pre-dawn to post-sunset kayaking and photography, with lots of incredible Cajun food on the edge of the Atchafalaya Basin swamp and the storied Bayou Teche (crawfish etouffee, gumbo, fried catfish, blackened redfish, gator bites, red beans and rice, grillades & grits, lots of bread pudding, and the such), I badly needed a red meat fix tonight.

So after taking a long hot shower, and washing two loads of laundry at the hotel, I headed into New Iberia for a bodacious steak at Preservation (formerly Clementine's). I might live.

But seriously, the week with the master photo group was awesome. The lecture/critique sessions were like drinking water from a fire hose. We paddled in pitch black dark. We shot thousands of images on a wide variety of cameras and lenses. We slept fast on short nights, with any luck.

We followed our fearless leader in ink-black pea-soup fog, glued to his rear-facing head lamp like a night flight of F-4s locked in tight formation on the lead Phantom's lights (but not quite as fast). He was the mother hen, we were his chicks. He got us to exactly the places where we could do the best photography with the best light, and he got us back .. safely. I even felt safe riding in the backseat of his Ford Expedition, and I never feel safe in ANYBODY's backseat!

I was the oldest in the group, by far, but I kept up fairly respectably. The rigors of loading and rigging the kayaks, and paddling miles - BTW: his conversion factor, a constant, is 350 yards = 1 statute mile, or less formally stated "it's just around the next bend" - loosened up my stiff old joints. I dropped a quarter in the laundry room tonight and was actually able to bend over and pick it up, without much pain.

But it is cold here tonight in south Louisiana. And getting colder. So I cancelled my full-moon rising shoot with a guide at Caddo Lake (Texas) next week, and I now plan to head to Amarillo and do the full moon shoot at Cadillac Ranch. Or maybe to Marfa. Depends on the weather. Then swing back through Uncertain, Texas, for some quality time on Caddo Lake.

Life is good. I hope I can do this for years to come.

New Iberia, Louisiana
November 8, 2019


With the legendary CC (Cactus Clyde) Lockwood (R) after kayaking in the Atchafalaya yesterday


Cell phone photo from yesterday morning in the swamp


Early this morning, my last day in the Atchafalaya Basin swamp


I think I might live!

November 1, 2019

Arrival on the Bayou Teche at New Iberia

After two horrible days driving in my great new RAV-4 (had to change from my Tacoma truck at the last minute because of a bed-topper door problem, and leave my kayak behind), I finally arrived at New Iberia to start this photo mission. Had crawfish etouffee on the Bayou Teche tonight.

Spent last night in Montgomery, Alabama. Left there at 8 AM, and it was 80-degrees. As I passed the MGM airport, the skies darkened. There, the Alabama Air Guard static displays of an F-84, a RF-4, and a F-16 reminded me of our great DUer "trof," who was once a fighter pilot with the ANG before his airline career. But just west of MGM, the sky went black. The temp dropped 15-degrees in five miles. By the time I got to Selma, it was 46 in a cold, hard rain.

I hopped out of the car in Selma, and made some shots of the iconic Edmund Pettus Bridge. I'll post those as soon as I pull them out of the camera. Not tonight.



Crawfish Etouffee in a Seedy Bar
New Iberia, Louisiana