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To most people, the Ghost River, a section of the Wolf River near Memphis, particularly in the summer, is at best nasty black-water slough--or at worst, a haven for life-threatening perils such as snakes and toxic plants. Indeed this picture illustrates at least some credence to their views. Scenes such as the one below abound along the river. Though they make a pretty contrast of colors, this picture consists of deadly toad-stool surrounded by lush Poison Ivy. The poison Ivy is abundantly hanging from the trees that overhang the river and they easily brush against your face. You need to readily identify the tell-tale triple leaflets and be ready to dodge them if possible. It is not always possible. But you'd do best to leave these toad-stools alone. Bright colors mean beware.
There was a time when I would throw a canoe on my car and go out somewhere all day; if I thought to tell anyone where I was going, it was usually in passing. Those times are gone, but not the desire.
At had plenty of gear with me on this trip. I was not sure what to expect. I have done plenty of whitewater in both canoes and kayaks. This is not that. But it does have its own navigational perils in the form of obstacles and current pressing you against trees and stumps to get hung up on--so I had my good stuff stowed in dry-bags with the intent of breaking it out after I got a feel for what I was facing. I had a small Sony point and shoot in a plastic bag to start with.
It was a Father's Day gift of sorts. I have
wanted to do the Ghost River Section of the Wolf for pictures for a long
time, but it would have been irresponsible for me to have done so
alone, because it disappears into a cypress swamp where you
sometimes have to pick the channel out. It can take forever. B has a
young church friend who has made the float numerous times, so he
arranged to have the guy guide us this trip, not knowing exactly what to
expect. C was happy to join.
I have devised a specially outfitted
sit-on-top kayak that allows me to recline onto a beanbag, or I would
not be able to go at all. My rig is wider and longer than a river kayak
should be. With me on it it also draws a lot of water, so it is not as
fast or nimble. Each took a turn coming back to assist me. They were
literally paddling circles around me--but at least I was there.
I am old school. I am all about clear, properly exposed photographs. Although I have always been prone to experimentation with special effects so that I know how to do them and their possibilities when they are called for as tools to project my own interpretations of my environment--or as called for to illustrate particular products or points--I have seldom used special effects for the sake of special effects alone.
I used a soft software filter on this photograph after-the-fact in keeping with the motif I had revised on the fly from a pure documentary-style representation of this kayak trip. I arrived at this idea when I was unsure of whether I wanted to crack out my good gear and have it exposed to the elements. But most of these images were created in the camera, without special filers or software. Let me make a few points about this. I have long advocated a no excuses approach to delivering the goods when it comes to professional photography--meaning you must come through--no matter what. This approach means you must be prepared for any and everything. You must bring back-up gear and back-up to back-up gear. You need access to three of most things and four or six of other things--depending upon their propensity to failure.
This point made, I will make another divergent point. Sometimes you decide to punt. My little Sony was already on the blink. I seem to wear out one of these a year. I take more pictures than most people. My experience is that regardless of the brand, they have a particular life-expectancy. This may be a result of heat on the electronics, accidental abuse, wear on the mechanical parts, and what-not. Whatever the cause, this camera was perfect for the occasion since it did not really matter if it got ruined.
This was a pleasure trip with pictures to be taken on speculation and my own art purposes. Later trips may be more earnestly in pursuit of a particular photographic mission--but this one was a trial photographic trip. I had to learn the river, my limits, my kayak, and the navigability and the time it takes on the river--and how much of this I can endure in my current health and the summer heat.
I had flexibility regarding what kind of pictures I came back with. I was not very careful about splashes and paddle-water dripping on the camera. This likely did not help the camera operation, but the big thing that arose from this was that water drops and smudges got on the lens front and started creating partial blurring of the images. I wiped it dry a couple of times at first. Then, while looking at a couple of the images, I had an idea to go with the flow and in fact crank the effect up a bit, in order to convey a sense of the action and environment of this float trip.
If you have followed much of this and others of my weblogs you know that I have a thing for dragonflies. I photograph them a lot around my home pond. During this trip I saw some new varieties from thin and delicate as is this one to some of the largest have ever seen. I could spend several days on the river just making dragonfly macros--and likely will.
My
concentration was more on navigating though the trees with the swifter
current and paddling hard in the slower swamp than on taking pictures
this trip, but I did take some with my little go everywhere point and
shoot--which was on the blink, possibly from being splashed once too
often or maybe dipped below the water line during a down-stroke since I
had it dangling from my wrist.
It was five hours on the water, an
hour longer than it should have taken--with me in tow. At the take out I
volunteered to sit with the kayaks while they all went to get the other
vehicles--seeing how I was literally unable to get out of my boat for a
while. My arms and abdomen were simultaneously knotting into cramps. I
was hot and exhausted to the limits of my endurance. It was about like I
thought it would be. For them it was a easy boat-ride; for me it was
fun, but only in a perversely challenging way. I loved it. They came
home to a surprise big-number birthday party for one, while I sat in a
chair and hydrated and then comatosed until morning--unable to attend
the birthday party with my wife. This morning I got good reports about
the party. I am glad it went well. I know my boys understood.
So in order to amplify these accidental effects produced by the smudging and water drops on the lens--I chose to select the Pop camera setting that automatically pumps the color saturation up and slightly posterizes the images--meaning that it captures fewer levels of gradation. I also chose to creatively throw some images out of focus, and to use slower shutter speeds in order to show motion-blur. Some of the images were intentionally angled to convey the sometimes whomper-jawed view that I got as I bounced around and turned this way or that while getting past stumps, trees, and logs in the current. Occasionally, I would play back an image I had just taken and based upon what it looked like I would adjust the effective vignette resulting from the water and smudges by wiping only part of the lens.
So on the one hand, I would make a regular, clearly-focused, if slightly over-saturated image, interlaced with a creatively blurred/smudged lens image. These were not falsely produced filter-effect. There is nothing wrong with such effects if they do the job, but you know the effects are authentic if they result from accidental, though channeled natural smudges resulting from the water drops and river crud.
I also used creatively under and over-exposed some images. I sometimes do this via the exposure-compensation control that allows this, but only if I am going to uniformly do several images this way. Otherwise, I point at a spot brighter or lighter than the spot I am about to photograph until I get the lightness or darkness I want. I then press the button down half way, which on most modern cameras will hold that exposure setting, while I point at the scene I am photographing. Then I push the button the rest of the way to take the image. This quickly becomes intuitive to do and requires little thought. It is merely cheating the automatics into doing what you want them to do.
Some of these become quite abstract. Standing alone, you might not get it with these, but in the context of the other pictures in the series you do.
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Catalpa trees are native to Tennessee. These are the cigar-trees or fishing-worm trees that are famous for their symbiotic worms that typically come to feat on their wide leaves once or twice a year. These Catalpa Worms are caterpillars that are often said to be the best possible catfish bait. They make good fishing worms for most types of fish. I have one that I planted in my yard next to my pond. I am concerned that the caterpillars have quit coming during the past few years. It may be a sign of the wide-spread unintended affects of commercial poisons from crop-dust or other pollutants.
I tend to be politically Conservative, however, when it comes to the environment, I want to ere on the side of caution. Although fishermen may survive the extinction of Catalpa Worms, humankind would likely not survive the extinction of honeybees (I accidentally first typed hineybees; I have never encountered these, butt they don't sound so good.) upon which we rely to pollinate so many of our foodstuffs.
An interesting by-note about Catalpa Trees is found in a supposed story about the name. It came from the attempted phonetic transcription of the Cherokee Indian name of the tree, which was purportedly Catal-pha, with an "f" sound. A mistake was made and never corrected--so instead of Catalpha the name became Catalpa.
The Wolf River is not just another Southern black-water river. The clay from farming land runoff and the typical tannins from cypress trees other swamp vegetation are certainly apparent, but the origin of the river is artesian. So remote and inaccessible is the source that it was only a couple of decades ago that a group traced and found the definitive source of the Wolf River. It is less than forty miles from this stretch of the river, across the Tennessee-Mississippi river somewhat close to historic Holly Springs, Mississippi. The entire Mid-South Delta region enjoys extraordinarily pure water pumped from natural aquifers that filter the water over the years it takes to seep below the surface into the subterranean counterparts to the Mississippi River. Layers of delta sand deposited from the Mighty Mississippi is free from the pollutants above ground.
The water is cold as is all spring waters. At its source, an anomalous set of natural land features causes the underground river to erupt above ground into a swamp area full of cypress trees and dense jungle-like vegetation atypical to this area. The cold spring water flowing through an area that does not otherwise sustain such above ground pure water sources, provides a unique habitat to sustain a very odd ecosystem for the area. It is prized and studied by naturalists and scientists. The Wolf River is not a nasty brackish slough that mayn people assume it to be. The river is alive and teaming with species of fish, animals, and plant life not generally found in this area. Along with the catfish one might expect to find in muddy-looking Southern streams, many other game fish are also found--including Smallmouth Bass that are prized by sportsman.
Although my son and I were psyched into believing that this was a poisonous Copperhead snake when it brushed up against him and then I, subsequent objective identification from the pictures with the forced encouragement from those who viewed them made us realize that the mere power of suggestion and lifetimes of culturally-induced panic had caused us to wrongly label him. Copperheads do not typically hang out in trees. This is a common Banded Water Snake.
Given twenty-four hours of more calm reflection gave way to this reality. It provides a good commentary on life and the prejudices people are saddled with and carry with them. I am usually, not much afraid of snakes, or so I thought. Having one suddenly brush against your face and nearly fall into your lap, without the benefit of your glasses does have an unsettling effect upon you. We had been hearing for days, and the complete half of the float trip, about the abundance of Copperheads on the river. To locals, all snakes are either 'Moccasins' or 'Copperheads'--both poisonous.
Indeed, these species are plentiful enough--I have several of each that live on my small rural acreage nearby--but there are many nonpoisonous varieties as well. The ratio of these harmless water snakes to the poisonous varieties that live on the river and hang from the trees is likely weighted toward the harmless ones. Still, if one cannot, or will not differentiate the dangerous from the harmless, the common adage held by most folks surely reenforces the fears of snakes. The only good snake is a dead snake. While I do not intellectually believe this, we are sometimes want to look for alternatives when we feel that our lives are in the balance. Don't get me wrong; prejudices are not always bad. Stereotypes are often born of necessity--and often hold true. While it is not always a good thing to be prejudiced and it certainly is not fair to all recipients of our judgement calls, we are just silly to think that we are without any. It would be impossible to get through one day, let alone our lives, without exercising judgements.
Each time we are faced with decisions, we analyze the facts as we know them, and we decide which course of action to pursue based upon these facts or what are often, probably most often, suppositions. This is why continual education and exposure to more and updated information is so important.
The great American religionist, Joseph Smith, penned in the Doctrine and Covenants 131: 6, It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance. I believe this, although I am guessing this meant complete ignorance, as we are all ignorant or conversely enlightened to one degree or another. I think of this each time I see someone go out of their way, even backing up their automobiles on these rural highways and byways to run over a King Snake or blue racer crossing the road. Although I take opportunity to wax philosophical on this issue of prejudice and ignorance--I simultaneously admit that one is inherently useful and the other is sometimes unavoidable.
I am not among those who soapbox and point fingers about this. We are the sum total of our experiences, including our culture, our environments, and often the luck of the draw. But it is only when we stop being willing to revise our conclusions given new information that we are guilty of any inexcusable wrongdoings in the form of our prejudices and incorrect judgements. Therefore it is sometimes best to simply resist being terminally judgmental--when snakes are not being rubbed in our faces.
In case you did not extrapolate the reason for the name of this section of the Wolf being called The Ghost, The Ghost River, or Ghost Lake it is because within this section the river often fans out into a vast swamp within which the channel or river part becomes a ghost being hard to track without a lot of trial and error. Even with the channel having been marked by avid conservationists and outdoorsmen who work hard to preserve this river, you can count on getting lost in the ghost once or twice per trip, because it is ever-changing with the season and water supply.