Photographer's Journal

     
                 

Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword

Back in May, I had to drive to Baton Rouge. As is my pleasure, I left plenty early so I could stop along the way and shoot.

Just south of Winnsboro, I noticed a small lake on the west side of Highway 15/425. A road or driveway, I wasn't sure which, turned off the highway and extended around the south end of the lake, but I drove in just far enough to pull off onto a grassy area and walk to the lake edge.

It's a beautiful site and I went back in September. Dragonflies abound. Birds and butterflies are there. The plant life is varied and interesting.

In September, I stopped twice in one day, in the morning on my way to BR and in the late afternoon on my way home. And in the afternoon I walked north along the east shore of the lake to a stand of cattails at the northeast corner. Dragonflies were everywhere.

As the light faded and I was about to head to my car, I noticed a dragon sort of hanging from the top of a stick up. "That's an odd perch for a dragonfly," I thought to myself. But as I got close, I realized the dragon was dead. And when I got real close with my macro lens, I finally spied the reason the dragon was dead!

But if you look really close, you can see that the green lynx has a stump for one leg. I'm guessing the Halloween pennant went down fighting.

Things Unseen

               
                   

Soul Inside Out

Did you ever feel so in touch with the beauty and the woundedness of the world and everything in it that you could hardly keep back the tears? Me, a lot. More and more.

       

Things Unseen

             
                   

Finding Butterfly Wings

Finding butterfly wings...

It's about death
and life.

Beauty and pain.

Love and loss.

It's about living,
and dying,
and about living
when you'd rather die.

Especially that.
                     

Photographer's Journal: Louisiana Agriculture

                           
                                  

After David Plowden

One of the wonderful things about leading worship at Christ Church in St. Joseph is driving home up Highway 65. I always see something I must photograph!

My take from last Sunday includes several I like a lot. This one is my nod to David Plowden, a photographer who documented Iowa agriculture and whose work I greatly admire.

I should admit that Plowden would have done this in black and white, and his photographs are wonderfully minimalist: the fewest possible elements. Indeed, I look at my book of his photos and wonder if he waited until the sky was free of clouds to shoot.

I greatly admire minimalism and occasionally do minimalism. But most of the time I am "defeated," in a sense, by my delight in such things as a blue sky, low-hanging clouds, the gold-brown of late summer grass, and even power lines leading the eye into the distance.

Odonata Love

                   
                      

Wandering Glider (Pantala flavescens)

I can't remember exactly when or where I photographed my first dragonfly this summer, but it has turned into another near-obsession I really didn't need! But it is a lot of fun.

This one was at my beloved quarry, the one I visit whenever possible on my way to or fro Camp Hardtner, Alexandria and other parts south that require traveling on Highway 165 south from Monroe. And as you can see, I caught it in flight. That is no easy trick, but this particular one accommodated me somewhat by hovering a lot.

I needed help identifying it and called upon our local naturalist, Kelby Ouchley. If you don't know about Kelby, you're missing a lot. He does a great program on KEDM-FM 90.3 called "Bayou Diversity" and he has a great website: http://bayou-diversity.com/.

I have also posted this photo and about a dozen others to an international database called Odonata Central. Check it out here: http://www.odonatacentral.org/.

Louisiana Wildflowers

                                      
                                          

Virginia Meadowbeauty (Rhexia virginica)

Photographer's Journal: Louisiana Agriculture

                                 
                                                  

Corn Rotation

Friends who live in Monroe might have seen a recent article in "The News Star" that resulted from my photograph currently part of the Art Melt 2013 exhibit in Baton Rouge. The story locates that image in a new project of sorts. I have gotten interested in photographing Louisiana agriculture.

Those who know me best might recall that I grew up on a farm in Iowa. I spent many hours driving tractors, milking cows, feeding chickens, and more. Perhaps most unusual, I rather than any of my brothers was the one who wanted to help my dad repair the farm machinery. And I did, many times and many hours, handing him tools, holding the light, and more.

A few days ago I headed south on Highway 165 for a meeting with the Bishop, and left a couple hours early having decided that I would stop at the first farm where something was visibly going on. I did, just south of Monroe, and it was a farm & grain elevator operation. They were shipping out corn that day, having been offered a premium price for "all the corn we can deliver before August 1."

With permission, I shot a bunch of photos and this is the first one processed. I think I surprised the farmer by knowing enough to ask some intelligent questions. I learned that corn and cotton are good crops to rotate, and that's what he does to prevent crop and soil "fatigue" resulting from the same crop year after year. I also was surprised to learn that corn is less expensive than cotton for Louisiana farmers to grow because, even though it requires more fertilizer, it requires fewer pesticides.

The next time I go to this farm, I'm asking permission to climb the stairs to the top of the silo. I want to see if I can show the relationship between the farm, the levee and the Ouachita River.

Oh, and anyone who happens to be familiar with the photography of David Plowden might recognize an influence here! Plowden photographed my home state, Iowa.