Photographer's Journal: Grosse Savanne

Dream A Little Dream of Me

Just returned from my first ever trip to the southwest corner of the state, where I spent this morning touring marshes and wetlands with Bobby Jordan of Grosse Savanne, a massive farming, fishing, hunting and eco-touring operation.

Beautiful and fascinating. This is the marsh we did by boat. Have many wonderful images to share and this one is a departure from my usual style.

The sedges, rushes and grasses of the marsh form lush patterns and textures, and the slightest breeze sets them in motion. So calming and restorative, like a good dream!
 

Photographer's Journal: Cooter's Bog

                               
                               

Snowy Orchid (Platanthera nivea)

I have a new favorite place to shoot wildflowers! Cooter's Bog is located in the Vernon Unit of the Kisatchie National Forest Calcasieu Ranger District, east of Highway 463 just a few miles north of Pitkin, La. It is an awesomely beautiful spot--always! But last Saturday, I and a few other wildflower-crazy friends from down that way hit the jackpot.

The bog is now dry enough to walk through and even kneel in without getting wet and muddy. And it was covered with blooms: white-topped sedge, bog buttons, bog pinks, rose gentian, colic root and more. But most impressive of all were the snowy orchids. I mean everywhere!

The first one we came upon was kind of by itself. So of course I got down on the ground and took every angle, plus both macros and full views. And then we walked farther and found bunches! I actually got to the point of passing them by without raising the camera! What fun.

                           

Things Unseen

RIP Maya Angalou

Alone

Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don't believe I'm wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires
With money they can't use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They've got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

--Maya Angelou

       

      

Things Unseen

                             
                               

Take this Waltz

Now in Vienna there are ten pretty women
There's a shoulder where Death comes to cry
There's a lobby with nine hundred windows
There's a tree where the doves go to die
There's a piece that was torn from the morning,
And it hangs in the Gallery of Frost

Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take this waltz with the clamp on its jaws
I want you, I want you, I want you
On a chair with a dead magazine
In the cave at the tip of the lilly,
In some hallway where love's never been
On a bed where the moon has been sweating,
In a cry filled with footsteps and sand

Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take its broken waist in your hand

This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz
With its very own breath of brandy and Death
Dragging its tail in the sea

There's a concert hall in Vienna
Where your mouth had a thousand reviews
There's a bar where the boys have stopped talking
They've been sentenced to death by the blues
Ah, but who is it climbs to your picture
With a garland of freshly cut tears?

Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take this waltz, it's been dying for years

There's an attic where children are playing,
Where I've got to lie down with you soon,
In a dream of Hungarian lanterns,
In the mist of some sweet afternoon
And I'll see what you've chained to your sorrow,
All your sheep and your lillies of snow

Take this waltz, take this waltz
With its "I'll never forget you, you know!"

This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz
With its very own breath of brandy and Death
Dragging its tail in the sea

And I'll dance with you in Vienna
I'll be wearing a river's disguise
The hyacinth wild on my shoulder,
My mouth on the dew of your thighs
And I'll bury my soul in a scrapbook,
With the photographs there, and the moss
And I'll yield to the flood of your beauty
My cheap violin and my cross
And you'll carry me down on your dancing
To the pools that you lift on your wrist
O my love, o my love
Take this waltz, take this waltz
It's yours now. It's all that there is

--Leonard Cohen

               

   

Things Unseen

                           
                                  

The Forgotten

Nonsense XX III

Vibrant violence
come closer, dear.
Do you see me?
Walk slower to be
noticed by no one.
Find me a place to
sleep; I care not
for shelter, just
comfort.
My pillows are
concrete.

--Adel 156
                      
                       

My Chi-town

                  
                            

Descending

                 
              

My Chi-town

                 

                 

Ripple Effect III