CLOUDLAND CABIN JOURNAL - OCTOBER 2008
Cloudland Journal Archives, Cloudland Cabin Info Page
Cloudland Deck Cam, October 6, 7:01am - cloudy with weird light, cool and breezy
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October 2008 Print of the Month
Updated Monday morning
10/01/08 I decided to spend the first moments of one of my top-12 most favorite months of the year out in the woods. The girls had already left for school, it was still pretty dark outside with no moon. Since the temp was on the very chilly side I dug out my most favorite jacket (camo fleece on the outside, flannel on the inside, windproof in between - I got it for the Jellystone trip a couple of years ago and still love it).
Sunrise was still more than an hour away, but there was just enough starlight for me to see to hike out into the woods, up near the top of the ridge, where I found an old hickory tree to sit at the base of. Since the darkness level would be changing quickly I made my rating right away - a solid 2 - I could just barely see outlines of trees but no detail in the trees or in the ground cover. Even though sunrise was still a long way off the advancing indirect light from it would soon impact the surrounding forest. The black sky above was filled with a zillion bright stars.
The music this morning was coming from crickets - most of their voices were soft but clear. It kind of sounded like they were all but worn out from making music all night long and ready for bed. That was it - there were no other sounds at all - no frogs or cicadas or river music or wind. I would rate the sound a 2.
But every now and then that would go up to a 5 or 6 when a hickory nut would come CRASHING down! I never realized how LOUD this could be! Part of it was the fact that my ears were so in tune with the quiet of the darkness, straining to hear anything. Part of it was the fact that these nuts made a lot of noise as they let go of their birthplace, crashed through several layers of leaves, bounced off of limbs, then hit the dry leaves on the ground with a loud thud, rolling in the leaves downhill before finally coming to rest up against a rotten log. There were a few acorns falling too - they made much less noise, but enough so that I could follow their sound path down through the treetops to the forest floor below. Once in a while a walnut would turn loose and roll down the hill - there is a single tree about 100 feet above where I was sitting. As I sat there in the still very dim quiet light I realized that I had never spent any amount of time just sitting in the woods listening for falling nuts before.
Soon the eastern horizon began to glow dark orange, then red, then pink. It was time to get up from my perch and make my way on back to the cabin - OCTOBER was on the way - YIPPIE, COYOTE! Oh speaking of that, I did hear a couple of barred owls way off in the distance, and a pack of coyotes began to yip and howl at about the same time the east started to glow orange - guess they were happy for the new month as well. I just checked and the temp was 48 degrees when I returned to the cabin. Very nice.
I've been back down to the spot of the bear encounter the other day a couple of times since, including yesterday. At first it was kind of creepy going back there - and in fact I avoided doing it for a few days. That spot will forever be etched in my brain - the images of the charging bear that refused to leave, and how close we all three came to immortality. (I did not put all the details in the Journal.) I've received a flood of e-mails about it all, including everything from "please don't hurt the bear" to "let me send you my .357 magnum to carry!" One of the most interesting suggestion was for me to carry a paintball gun - not only to mark which bears have been caught before, but also I hear bears don't like to be painted!
I'm kind of in the middle with all of that. First let me say that I am no Timothy Treadwell - he was a freak and was mostly just interested in becoming a movie star and not in the welfare of the bears - I think he got what he deserved (to be eaten). I like bears, but happen to think we have WAY TOO MANY of them in Arkansas right now - the game and fish commission's secret program to restock bears here in the 1960's worked great - they wanted to have enough bears to be able to have a hunting season on them. Yup, that worked out just great, only problem is that they have the hunting season at the WRONG time of the year! Most other states that actually MANAGE their black bear populations have the season in the springtime - ours is in the fall when only a tiny fraction of bears are harvested, and often the innocent ones at that.
On the other hand I don't want to start shooting every bear we see here - that would not be a good thing. Yet I do need to protect our property and our lives, and the lives of our pets. But I am not going to start to carry a firearm everywhere I go - I do not feel threatened by these bears while I am out hiking - what happened last week was an extreme example by a rouge bear and was in no way normal. That means that hikers should not worry about bears either - at least to the extent you quit hiking, or start carrying a gun - there is no need to do so. 99% of all hikers here will never even see a bear in the first place, and those that do have the good fortune to spot one will only see the rear end as it is running away. Any other type of encounter is extremely rare.
I will continue to respect bears but not fear them, and don't plan to change the way I live because of them. Neither should you!
I do have one bit of advice though - WARNING: DO NOT INSTALL MY NEW SCREENSAVER! At least not on a computer that is sitting next to your desk! I say this from experience. Pam has the new Arkansas Landscapes screensaver running on her computer that is next to mine, and when it is running I cannot get any work done - I am constantly looking over to see the photos! This new screensaver is just incredible - which might give you an idea of what the new picture book looks like. Wow!
One final business note then I must get to work in the print room. We got an order last week for a giant canvas print of one of my most favorite photos ever. I had never printed this image very large before and was literally stunned at the final quality and impact of the final stretched canvas - it is one of those scenes that you feel like you can just walk right in to. (It took me more than a hour to package this print up for shipment to Texas, and cost over $100 just for the UPS charge!) I decided late last night to make this scene the new Print of the Month. It was taken during a magical October afternoon while I was making my way along the Buffalo River. I was actually on my way somewhere else - or I guess on my way back from somewhere else - when I looked up and saw this scene. The late-day sun was hitting Roark Bluff just right, and I knew I would only have a minute or two to get the shot before the sun moved. I had to stand out in the middle of the river to get the shot, with my tripod legs underwater and me up to my knees. This photo became the cover of the BUFFALO RIVER DREAMS picture book, and has been a favorite ever since. You can now own it at the special discounted price this month - for either the print or the print with black or white mat.
Oh yes, and I plan to make another large canvas print of this image for display in the gallery for our open house - which looks like is going to be on November 22nd. We will probably do a second open house in December as well. Of course, if someone buys it off the wall it will be gone!
Dogwood berries
Persimmons from tree #2 on the ground
10/03/08 WOW, it is one incredible early fall afternoon in the wilderness today! Bright blue skies, a slight breeze, warm temps with just a touch of coolness. We have spent the past hour or so sitting out on the back deck, sipping tea, and watching the beginning waves of monarchs and cloudless sulphur butterflies boil down over the cabin and sink into the meadow weeds below. There are hawks out playing in the air currents, dogs and cats are asleep on the deck. The overall scene is definitely not completely green - hints of yellow and orange and red are popping up in many places, especially with the low angle of the late-day sunshine. It could hang on like this for a month, or pop into blazing colors next week - probably will be somewhere in between though.
I was up late last night, or should I say early this morning. I watched just the first few minutes of the debate and when it looked like it would be the typical circus that is Washington these days, I left, and headed into the woods (Sarah is helping to tweak that a little bit, but I'm afraid she is nothing more than a whisper in a wilderness of idiots). The skies were clear and the "transparency" was very good - meaning the skies were extra clear. I had spent a little bit of time right after sunset photographing one of the big walnut trees in a neighbor's pasture, and I wanted to return under a starry sky and see what I could do with that big old tree.
When I arrived the sky above was already black, the sky on the horizon was either deep dark blue or glowing orange from distant urban areas. I was surprised to find the Milky Way already showing up and shining brightly, along with a planet at the southern end of it - I must look that planet up and see what it is. I set up my camera gear and began to take photos - it would be several hours before I quit and returned to the cabin.
At first I shot some images of just that lone walnut tree - it is covered with walnuts but has lost all of its leaves. Man that Milky Way was really shining bright! Then I backed up a bit and framed the starry sky with the entire grove of walnut trees. The glow on the horizon was in two distinct areas - one of them must have been the northwest Arkansas urban areas of Fayetteville - Bentonville; and the other area must have been Ft. Smith. I actually did not mind the "light pollution" as some have put it at all - in fact I rather like the glow and sometimes use it to highlight silhouetted subjects such as walnut trees in the night sky.
I was like a kid in a candy store with my camera under those incredible skies - I would set up a composition, spend ten minutes photographing it, then pick up and move 100 feet away and stop and do it all over again. I spent the next two hours doing this - going from one composition to another to another, and probably hiked a half mile as the crow flies and several miles as I flew in the process. At the far end of the big field I set up and spend a good bit of time photographing my favorite pair of walnut trees that I've been doing a series of for many years - this night was not exception and I got some of my favorite images of them.
I never used a flashlight the entire time - even though it was dark city out there with no moon at all. The sky was so clear I guess the starlight was enough - I could easily see to hike around, but of course that was out in the open field and not in the deep woods - I bet it was pretty dark back in there. At one point I sat down beneath those two walnut trees trying to get the camera setup for a composition and was looking almost straight up through the naked branches to towards the star-studded heavens. After I made a couple of exposures I simply laid back in the soft hay and stared at all that was spread out above me - my goodness, it was INCREDIBLE! It was perfectly still, there were not sounds, yet I felt like I was viewing a million different living critters up there - the nighttime sky when it is like this simply looks and feels "alive" to me. I could have easily fallen fast asleep (it was already past midnight by this time), but I remembered that I still had one very long exposure to make - the main reason for my trip to the field this evening. So I got up and wandered around until I found just the right composition.
Then I setup the timer and began an exposure that would last for an hour and a half, which would capture the star trails made by the rotation of the earth. (I did not realize until later that part of the scene contained the North Star, and so the other stars would be shown making circles around it.)
So, let's see, I guess I would rate the sound at 1, with the darkness at something like 3 or 4.
At some point during the night I heard what I thought was a gunshot coming from the direction of Dug Hollow. That was unlikely, but so was the thought of it being just a giant hickory nut hitting something. I figured that it must have been a large tree splitting in half - they sometimes will make the CRACK of a gunshot.
And I don't think there was any relation to one another, but several minutes later a flock of crows started to scream in the woods nearby, then all got up and flew off. Hum, what in the world? This happened down in the woods near Kenny Woods' cabin, however I don't think that Kenney would have come in during the night - my car was parked smack dab in the middle of the road and there was no way for him to have gotten around me.
Soon after these two events happened I began to see large critters in the shadows, and hear things coming after me in the wind (one was bigfoot, another one a giant coyote!). I had to slap myself in the face to remind me that there were most likely no critters going to attack me after all! (not quite as believable after the bear incident last week though, but still highly unlikely)
Once I started the long exposure I wandered around in the big hay field some more, still in awe of the incredible night sky that followed me everywhere I went. I've have seen more impressive skies than this before - high in the mountains of the west where the air is REALLY clear - but this sky was pretty darn nice.
At about the same time the 90 minute exposure was finished, I noticed that my feet were getting wet - dew was beginning to form on everything. Dew is not a good thing to have form on the front glass of your lens that is pointed skyward, so my timing was perfect - I packed up the camera, bid a fond farewell to the field and the heavens, headed back to the cabin, and tried to silently crawl up the stairs to the loft where I could snuggle up close to my lovely bride. (the camera was actually still making the photograph - or at least completing a 90-minute "dark frame exposure" that helps cut down on digital "noise" when doing a very long exposure like this - I left it in the car to complete its task)
As I crept close to the bed in the loft, my lovely bride whispered out loud "BE SURE TO CHECK FOR TICKS MISTER!"
I have posted a couple of the star photos in larger size for you to look at - reducing them really takes away a lot of the fine detail - even in these larger images - but I hope you will be able to get an idea from these what the beautiful night sky was like - multiply these views by about 20 times to get the full sky that would have been spread out above you.
10/06/08 It is 7am now and still quite dark outside - the sun sure is getting lazy this time of the year! We have some really weird light - kind of yellow all around, just like it was near dusk last night. Things were very hazy/smokey around here all day yesterday as well - not sure it was from the forest fires the government has been setting down in the Ouachitas or not - it seemed more like smoke and less like haze. At any rate it is cool with a slight breeze this morning and feels terrific outside! I can't think of many Arkansas mornings in October that don't feel great! One of the crazy peewee birds is already up and yelling - like he and his mate have been doing now for more than a week. Still don't know what they want, but they seem to spend a great deal of time banging their heads against the wall - literally.
I got to spend nearly the entire day on Saturday out in the woods and it was a beautiful day. It started with a giant electric storm all around, followed by an hour or two of rain. I spent the day at the upper end of the new Lake Ft. Smith doing trail work on a new section of the Ozark Highlands Trail that the city of Ft. Smith built this past year - using the term "built" loosely here. The reason I was there and working all day was because the contractor they hired to do the work really didn't - this has to be the worst trail I've ever seen in my life, and not only did the folks in city government there sign off on this pathetic work, they paid the contractor many tens of thousands of city taxpayer dollars to do it. In fact the "trail" he built never was even completed, and for months now the city and the state park has been directing hikers to use this "trail" even though there is not really a trail there.
Anyway, the woods were beautiful with dogwoods turning brilliant shades of yellow and red all around, and the wetness in the forest from all the rain made even the greens of the rest of the forest really come to life. I laid out the route of this trail on the far side of the lake and once the leaves drop off the trees it is going to be one very nice hike indeed, with many long views out across the new lake.
And it was great to get out and work with my hands - I spent a good bit of time lopping out the trail corridor (that was never done in the first place even though someone had been paid to do it), and some time moving rocks out of the way and lining them up around the outside edges of sharp curves in the trail - this not only helps define the route of the trail so it is easy to follow but I happen to think it also looks really nice, giving a hand-crafted look an appeal to it. I was reminded of the very first day of trail construction our little volunteer hiking club ever did way back in the winter of 1981. I assigned one of our volunteers to do just that all day long - line the outside of the trail with rocks that were dug up during the trail construction. At the end of the day it looked quite beautiful and everyone was really proud of the work - everyone that is except the famous Ken Smith. He did not like the look of it and spent a good bit of time destroying the masterpiece, and did so right in front of the volunteer who had worked so hard to create it. That was the beginning of the end for Ken's involvement with the OHT - he soon left our group for greener pastures. The volunteer was devastated by this and it took me several months to get him back working with us - and I had him line more trail with rocks when he did, and his beautiful artwork remains functional today.
Anyway, it was a great day in the woods and I was one sore but very happy camper on the way home. Our hiking club will be spending all weekend coming up working on this and other parts of the trail that need some special attention to open them up after a long wet summer of growth. The National Geographic article has already increased the traffic on the trail so we really need to get things in good shape, although this is something we always need to do each year. We are looking for volunteers so if any of you would like to lend a hand be sure to join us this weekend at Shores Lake - no experience is needed, and we need plenty of bodies just to move brush and rocks out of the way! (you can see details on our www.hikearkansas.com web page).
The fall color here at Cloudland is moving just a little bit towards oranges and yellows but the overall scene is still mostly green. We actually had a mini "leaf fall" last week - some trees had their leaves turn brown, curl up, and fall off - due to too much rain in early September I suspect. And the ground was covered with these cried up leaves - it was kind of odd seeing them when most everything was remained green and healthy. And the serviceberry tree right next to the cabin continues to BLOOM with white blossoms - it lost all of its leaves a month ago. I just love fall around here - so many changes happen even if some of them are not happening at the correct time!
I spent most of my Sunday in the print room so did not get out at all - working on a large order of large prints for a new bank building in Jasper. It is so interesting to find out what designers select for projects like this - most of these have never been printed before, however a couple of them are favorites and have had widespread publication. I guess that is what happens when you have many tens of thousands of images available. One thing I continue to be amazed by is the software I use to enlarge these photos. I am now able to make very large prints that look just stunning from digital files that only a couple of years ago could only be enlarged to something much smaller (like 16 x 20 - many of these prints will be 30 x 40). It is a great time to be a photographer, a printer, and a customer!
Speaking of photography, I've had lots of e-mails about the recent star trail and Milky Way photos - everyone wants to know how they can take photos like those with their little point and shoot cameras. The simple answer is that you can't. It does take a bit of specialized camera equipment (that has just recently become available), very expensive lenses, and good technique that I have learned over the past 30+ years of being a nature photographer. Plus you must have the right atmospheric conditions to make it all happen. With all of these things in hand it can be easy to do, but you have to be willing to be out much of the night working on it - that is true of a lot of really good nature photography - you must commit yourself to spending the time and making the effort to put yourself where you need to be when the light or the conditions are right - you can't just walk out the door most of the time and expect good results. These are some of the things that I teach in my workshops - and by the way we still have some room left in two of the weekend workshops for next April, but those spaces are filling quickly, so if you are interested, now is the time to look into it.
**NEW FALL COLOR WORKSHOP FOR 2009. And we just added a new workshop for 2009 this morning...
I just checked my account with the printers in Michigan who are doing the CLOUDLAND JOURNAL book - EEKS, it was printed last week and may ship this week - that means we may have these books in hand by Friday - YIKES! I will have waited more than ten years for the day when I lay my hands on a completed book - and I will hold my breath in the hopes it will all be worth it for those of you who buy a copy and read it. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, it is MONDAY, the very best day of the week - I hope you have a grand one and get the chance to get outside and enjoy this early fall weather!
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