In 1942, a young congressman, Lyndon B Johnson arranged for the US Army to build one of their new ammunition plants in Texas on the Louisiana border. Shortly, 8493 acre were purchased on Caddo Lake and the plant was built. During WWII, Monsanto Corp produced 393,000,000 pounds of TNT at this location! For fifty-five years, the plant built everything from incendiary devices to rocket motors. Thiokol Corp modernized the plant from making liquid rocket fuel to producing solid rocket fuel after the Korean War, the Cold War era. Then in 1987, the plant was used as part of a treaty as the site where the Pershing I & II missiles were destroyed. And now, it’s a National Wildlife Refuge … dang!
What you see above is what’s left of Production Area #1 for the production of TNT. We were there birding, looking for the Red-cockaded Woodpecker (which we did find) when we literally stumbled upon Production Area #1. As you can see, the forest has reclaimed the area bringing an eerily yet beautiful landscape. It’s completely open to the public with signs that have photos to show you what the buildings once looked like (we only explored one of the many sites). A number of the blockhouses have their doors removed and a big wire in their place. Looking in with our lenses (I shot with the Z 6 / Z24-200) we say paychecks from Thiokol dated from 1984 amongst all the papers just lying there on the shelves.
The most amazing thing is it would seem taggers and souvenir hunters have not found the place. We weren’t there to shoot the haunting structural ghosts but took a few moments from our birding to give it all a gander. It’s a really cool place deserving more of my camera time and I will in the future cause it’s not what you expect at a place called Caddo Lake NWR!
When we look at critters, we often, at least I do, wonder why they have the coloration they do. Some, like the Rhino or elephant, don’t really need to blend so are just gray all over. The Polar Bear can blend when they are lying so they can catch their prey. Others like the Pronghorn especially when young need to totally blend in. But how does one blend in when they are partially orange and white? The answer is not always obvious.
Pronghorn captured by D6 / 180-400VR
In the late fall when winter’s first snows have fallen and the last of the falls grasses are still exposed, you can quickly see why the Pronghorn have adapted to their color scheme. The further away they are, the more they blend, and when your predators have a finite range they can see, then they have a chance at survival. Though we saw one Pronghorn taken down on our latest travels, the rest of the herd was gone like a shot and quickly blending in a mile off with their butts all forming the heart shape of alarm. Want to show this evolution in your photographs, you gotta first think about it and then find the opportunity where it appears. It’s an elegant way of telling their story visually, how they can blend.
Yep, in our landscape photos and in general, red just loves black! We love our reds, we love them saturated, deep, vibrant and if at all possible fire engine red. Its just part of the human condition and as such, let’s just give ourselves what we love.
There are many ways to do this. Saturation is by far the most common method of delivering that gorgeous red. I prefer more subtle methods such as using White Balance and exposure. In this example at Caddo Lake, I set the White Balance manually to 8000k and underexposed by 1 2/3 stops. The underexposure not only saturated the color but made sure the black went truly black. Our mind’s eye sees that black and uses it to determine other colors and by association, we see other colors more vibrant. Or in real simple terms, red loves black!
There isn’t a wildlife photographer who doesn’t owe a debt of gratitude to the Great Blue Heron. They patiently put up with us in the beginning of our passionate pursuit of wildlife photography. This big bird makes us feel successful. Being a bigger bird, they have more confidence permitting us to get closer physically to them. At the same time, being bigger we don’t need to have as big lens or lots of skill to get a good images size in the viewfinder. We comeback with photographs that make us feel successful, so we move to other subjects that challenge our skills knowing we conjured them with the amiable GBH. But many don’t go back to the GBH, I often hear, “I’ve photographed them a lot already.” Which of course, we’ve all done but have we don’t it well? Have we made the common, uncommon?
Great Blue Heron captured by D6 / 180-400VR
The Great Blue Heron is the species, subject that taught me the all-important lesson of making the common, uncommon in my photograph. There is nothing more common to the wildlife photographer then the GBH. They are found in nearly every corner of North America, wild or urban. I have thousands of Great Blue Heron image, thousands and looking through them, you will see a gradual lever of improvement. I’m constantly photography them trying to improve on my last image and the story it told. I was very fortunate to add to this quest yesterday floating on Caddo Lake. I’m quite excited by the opportunities I had this week to move the ball forward with the Great Blue Heron. If I hadn’t started with them forty years ago, I wonder if I would have moved the ball forward without such a big measuring stick. I think we owe a lot, to the amiable GBH!
Long, long ago Caddo Lake, TX was put on my list of locales I had to get too. Sadly, it’s taken nearly four decades to make that happen. It is such a gorgeous place, I’m sadden it’s taken so long to get here but so happy I finally made it. Not widely known to folks, I came here for birds amongst the bayou but it’s the bayou itself that has grabbed my imagination and fills be with awe each sunrise. The dew point is perfect to bring out a fog across the water. The batches of color here and there bring the eye to the vertical texture of the intriguing Cypress. Man, it’s simply gorgeous.
Caddo Lake captured by D6 / 180-400VR
The question comes up with every click though, color or B&W? It’s a very texture rich target that looks romantic with every click in B&W. The subtle shades of gray punctuated with orange and red here and there makes color a slam dunk with any click. So then when you’re assembling the elements in the viewfinder, which way do you turn? This is how I solved the question in my own mind. With the hint of light kissing the fall color, I shot in color. And when there was no direct hint of light and the Spanish Moss really brought out the texture, I went B&W. The toss-up was the cold blue trunks leaking through the fall color. Sometimes I went color and sometimes I went B&W. The one thing for sure, I plan on being back to explore Caddo Lake much more thoroughly. A boat appears to be a key in that exploration which is exciting to plan. More time is also needed as this is a place time has forgotten. It’s a local all wrapped up in delicate, sublime beauty!
I’ve photographed every Jay in North America over the past forty years. One, the Blue Jay has eluded me and while I’ve seen them forever, I’ve had no luck getting glass on them. A very common bird who thousands have photographed, I wasn’t one of them until finally, today.
I love Jays! I had one in Santa Barbara at the house that would come down and take peanuts from me. In Mammoth, we had Squeaky, a Stellar Jay that would keep us company around the property. I photographed them a lot! When we moved to The Ranch, one of the first things we found was a pile of blue feathers, a Blue Jay that had been taken out by the resident Cooper’s. I figured they wouldn’t come around much after that. So a month later when we heard a Blue Jay, I thought there might be hope.
In the last month, we’ve had four pop in and out of the feeders but were incredibly shy. Finally this afternoon I made my mind up to at least get glass on one. There I sat in the 38 degrees photographing every bird species BUT the Blue Jay. Just when the sun had left the perches and I was about to wrap things up, I heard them call. Moments later one landed in the branch to give me an eye. It sat long enough for a couple of clicks, then it went to the feeder for a moment and then, gone. The good news is, I broke the jynx. The better news, I can only improve on this photo cause it finally happened.
