Winter Snapshots
March 19, 2007
For several years around Christmas I've
intended to take time out to get a picture of the Crawford
County Courthouse here in town. I finally got around to it on
the Friday evening before Christmas. I wanted to post it on my
Recent Photos page, except the picture required several bouts
of computer processing to undo some of the distortion caused by
my wide-angle camera lens. By the time I got the picture
straightened up, Christmas was over. I might post it there next
year.
All those quick trips I make to Lee Creek
park when I think there might be a decent sunset paid off
big-time on Saturday, January 6. The icing on the cake was the
bald eagle that flew overhead at the same time the colors were
at their peak (see the picture at the top of this page). I got
him in one of the pictures, though the shutter speed on the
camera was so long that the eagle was just a blur.
The following Sunday morning Cliff and I
got up early and drove to White Rock, because I got suckered in
by the exciting news at
SpaceWeather.com that one
of the brightest comets in years, Comet McNaught, should be
visible at dawn low on the horizon near where the sun rises. It
was cloudy and foggy when we left the house, but I'd been
watching the radar and weather satellite images and I thought
there was a good chance an incoming high pressure system would
drive away the clouds. I was wrong about the weather, and White
Rock was shrouded in fog. Yet Cliff and I had a good time. A
foggy winter morning in the forest has its own scenic quality.
That evening we drove to the Mulberry River
bottoms because the comet was possibly visible just after
sunset. The sky was clear yet there was a lot of haze
that took on a wonderful orange glow a few minutes after the
sun disappeared. While scanning the sky with my big camera lens
hoping to spot the comet, I snapped a bunch of pictures
of a line of birds way off in the distance.
Temperatures were above average - in the
50's, but there was a constant wind with strong gusts, and I
had to put on my cold weather clothes to keep me warm. Cliff
retreated to the truck and played with the radio and heater
controls. The comet never did show itself, and I came up with
the name "Comet McNot".
I returned the next night, because
according to sources on the Internet the comet was growing
brighter by the hour, but I still didn't see it. I'd used my
high power lens to slowly scan the horizon, so I know if it had
been there I would have seen it. The next night several folks
in the area captured it with cameras and posted pictures
online; those pictures revealed that the comet was just a
small, faint, fuzzy object in this area. It wasn't the profound
sight I'd been hoping for. Over the next month the comet
dazzled skygazers in the southern hemisphere, but it wasn't
visible in the U.S.
Sunday morning January 14 I made the trip
to the Talimena Scenic Drive along the top of Rich Mountain,
hoping to catch some winter scenery. The idea was that, like Mt
Magazine, Rich Mountain is so high in elevation that it will
receive snow when the surrounding areas don't. And most
of the time this goes almost unnoticed. As I got to about 1500
feet in elevation I began to see ice on the trees, but as I
drove east and the road climbed higher up the mountain, the ice
suddenly disappeared. I pulled over at one of the overlooks,
and could actually feel that the air was warmer. A thermometer
I had in the back of the truck confirmed this. It was raining
and foggy so I turned off of the scenic drive and down the side
of the mountain to the Rich mountain community, hoping to see
some small waterfalls and cascades along the way. I saw some
pretty stuff, though small, on the Oklahoma side on the drive
home.
I was at Clear Creek park Saturday evening,
March 3 waiting for the moon to rise. It was technically a full
moon, though mostly covered by the earth's shadow. It was
emerging from a total lunar eclipse.
I attended a weekend wildflower photography
workshop by Tim Ernst, March 16 through 18. Helping Tim at the
workshop was Don Kurz, a professional botanist and author of
several guidebooks (Six years ago I gave Daddy a copy of
Don’s Scenic Driving in the Ozarks as a retirement
present). This was the first time I’d scheduled some time
off from work in 18 months, and as I left work Friday afternoon
I felt like I was going on vacation. I took my normal route to
Ponca, which is always enjoyable as soon as I turn onto Highway
21 North at Clarksville. To the northeast - I’m guessing
somewhere near the Johnson County line - filling the sky was a
colossal tower of smoke from a Forest Service controlled burn,
except I think it was out of control. It was quite a sight.
I drove into Jasper for dinner at the Ozark
Cafe. Their Friday night buffet is pretty good if you get there
early. I then drove back west to Mount Sherman. The workshop
was at the Buffalo Lodge. We had a classroom session that night
where Tim covered techniques for taking close up pictures of
wildflowers.
The next morning we carpooled to Lost
Valley to take wildflower pictures. Along the hike in, Don Kurz
stopped several times to point out certain wildflowers. He told
us some interesting facts about the early-season wildflowers.
One of the workshop students, Larry Daniel, took a bunch of
photos along the way, and gave me permission to publish them on
this web site (thanks Larry!). His wife, Marilyn, is in the top
picture below:
With Tim’s help, I got one good shot
of an Ozark Wake Robin before the breeze picked up and made
shooting impossible. We drove back to the lodge for lunch and
more instruction, including digital darkroom processing and
printing.
We returned to Lost Valley that afternoon.
Tim’s wife, Pam, accompanied us and helped me find
several Bloodroot in bloom, but none of the pictures came out
very good. I wandered off up a dry moss-covered stream bed and
took shots of Hepatica (also called Liverleaf) at several
locations. That evening after dinner we continued photo
processing and printing, and Don Kurz presented a slideshow of
spring wildflower pictures he’s taken over the years that
included a lot of expert narration.
