Swamp Studio [Canon 5D]
January 24, 2010 Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida
(click in the image for a larger version)
I was in south Florida last week giving some presentations and digital darkroom sessions at FOTOfusion, the festival of photography and digital imaging that is hosted every year by the Palm Beach Photographic Centre. This was the first FOTOfusion to take place in the Centre's wonderful new home in downtown West Palm Beach. It was great to link up with old friends and also meet some new ones. All in all, it was a very fun and inspiring week (not to mention missing the torrential rains and some snow that doused my area of California all week while I was away).
Whenever I travel I always try take advantage of the possibilities for making new images in different landscapes and this time was no exception. Although my schedule did not allow for as much free photo time as I would have liked, I did manage to spend one extra day in the cypress swamps of Big Cypress National Preserve, which borders on the northern side of the Everglades National Park. I had a specific pinhole photograph that I wanted to make for my Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin series.
My first visit here was last March, but the fact that it was the end of the dry season, combined with the effects of a long and serious drought, meant that there was no water in the cypress swamps. This put a definite crimp in the plans for the photograph that I wanted to make.
A couple of weeks before I went to Florida this time, I called the visitor center and found out that there was plenty of water in the swamp this time around. The weather and lighting were perfect when I arrived. Since I was heading into unfamiliar terrain that might be populated by large carnivorous reptiles, I did the responsible thing and filled out a back-country permit and told the rangers that I expected to check back in before the end of the day. Then I donned my grubby swamp clothes, grabbed my gear and hiked south along the Florida trail and headed for a nearby stand of cypress trees. It was wet and muddy in the grasslands right from the start, but once the trail ("and "trail" is an approximation...it's hard to call it a trail when it's underwater and hard to see!) entered the stand of cypress trees, the water became clean and clear and there was no more squishy mud. As I continued into the trees, the water got deeper. The average depth was ankle to knee-deep, though in some places it was waist-deep.
At work in the swamp studio (click the image for a larger version)
I finally found an area that would work well for my "swamp studio". There were many beautiful trees, festooned with bromeliads (an "air plant" that uses other plants for support), an area of deeper open water and plenty of places that were not too deep for me to set up my small tripod and the artifacts I was photographing (three industrial gauges). One challenge was the fact that since water covered all of the ground, there was no easy place to set down my camera bag and backpack. Fortunately, I found a tree that had fallen across some other trees and a portion of it formed a perfect level platform where I could stash my gear.
After I had been in the "studio" for about an hour, I noticed an alligator on a log in the middle of a deep pool that was adjacent to the shallower water where I was working. It was not there when I arrived. But he was probably at least 100 feet away and didn't seem too interested in leaving his log. So I kept an eye on him while I continued to make photos. I made a fair amount of noise sloshing through the water taking a few self-timer shots and at that point the gator slipped back into the deep pool and I did not see him again, though I did keep a close watch on the edges of the area where I was working.
My swamp "neighbor" (click the image for a larger version)
In all I spent about three hours in my swamp studio. It was a very beautiful and peaceful place; a biologically and visually rich environment that was fascinating to experience. It is always exciting to explore a new landscape for the first time. And while this was not the first time I had been here, the presence of water made it a very different place from the one I had seen the previous Spring. I will definitely return for another visit to Big Cypress Preserve the next time my travels take me to south Florida and I look forward to wading into the cypress swamp again one day.
Keep an eye on this space. The pinhole photograph I made that day will eventually be posted here.
