Caddo Lake and East Texas Autumn - A Hackberry Farm Nature Photography Workshop field report

Cruising along the Big Cypress Bayou in the dark, I can tell everyone is anticipating the sunrise.  Although we arrived the day before, this is our first day out on the big water of the Caddo Lake swamps.  The lights from the boat light up the Spanish moss draping from the bald cypress trees in a way that is surreal.  

A cold front the day before dropped unseasonably warm temperatures below seasonal levels.  Skimming across the water at 5 knots is cold.  Our anticipation, however, keeps us going as we reach a point in the swamps that's within spitting distance from the Louisiana state line.  We find a spot, drift to a stop, and wait.

As the water calms around us, the sky to the east starts to lighten.  First, pink tinges the wispy clouds floating through the eastern sky.  Soon, the sky gradiates from deep blue to orange.  On the Caddo Lake and East Texas Autumn nature photography workshop, scenes like this are common - and welcome.

As the sun rises, photo opportunities abound.  Silhouetted cypress trees, rusty red fall colors, buttressed trunks, and other aspects of autumn surround us.  It's a photographer's delight.

As we cruise the shoreline, a great blue heron hangs out at the base of an ancient cypress tree.    The bird thinks he's hidden, but each camera in our group turns his way, proving he's not.  He sits motionless at the base of the cypress tree that's surrounded by water.  The tree's leaves are burnished with the colors of autumn, and a shock of Spanish moss hangs down and lazily frames the bird.  As common as great blue herons are, the bird being in the scene before us elevates the status of the avian to near legendary.  You could not have asked for the bird to be posed in a better spot.

All across the lake, scenes like this play out.  As the week plays out, temperatures return to above normal, and it warms again.  These elevated temperatures are uncommon for this year, as autumn has been warm and dry.  Since the area is stricken by drought, the lake is down a bit, and the warm weather keeps a leaf-eating insect in business longer than usual.  As such, there are areas of the lake where the trees have dropped their leaves and have begun to green once again (as if it were spring).  In other areas of the lake, some trees were leafless.

However, we do find good pockets of color and exploit those areas by putting image to digital medium.

Come Wednesday evening, we retire to our lodging after a good supper at a local restaurant.  We sit in the lodge's common areas and make small talk.  Soon, everyone starts to head to their rooms.  While the folks shuffle about, I check my text messages and see a note from a friend in the Dallas area.

"From my front yard…" the text read, and it's accompanied by a picture.

"Could it be," I thought to myself.  I asked one of the guests to walk outside and take a look.  To the north, I could see it with my own eyes:  the aurora borealis.

From this far south, we can see the red glow of the phenomenon's tops. It was beautiful.  Now, instead of going to bed, we grab cameras and tripods and walk to the lake to photograph the incredible occurrence.

No one goes to Texas to see the aurora borealis, but here we are, in the heart of the cypress swamps, and it's dancing across the northern horizon.  As long as we live, we may never witness this again.

It's all part of the mystery of this part of the Lone Star State.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES