Caddo Lake and East Texas Autumn (second session)- A Hackberry Farm Nature Photography Workshop

It always amazes me how things in nature change from day to day.  In many ways, this constant change is justification for going to the same place over and over again.  Nature is in continual flux.

Just as soon as one Caddo Lake and East Texas Autumn nature photography workshop ends, the next one begins.  Mid-November is the ideal time to see fall colors at Caddo Lake. Upon the arrival of a new group, it’s not long before we are back at the lake, embracing an unusual autumn in an out-of-the-way place in East Texas.

Even in late November, the heat dragged on.  Highs in the low-80s and lows in the 50s.  While the weather was pleasant, it wasn’t what any of us expected.   As such, the color was spotty.  Brilliant fall colors in one area were met by bright green trees in another.  Still, in other places, a voracious worm ate the leaves off the trees and left patches of the lake looking like the dead of winter.  The trees there weren’t dead, but they were dormant.  However, Spanish moss still drapes each tree.

One of the opportunities nature photography offers is to work with the hand you are given in a particular location.  There is always something beautiful to take pictures of when you learn to “see” the world around you.

Therefore, for the entire week, we explored the swamps on foot and by boat.  We explore the woods and sights around the lake by vehicle.  With each excursion, photo opportunities abound:  traditional, front-lit landscape photographs are always present, but there are also opportunities for alternative techniques like intentional camera movement, backlit scenes, high key, black and white, or multiple exposures.  While one picture won’t define this magical place, a collection of curated images, when presented together, helps tell the story of Texas’s only natural lake and the largest bald cypress forest in the country.

This wetland is federally protected and under an international treaty.  Each tree that stands in the shallow, black water is a photo study all on its own.  Each tree is unique from the last one.  The way the trunk buttresses creates a unique “fingerprint” that’s unique to that one tree.  The buttresses and their curious lower flare help increase the surface area of the trunk and help it stand better in the wet soil in which it’s rooted.  Around the tree, curious wooden knobs protrude from the soil and water.  These “knees” help stabilize the tree, and some theorize they also help it respire in the low-oxygen water.

As we cruise through a manmade channel called the government ditch, Spanish moss drapes the channel.  I’ve been through the ditch many times, but creeping through the channel in the quietness of the afternoon is always surreal.  Up ahead, a great blue heron creeps in the shadow until we get too close for comfort.  He flies away and squawks his displeasure.  Around the corner, the water is so still that it’s hard to discern where the water ends and the sky begins.  Up ahead, a beaver swims through the shallow water to some unknown location.

It’s another magical day in the swamps.  And I am glad we’re here.