One of the things about Arkansas weather is its predictability – you can always count on it. . .to be full of surprises. You can walk outside in shorts and a t-shirt one day and, the next day, need to wear enough clothes to survive a trip to Antarctica. Two or three days later, you’re back to shorts and a t-shirt. We really do get wild weather changes like that.
“Wild” is the perfect description for this month’s weather. One week, temperatures were reaching near 60 degrees. The next week, we received a couple of inches of snow, temperatures didn’t get above freezing, and I woke up one morning to a temperature of 3°F and a wind chill of -7°F. It was absolutely unbearable when I took the dog outside that morning, although he seemed to think it was quite lovely.
It was so cold for so long that my pond froze over. Of course, I had to go see if there was anything to photograph. Throwing on a coat and grabbing my camera, I walked down to the edge of the ice where I found this solitary leaf lying on the frozen surface.
After about a week of those sub-freezing temperatures, it slowly began warming up bringing a lot of heavy rain. I would like to think the worst of this is over; however, it’s not unusual to get another cold snap or two before Spring arrives, so I expect we’ll be dealing with more Winter weather in the not too distant future.
ON LOCATION
Before the bitter cold temperatures set in, I made a trip to the banks of the Arkansas River in Dardanelle, Arkansas, a location I hadn’t been to since 2018. Dardanelle is one of the few places I know of where you can walk along the river as if you were walking along a beach. I spent about an hour there and captured a few frames that I thought at the time might be pretty decent but, when I got home and looked at them on my computer, they didn’t impress me like I thought they would. However, as I was getting ready to leave, I happened to notice a small group of trees that looked like ghostly figures against the shadow of the hill behind them. One of my goals this year is to get out and photograph at times other than early morning, so I made this trip in the late afternoon. Had it not been for that, I probably wouldn’t have ever noticed this scene.
The following week, the cold temperatures hit, but I was still able to get out briefly and visit the Lorance Creek Natural Area. This was the first time for me to make the relatively short drive to Lorance Creek since 2020, so I wasn’t sure what I might find. As I walked along the trail that eventually turned into a boardwalk leading into the swamp area filled with water tupelo and bald cypress trees, I just wasn’t seeing much to photograph until I looked over the edge of the railing and noticed the patterns that had formed in the icy surface of the water. I was able to get several images of the different patterns before I had to head back home and deal with newly frozen water pipes. ☹️ Fortunately, the pipes didn’t burst, but it did take nearly two days to thaw them out and get the water flowing again.
CATCHING MY ATTENTION
A couple of quotes and blog posts I saw that caught my attention:
“I prefer to make an image that asks a question rather than answers one.” – Gary Randall
“Quit making the same mistakes. Make new ones.” – Richard Bernabe
Blog post by John Pedersen – “Creative Skill versus Technical Skill”
Blog post by Gary Randall – “Intimate Landscape Scenes”
That’s all for January. Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you again next month for my February recap.