While photographing the Bald Cypress trees at Muscatatuck NWR, a nice couple stopped to take in the view and we chatted for a while. They were from the next county over and visited the refuge frequently. I mentioned that I was frustrated that I couldn’t find the river otter and they said they had seen otter in the past on a certain trail. Lacking any other leads, I hiked in the quarter mile or so with my equipment and hoped for the best.
Alas, I’m sure there are otter there at some point in the year - but the water bodies in the refuge are managed and, on that particular day, the pond was dry. No otter, no way.
The sun was getting low and the stumps in drained pond/swamp were creating some nice shadows. I had lugged the 500mm lens out there why not take a few pictures? When I put my eye to the viewfinder it was like looking at a wonderland. The bright sun made it difficult to see, and perhaps I just wasn’t paying attention to the scale of it all, but the entire area was a massive web.
This really isn’t unlike photographing the Badlands of South Dakota and probably a thousand other places. Most of the time this probably just looks rather uninteresting - but when the light is just so, the landscape transforms itself into something truly special.
Oh to be here at the same time after a rainshower!
