Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge is located about 90 minutes south east of Indianapolis. Muscatatuck lies within a migration flyway and is a frequent host to a variety of ducks, geese, and some cranes. What attracted me to Muscatatuck was the presence of river otter — a mammal that I haven’t had much luck getting photographs of. My luck would not change here. We saw one otter fishing, at a distance, during our initial reconaissance of the refuge, but other than a few geese and some nervous deer there was scarce wildlife on the day I spent there.
No matter, there were a number of bald cypress trees in a swamp showing some wonderful color. So I spent a lot of time in both the early morning and late afternoon working different compositions and lighting.
Cypress trees are normally evergreen, but the Bald Cypress is deciduous and loses its foliage for the winter (that’s where the “bald” in Bald Cypress comes from). The combination of the color of the leaves and the unusual trunk made it an attractive subject. The soft and rather variable light didn’t hurt either.
by Dave
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