Lake D’Arbonne in northeast Louisiana is huge: 15, 250 acres. It is a fishermen’s haven: bass, crappie, catfish, bream. On a clear, warm day in April, fishing boats criss-crossing the lake–from jon-boats with small outboards to streamlined bass boats with twin motors–is a constant. Thus turning my kayak to face the oncoming wakes of passing boats was also a constant. Interestingly, the slow jon-boats that sort of wallow through the water rock a 12-foot kayak much more severely than a high-powered bass boat on plane, with only a few inches of propeller actually in the water. Exploring a lake that…

Hooboy, February last year must have been a humdinger. Going through my archive, I find just two photography outings and neither of them amounted to much. I was at Camp Hardtner, but for a meeting and as I was leaving, I stopped in my car on the road to take 6 shots of a flock of robins in the trees along Fish Creek at the edge of camp. Mostly, they showed me their behinds. And I visited Black Bayou Lake NWR once and made about 10 shots, none of which are worthy of standing for the month of February. But…

Where has the time gone? I usually do my #YearInReview in December, making the 12th post on December 31, that is after all of my shooting done for the year. But… late is better than never, so here goes… In January of 2021, I visited a couple of areas in the Kisatchie National Forest down in Vernon Parish, but spent more time at Black Bayou Lake NWR, that treasure of great value practically in my back yard. I was there the 17th, exactly one year and two days ago. It was late afternoon and I was there only a short…

Wow! I am still in awe. Due to the charity of dear friends, I was able to spend 5 days in December in their second home on Dauphin Island. And I am still in awe. Dauphin Island is the barrier island that helps form Mobile Bay. About 6 1/2 miles of the island are settled and constitute the town, another 6-8 miles are still in their pristine, wild state, and the town area is dotted with lovely little natural areas. The only one I was not able to visit was the Audubon Bird Sanctuary; it was closed due to hurricane…

For my October feature photo, I stood on a bridge over Bayou Desiard. In November, I launched my kayak onto the bayou for the first time. The friend who first got me into a kayak had been telling me about this stretch of the bayou he thought particularly beautiful. Back in November, I was still reluctant to take the kayak a new place alone, so I prevailed upon him and the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went there. (Just wait ’til you hear about December!) What an extraordinary experience it is to glide quietly among the cypress trees, see the texture…