WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE

Ash Banks, Ocotillo and Moon, West Border Area, Big Bend National Park, Texas January 1990

Wykoff Creek, Elk State Forest, Pennsylvania April 1990

I spent the first 37 years of my life in Texas, and when we moved to the east coast, it became all to apparent that if I wanted to continue making landscape images, I was going to become very familiar with water. Not that we didn't have creeks, rivers, ponds and lakes in Texas. Austin is split in half by the Colorado River, or because it is damned east of town, Town Lake. That's what they do in Texas to make lakes, they dam rivers and creeks. The only natural lake in all of Texas is Caddo Lake which was formed by a earth quake or from the overflow of a log jam on the Red River (both stories have some turth) and it's located over in northeast Texas. So water was not a big part of my landscapes, but that all changed when I moved east. It's especially true of Massachusetts. You can't drive a miles on any road around here without crossing a creek or passing a lake. It's the fault of the glaciers of the most recent ice age. When the ice melted they left great holes and valleys that merely were filled with water. And since it continues to rain and snow with great frequency in these parts, the overflow of those holes and valleys become creeks, runs, branches, and rivers. And the subject of many landscape photographers.