Looking west from a Petit Jean Mountain overlook late in the afternoon in October of 2008. A few minutes before the view was too bright, a few minutes later, it was too dark. The picture was squirreled away in my archives. A question from my wife stirred up a photo search and this is one of my unintended discoveries as I looked. Shot October 2008.
Click on the lightning to see how the story started.
A question from my wife regarding the identity of a tree in our neighbor’s yard sent me on a trip through the archives. After identifying the tree as one of the “hicker nut,” (hickory to the uninitiated), persuasion, I began a search of my archives to find a particular picture of the tree. I found the picture I wanted: the tree in its bright yellow fall plumage. As a bonus, I also found a picture of a lightning strike with the tree in the foreground — and a number of other shots I previously overlooked — some of which I decided were ready to be shown.
So this week, we are wandering through the archives. See the first three pictures in the search on the Photo of the Week page at Corndancer dot com. You will see the yellow tree, the lightning strike and a companion picture to the one above — and below.
Looking north from the lodge observation area at Petit Jean State Park, near Morrilton, Arkansas. The sun is beginning to set. I shot the picture you see at the top of the page from an observation area near the bluffs you see above. I shot both pictures in October of 2008.
Around 30 minutes or so northeast of Petit Jean Mountain is Scotland, Arkansas. There is an old home place there, right on the main drag, sporting an old barn and a house with a dug well in a well shed. When I was in that neighborhood in 2008, I found a unique home place in the boondocks nearby and featured it that week, to the expense of the place in town. Now I am righting that wrong. The well shed is below. See the house in our Weekly Grist Gallery.
This dug well and shed are part of an old home place right on Arkansas Highway 95 in Scotland, Arkansas. It is not necessary to leave your vehicle to see it. The family barn is in the background. Shot October 2008.
A bit closer to home, just south of Scott, Arkansas on Arkansas Highway 161 is a favorite target of area photographers: A pecan tree tunnel. I like the fall shots best when most of the leaves have dropped and you see the character of the trees. But then, that’s just me.
Pecan tree tunnel south of Scott, Arkansas on Arkansas Highway 161. November 2009.
This is not the first time I’ve shot these trees, but this is the first time for this particular picture. See the previous visit, “A tunnel of trees.” The shots are from about the same place as this one in the evening and the next morning.
This sailor is pulling crew duty as he watches the proceedings of the 2005 New Orleans French Quarter Fest to his immediate front.
And finally, way further down south, a crew member of the St. James, a tug boat docked at a jetty on the Mississippi River in New Orleans eyeballed me just as I made this shot. I nodded to him and he nodded approval to me. Just to his front is Waldenberg Park where a big part of the 2005 French Quarter Fest activities are taking place.
Click the picture for our Weekly Grist gallery
See our Weekly Grist gallery for more archive pictures
See some flowers, the old house next to the well shed, an old structure that I can’t figure out — old school or old church — which is it? A common place sight that made an uncommon reflection, and a couple of other late evening sunset shots.
Thanks for joining me in a trip through the archives.
Joe Dempsey
Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind
http://www.joedempseyphoto.com/
http://www.joedempseycommunications.com/
http://www.corndancer.com/joephoto/photohome.html
Filed under: Behind the Scenes, but wait, there's more | Tagged: Arkansas, Arkansas Highway 95, barn, bluff, dug well, dug well shed, French Quarter, Grist, hickory leaves, Hickory tree, highway 161, lightning, lightning strike, Mississippi River, Mississippi River at New Orleans, Morrilton Arkansas, mountain sunset, mountains, New Orleans bridge, October 2008, Ozarks, pecan tree tunnel, pecan tree tunnel on highway 161, pecan trees on highway 161, Petit Jean State Park, picture of lightning, Scotland Arkansas, Scott Arkansas, sunset in mountains, sunset in the mountains, tree tunnel, tug boat crew, tugboat, Weekly Grist |
Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind 
Wonderful twist on how we use hindsight. After all, life seems to include a never-ending list of “why did I do that” encounters.
About these pics I can say –
1) The opening pic really caught my eye, but I like the Corndancer version better
2) I recall some of these pics in their original posts
3) We used to have hicker nut trees and their huge, yellow leaves in the fall = but they are all gone now.
Have a good week Joe! Happy Thanksgiving and blessings to you and your family.
Joe … have a blessed Thanksgiving!