I have spent a lot of time over the last couple of years photographing remote wilderness streams. In the mountains the streams are the center of the life cycle. I have been working to document the habitat of the Eastern Hemlock, which is being decimated by a little critter from Japan called the Hemlock Wooy Adelgid (HWD.) These insects have been working their way down the Appalachain mountian chain since the 1950’s. There are organizations trying to fight this with chemical injections and predator beetles, however the National Forest Service has pretty much resigned itself to the fact that most every Eastern Hemlock tree will die. When they do the landscape of the mountains east of the Mississippi will be changed, perhaps forever. The effect on wildlife and trout is unknown. My hope is that someday the photographs I have gone to great trouble to make will be of value to those of later generations that may never see or touch a Hemlock.
These photographs of Jones Creek in the Chattahoochee National Forest were made with a Maymiya 7ii 6×7 with a 43mm lens. Most of the exposures are 1-2 min @f22.
| photographer. artist. king of the wild frontier.
Thursday September 9th 2010
