Sunday, August 18, 2013
Pine Buff, Arkansas

I’m not certain what stirred me on the evening of July 11, 2012, to drive out to what most folks around here call “Old Main,” a beat-up, bumpy road winding through farmland southeast from my fair city of Pine Bluff, Arkansas.  But whatever it was, it sent me in the correct direction at absolutely the right time.  Conditions were approaching perfection as I wheeled up to this field of maize.  I stopped in a turn-row, jumped out of the truck, and fired a few dozen shots to make sure I grabbed something.  Then, I hurriedly set up the tripod to get serious.

How Wide Is Wide?

Here’s a panorama of the entire field.  It looks diminutive here, but don’t let that fool you.  The original is 64 inches wide.  That’s 5 feet and 4 inches for the mathematically challenged amongst us.

The ideal conditions lasted about five minutes after my original setup before the cloud formations began to deteriorate.  After the shoot, the gears in my little pea brain began to turn and generate questions such as, “What made you go there?”  The answer was, “I felt an urge.”  “From whence came the urge?”  My answer to the last query was, “I can’t explain it, but will remain open for similar urges.”

Don't Move.  I've Gotta Get the Right Lens.

This egret remained motionless as I backed up and fiddle-faddled with cameras and lenses to capture the bird along with 60, maybe 70 additional images of this setting.  It appears that both of us were following instructions.

A little less than three months later on October 2, 2012, during a business trip to Lake Village, Arkansas, the stirring occurred again.  This time, the planted urge was to motor down the town’s lakeside drive.  After a few blocks, there stood a solitary white egret, perched on the end of a dock, an art director’s dream.  It gets better.  I was late spotting the bird and had to stop, back up, grab a camera, and change lenses, all the while fearing that the egret would take flight.  He (or she) stayed put for as long as I wanted to shoot.

The only conclusion I can come to is that the Higher Power in which I steadfastly believe had a hand in pointing me in the right direction.  The only thing I had to do was follow directions.  Probably, I should pay closer attention to these urgings in matters other than photographic locations.  Though it is none of my affair, I strongly suspect that I am not alone along these lines.