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Overview
Rolling hills, rich forests, and beautiful vistas have made Brown County, Indiana, a favorite haunt of painters and ordinary tourists. In this gorgeous collection, landscape photographer Gary Moore reveals the spirit of the place in the morning hours as it awakens to the new day.
Complementing Moore’s wonderful photographs is a text by James P. Eagleman, one of the area’s lifelong naturalists, which showcases the county’s unique flora and fauna. Included with more than one hundred color landscape photographs are Moore’s tips on composition, atmosphere, and lighting, encouraging readers to test their creativity with whatever equipment they possess. A book to treasure, Brown County Mornings beckons visitors to enjoy this magical place at any time of day or year.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780253011299 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Indiana University Press |
| Publication date: | 12/22/2021 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 143 |
| Sales rank: | 692,776 |
| File size: | 14 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Gary Moore is a retired staff photographer for the Indianapolis Star and News.
James P. Eagleman is Brown County State Park Naturalist.
Read an Excerpt
Brown County Mornings
By Gary Moore
Indiana University Press
Copyright © 2013 Gary MooreAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-253-01129-9
FOREWORD
James P. Eagleman, Brown County State Park Naturalist
"UP AND AT 'EM!," MY GRAND-DAD, POP-POP, USED TO say. He'd do more work on our hilly, eastern Pennsylvania farm by mid-morning than his less-industrious neighbors, with his alarm clock being the big rooster. He told me he was up and gone when it was still dark, and wondered why it took me so long to get moving.
After an all-night snowstorm one winter, in an attempt to get me up, he'd say, "You'd like to see the trees, I bet."
I grew up reciting poems about trees and reading pioneer stories; visions of smooth-handled tools, rustic cabins, and wooden boats all captivated me. Hillside pines gave us climbing challenges, woodlots a place to play.
Moving to the prairies of east-central Illinois as a teen, I almost forgot what trees looked like. Flat lands with rich soil ("as black as your hat!") replaced pines and hardwoods and created table-top views. Grain elevators and outbuilding silhouettes, partially hidden by miles of corn, could be better seen from a highway overpass, the only elevated spot around.
Since then I realized I was missing a lot, and became a lover of trees.
Morning time is a given for any birder, nature lover, forest walker. True for any spectator, if you wish to beat the crowds, get the best seat, head out with no competition, you are up early. Capturing with camera demands this same mantra. Birders know early morning is best; ravenous after fasting all night, birds feed early and go about life largely undetected. Some mornings an early stroll around the lake or woodlot rewards with fleeting glimpses of animals rarely seen. And who hasn't marveled at the thick haze rising off a remote pond, or spider webs covered with dew?
If you enjoy southern Indiana, wish to recall a favorite hike, or generally like woodland scenes, you have in your hands a wonderful collection of some of Brown County's best. And life-long photographer and forest walker Gary Moore would just as soon have you tote a camera along; he believes that you never know what great picture is just ahead, around the bend.
Brown County's most picturesque woodlands, on both private and public land and photographed throughout the year, are assembled here. All scenes captured were taken before noon, some just after daylight. Gary has tried to keep manmade structures at a minimum in these photos, and only a few livestock are seen. We both ask, where better to represent Indiana's forestland than Brown County? Mention Brown County, Indiana, to any Hoosier and thoughts of forested, rolling hills, fall colors, and rugged ravines come to mind.
As a naturalist, I have talked with many visitors over the years. Questions and comments about trees are some of the most common. To help explain the county's vast, forested acreage, I often show a large image of the Hoosier state taken 400 miles in space. Even from this perspective, and seen on the Indiana map on the evening weather report, the green blob that is the Brown County forest is unmistakable. Biologists call it a "biologic sink," this green space that acts as a magnet to migrating birds and resident animals. As long as its forest canopy is maintained, a joint mission of a local chapter of The Nature Conservancy and the Indiana DNR, we will continue to enjoy its year-round beauty. All agree this beautiful, natural area is worth saving, with land conservation efforts already in place. But beyond the esthetic, it has other value as well.
Brown County is home to rare plants, reptiles, and mammals, some federally listed. Represented here is a large inventory of shrubs, wildflowers, and trees some say equal the diversity of rainforests. There are about 12 species of oak, 3 hickory, 4 dogwood, 3 ash, along with 2 beech, persimmon, red cedar, 4 maple, hackberry, basswood, 2 aspens, several willows, sassafras, river birch, 2 locusts, black cherry, sycamore, 2 elms, black gum, walnut, mulberry, sumac, tulip, etc. with an accompanying herbal layer. The Oak-Hickory and Beech-Maple complex as described by botanists, with hardwood oaks generally occupying the ridge-tops and beech and maple on the slopes, produce some of the best and world-renowned quality hardwoods. Veneer, solid wood furniture, and flooring from Indiana counties continue to be recognized as unsurpassed for durability and beauty.
A walk through any of Brown County's woods, even to the casual observer, might reveal what's happened here. After enjoying a view from any of the several park vistas, I've remarked to visitors that there's probably not a tree within view that's much over 100 years of age. The same is true throughout the county. Luckily for us tree lovers, a few Indiana state parks exhibit stands of old-growth forest, with Turkey Run's forest – the state's largest stand of virgin timber – reaching 600+ years. But Brown County's young forest may surprise people: views of 10 to 15 miles of uninterrupted forest and its internationally-known reputation make it seem ageless.
Having undergone much use and abuse by earlier Hoosiers, many already farming here by the mid-1800s, tremendous quantities of timber were cut off these steep hills. Before a market developed for timber at sawmills along Hoosier streams and rivers, Brown County trees were simply cut and hauled into the bottoms. Workers dragged timber into log heaps that were piled and burned, unattended for weeks. Turning vast forestland into farms might've seemed impossible, especially today when the Brown County forest stretches as far as the eye can see, but they still did it. Removal and eventual exposure of thin soils to wind and rains produced agricultural failure. Once the timber was gone, erosion set in and the land lay in ruin. Unproductive farms were deserted and residents moved on.
Abandoned, then left to recover, brushy fields soon converted to woodlots – first pioneer species like sassafras and sumac, then later, maple and tulip. A young forest like Brown County's can't be thought of as insignificant; it has more nooks and crannies, more ecologic niches that can be exploited by a myriad of creatures – surprisingly more and in greater number than a mature woods.
While on a walk, our attention is drawn into the understory, or maybe overhead. Birds, a hawk, or vulture distract us and cause us to stop. Later while peering into leafy layers – a chaotic mass of limbs, stems, and twigs – we become mesmerized. It's hypnotic to watch leaves and limbs swing and sway. In a high wind, how can they bend to such extremes and not break? Then calmly, sunlight flecks seem to lay on each leaf, shadowing and overlapping. The life processes for a tree are continual during warm weather, but growth in height and circumference only occurs within a 40-day period each spring. Summer is for maintenance, and in late summer leaf drop prepares trees for cold.
We tend to ignore what miraculous thing is happening at our feet. Subterranean burrows in this forested habitat cross over each other; runways made by shrews, mice, and chipmunks that stop and start not only allow travel lanes but aerate the ground. Intermixed with tiny rootlets of trees and shrubs with gradually diminishing roots are soil microbes, fungi, insects, and bacteria that transform decayed leaf litter. This organic material combines into life-supporting soil. Trees use this to sustain life, and along with water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide, make food via the "little factories" we call leaves. The end result is a classic example of recycling at work: the gas we exhale is used by trees. In exchange, they give us oxygen, a by-product of photosynthesis. Can there be a more basic example of a vital relationship between us and the plant world?
When it came time to build, and with a family of big boys, a cabin of Brown County tulip logs seemed the right choice. Tulip poplar cabins built here in the 1800s are still lived-in, sound and resilient to termites. As a conservationist, I knew mature logs harvested by a local sawmill would eventually provide room for more trees to grow. Tops and unused portions started a woodpile that we still use to feed the woodstoves. Hardwood floors stretched over oak floor joists and rafters of beech give a feeling of permanency.
Gary has told me it is the mornings that bring on the best in color, lighting, and awareness. As a first-rate photographer, he knows this. Suggesting that we all get up early and get out, he enjoys much more of the day that previously had been "wasted" while sleeping. And I know this is true; when out with hikers at that early time, they confess they've missed much.
To many park visitors and local people, dialogue about trees, plants, fruits, garden produce, and landscaping is continual, perhaps more here than in other places. While trees may have been taken for granted in early Brown County days and thought of as a hindrance, or more a liability than an asset, fortunately we've changed. Literally "in the way" of what early people had come to do, we now place great value on trees. And why not? They increase worth of private property, improve heating and cooling of our homes, and create privacy and security. They provide homes for insects, birds, nesting sites, and wildlife dens. Trees are planted and watered as one of the first things new home owners do. We take pictures by them, gauge a youngster's growth, and seek shade under them. Like an old friend, we confide and enjoy their company.
To a Brown County homeowner, trees are a trademark, a family site, a legacy.
Gary's mission and mine are similar; we both wish to encourage people to get out and see the beauty of this place. With awareness comes appreciation, then protection and wise use. We both see the benefits and wish to share them, inform others, and encourage their exploration.
It's nothing new or earth-shaking. Set the alarm! Take the camera.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Brown County Mornings by Gary Moore. Copyright © 2013 Gary Moore. Excerpted by permission of Indiana University Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Foreword by James P. Eagleman
Gallery
A Few Notes on How to Approach Landscape Photography
What People are Saying About This
Photographer Gary Moore's early morning Brown County landscapes give us the sense that all's right in a world of warm light and long shadows. His sage technical and artistic notes on how to approach landscape photography could easily relate to painting as well as photography.
I spent many days of my childhood in the woods of southern Indiana. Each of these photographs, so heartfelt and sincere, brings memories rushing back with a flush of nostalgia and pleasure.
Gary Moore's delightful photos triumph in capturing the quiet celebration and promise that dawn brings to Indiana's most revered hill country.
Photographer Gary Moore's early morning Brown County landscapes give us the sense that all's right in a world of warm light and long shadows. His sage technical and artistic notes on how to approach landscape photography could easily relate to painting as well as photography.
Gary Moore's delightful photos triumph in capturing the quiet celebration and promise that dawn brings to Indiana's most revered hill country.