Black Warrior Riverkeeper PROJECT

Over the course of the past several years, in my ventures as a hiker and paddler, I have been able to enjoy much of the beauty that Alabama has to offer, particularly as it relates to the rivers and creeks throughout much of central and northern Alabama. And the more I see, the more it becomes increasingly important to me that these treasures are maintained and preserved for future generations, that we are good stewards of the Creation that was put into our care.

Pump House at Village Creek in Roebuck, Alabama

That desire has evolved into what I am dubbing the "Black Warrior Riverkeeper PROJECT." The Black Warrior Riverkeeper is one of the premier watchdog groups in Alabama, protecting our waterways, specifically those falling within the Black Warrior River watershed. As it pertains to central and northern Alabama, that watershed includes the following significant creeks and rivers: Sipsey Fork of the Warrior River, Locust Fork of the Warrior River, Mulberry Fork of the Warrior River, Black Warrior River, Hurricane Creek, Turkey Creek, Gurley Creek, Five Mile Creek, Village Creek, and others.

The Black Warrior Riverkeeper PROJECT is my effort to help raise money in support of this organization. Over the last two years, I have gotten to know several of the wonderful people that make up the Black Warrior Riverkeeper, and there could not be a better group of people looking out for our interests. As such, the proceeds from any prints sold from my Black Warrior Riverkeeper PROJECT gallery will be donated to the Black Warrior Riverkeeper in support of their steadfast and enduring efforts.

Find the Black Warrior Riverkeeper on their website, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Fishing at the Locust Fork, Again

Matt, Tyler, and I went fishing on Saturday morning. And while this likely isn't our most compelling footage, the production value of the videos is certainly increasing. So here's our most recent outing. Spoiler Alert: Nobody caught anything. We saw loads of fish: carp, gar, bass; but they just weren't biting on this occasion.

Ruffles Have Ridges...As Does Driftwood

from a Ninoka nk-700

Ninoka nk-700

In the final installment of the thrift store acquisitions, we are brought to the Ninoka nk-700. Despite my lack of familiarity with the camera and my overall lack of excitement about using it, I was pleasantly surprised by the results.

Though I brought it along, I hadn't really planned on using it on this outing. I brought my Canon EOS 3 with me, since it hadn't been off the shelf in several months, but having failed to
check the battery before leaving the house, I didn't learn until attempting to take the first photo that it was DOA.

So that left me with the Ninoka as the only other available camera to use alongside the Vivitar PN2011. Despite its "glass" lens, the photos taken with the camera were generally less sharp than those taken with the Vivitar.




The Ninoka nk-700 is modeled as if it were an SLR. It has a 50mm "glass" lens, as indicated on the lens' nose. Although it only has one shutter speed 1/125s, it offers four aperture selections: f/6-8-11-16. It does not require batteries.

from a Vivitar PN2011

I went down to the Warrior River, Locust Fork with my friend Tyler on Friday morning. My primary objective was to work on some time lapse stuff, but I also had a couple new cameras I had recently picked up at the thrift store, and they needed a trial run. 

In the panorama below, I stitched three photos together from my Vivitar PN2011 while using its "panoramic" mode, so I suppose its a panorama-to-the-fourth-power. If you peep really closely, you can spy my camera on tripod on the far right, set up for its time lapse work. 

The Vivitar PN2011is the less-sought-after brother to the Vivitar Ultra-Wide-and-Slim ("UWAS"), which bears a 22mm lens. The PN2011 has a 28mm lens, with a fixed aperture of f/8, and a single shutter speed of 1/125s. It has a sliding lens cover, which fortunately prevents you from taking a photo when it is in place. Unlike most "toy" cameras of its ilk, the PN2011 has a tripod socket; additionally, it does not require batteries to operate.

The PN2011 is most noted for its "panoramic" mode. When the slide on the back of the camera is pushed to P, a set of inserts descend that crop off the top and bottom portions of the frame, both on the film plane and in the viewfinder. Another perk of the camera is its bright and crisp viewfinder. There is quite a lot of information to be found about folks who have modified their PN2011's to accept filters, have a Bulb mode, and/or take multiple exposures.

The VIVITAR PN2011 Focus Free / Panoramic Camera can be purchased from Amazon.

Time Lapse :: Locust Fork (Sneak Preview)

I am working on a larger time lapse project pertaining to the Locust Fork of the Warrior River. And you are privy to but a small part of that collaboration. So here's some footage that was taken today while Tyler and I were hiking at the Locust Fork down by Hwy 160, today.

Time Lapse :: Locust Fork at Hwy 160 from Jeremy Richter on Vimeo.

Partly Cloudy on the Warrior

The photo I posted on Sunday of Buckshort Bridge reminded me of another photo I had previously taken at the Warrior River. This one was taken during the fall of 2010, during a hike. I really like this photo because of the clouds; I really feel like they make this shot.

Test Run of the Kayak-Cam at Buckshort Bridge

Last week I posted about Operation Kayak-Cam, in which I fashioned a mount for my Flip UltraHD Video Camera and Underwater Case to my kayak.

Yesterday, we were finally able to go to the river for a test run. With fishing gear in tow, three friends and I headed down to the Locust Fork at Buckshort Bridge in Mount Olive. We had no success fishing, and so began to find other valuable uses for the kayaks. So while none of this video may be life-changing, perhaps it will serve to show the success of my modification and evidence how to go about jumping from a kayak.

Operation Kayak-Cam

For some time, I and my paddling cohorts have made great use of my Flip UltraHD Video Camera and its Flip Video Underwater Case while on the water. This is my second such Flip, because the first one is still probably at the bottom of the Mulberry Fork somewhere, or perhaps is made its way down to the Gulf by now.

But there has long been a limitation...recording while paddling is very problematic. We overcame this obstacle a couple different times, but only in a limited fashion.

• In March at Kings Bend by wedging the camera between Tyler's life-jacket, as can be seen beginning at the 8:30 mark in this video

• And most recently at the Hargrove Shoals, where I can be seen to be dumped out of my boat, beginning at 1:24 in the video below.

Well as I saw it, there were a couple of ways to rectify the situation. I could buy a helmet cam, which would, of course, be the best and most practical way to go. However, it's not the most economical. So I thought up a way to make a mount, though it did require me to risk ruining my underwater housing for my Flip and drilling a hole in my kayak. But sometimes the risk is worth the reward.

So Operation Kayak-Cam commenced...

I was determined to drill the hole for the mount just north of the cockpit, so that the camera will be easily within arms reach, and I'll be able to leash it to the boat. To mount the camera to the boat, I took a lightweight tripod head (Slik SBH-100DQ Ball Head with Quick Release) that I carry on my monopod, and screwed it to boat.

Using the tripod head, should create a stable platform to hold the camera steadily in a fixed position. In addition to the Flip, I drilled a hold in the waterproof housing I built for my Panasonic DMC-LX3, which will give me the opportunity to take still photographs or video.

Now I'm all set to hit the water and give this setup a trial run. Here's hoping it works as well in practice as it appears it will in theory.

Rowdy Weather on the Warrior River

I was down at the Locust Fork in Warrior the other evening working on some time lapse photography, when a storm blew in pretty quickly from the east. Mostly, the camera and I were protected from the rain by the bridge, under which we were set up, but for good measure, I wrapped a towel a couple of times around the camera. The storm rolled in with some ugly clouds, stirred up a lot of wind, dropped a little rain, and moved on in a matter of thirty minutes or so. Fortunately, it left me with the nice photos, that reflect some odd lighting.

Canon Rebel T2i, Tokina 12-24mm f/4 AT-X, 1/13s @ f/8, ISO 100

Gone Fishin' at the Locust Fork

Tyler and I went fishing for a couple hours this afternoon. We put in at the Warrior-Kimberly bridge, and let the current carry us downstream a bit. After a few days of nice rain, the river was running nicely.

As per usual, I didn't catch anything. I did have about a half-dozen minnows following my lure every time I cast. And I did have a little bass strike at it once, but he wasn't too tempted either.

Tyler on the other hand...

...caught three fish within the first twenty minutes. His last catch was the minnow here; I didn't even know you could catch a minnow. Below is Tyler reeling in his river monster.

_____________________________

Here's a little video of our first kayak-fishing expedition.

Camping and Kayaking at Kings Bend

For the second year in a row, I planned a camping and paddling trip to take place on the Locust Fork of the Warrior River during Spring Break. Last year's trip was nearly a total disaster ("nearly," only in that we all survived in-tact). I immediately knew this trip would prove more successful when we arrived at the right river. Last year, I got confused which direction to turn on County Road 26; so instead of putting in on the Locust Fork (on right), we put in on the Mulberry Fork (on left).

Unfortunately (or perhaps, in the end, it was fortuitous) that stretch of the Mulberry has some whitewater; additionally, the river was pretty high because of recent rainfall, both of which we were unprepared for. Three people in a sixteen foot canoe, laden with food and drink enough to last us the whole of our two-day camping trip.

Within twenty minutes of putting in, we hit our first set of rapids. Since I was at the front of the boat, I could see that it wasn't going to go well for us, so I got as low as I could in the floor of the bow. Gallons of icy water poured into the bad as we hit the first wave. This made us even heavier, so that we were sitting lower and took on even more water after hitting the second. We didn't hid the third wave so much as blunder into it; at this point the canoe was essentially submerged. We were still sitting in it, but even the gunwales were entirely underwater. Then we hit a rock and were dumped out along with all of our belongings. Daniel was thrown clear of the boat and could be heard laughing hysterically, some twenty or thirty feet from Matt and myself. I scrambled to swim toward the watertight box containing our phones, GPS, and other essentials. Matt had the foresight to grab the boat. Most of our food was lost, as was my Flip camcorder, my lifejacket (which I wasn't wearing, of course), and an oar.

After we were able to beach the boat, after being driven downriver for a while, we were able to begin to collect our bearings. Everyone's limbs were still in tact. We were down to one oar. I was pretty certain we were on the river, and now had no idea what was ahead of us. We were in the middle of nowhere and had no choice but to carry on. Once we mustered the courage to re-embark, we began to come across some of our orphaned belongings: a bag of bananas, a cooler with our water and sandwiches, and here-and-there oatmeal creme pies.

Finally, we came upon civilization, a farm house atop a bluff - our salvation. We beached the canoe, called it a day, and ended the trip effective immediately.

This is the only photo I have to show for the trip - Canon Rebel 2000, EF 28-80 3.5-5.6 III

But that was last year. This year, I ended up in the water much more quickly, but at least I was in the right river. And since I didn't lose my Flip this time, I'll let the video tell its own story of our trip.

But here are a couple of the better photographs, since this is supposed to be a photoblog and all.

Sunrise at Kings Bend - Panasonic LX3

Panasonic LX3

Panasonic LX3

For more information about the North Jefferson Kayak Club and its activities,
visit our website and/or our Facebook page.

The Locust Fork

Blake, Tyler, and I went to observe the Locust Fork Invitational kayak races on Saturday, which were postponed due to the river having risen too much overnight. So instead we hiked a bit along the river down by Hwy 160.

I took a number of photographs, most of which should have been immediately deleted. In fact, only two were even presentable. So here are those two:

 Tributary Waterfall

Fungus Amongus

I was able to take some video of Blake risking life and limb. Sorry the quality of this one is poor; I need to get a better file converter.