Mark Cassino Photography - Mark's Blog

In the Allegan forest last week:

Ultrafine Xtreme 400 @320, DK50 stock, 5min.

I do a lot of my outdoor photography in the Allegan State Game Area. This is a 50,000 acre (200 SQ. KM) area set aside for hunting, fishing, tapping, logging, horseback riding, camping and other purposes. It is not exactly a wild area since most areas are consistently visited by people (the designated wildlife refuges being the main exception to this) but given the large area of undeveloped land with minimal resident humans, it is more wild than not. So maybe it should described as a feral place that shows off the undomesticated side of both the resident wildlife and also the transient human visitors.

Whatever it is, the powers that be that attempt to manage the Allegan Forest try to set some boundaries and borders, mostly to keep motor vehicles out of the savannas, fields and woods. There are a lot of two tracks that pieces into the more wild areas of the forest and from time to time those who manage the forest put up gates or drop trees across the paths to keep people out. But gates, even those well anchored with concrete footings, can be pulled out of the sandy soil. And fallen trees can also be easily pulled aside. And so the ultimate barrier consists of multiple rows of large tree stumps, ripped out of the ground. And so - the subject of these photos.

Woodland wildflowers have carved out a tenuous environmental niche for themselves. They spend most of their time dormant, or nearly dormant, under the forest floor. For a few short and cool weeks in early spring, before the forest canopy leafs out, they soak up the rays of the sun and gather most of the energy that they’ll use for the remainder of the year.

Someone once told me that trout Lilies send up a few leafs every spring for several years, and only then have stored away enough energy to send forth a flower. Nonetheless, an undisturbed forest can be literally carpeted with spring wildflowers during those few short weeks – a testament to the success that these plants can enjoy.

It’s logical to assume that if the land is disturbed, these wildflowers will be eradicated form the area, or at least severely compromised. Places like the Dowagiac Woods, which is one of the very few areas in Michigan to have never been logged, are rich in these spring wildflowers. On the other hand, the vast wooded areas of the Allegan Forest, which were originally clear-cut to provide wood to rebuild Chicago after the great fire, and then were devoted to farming in many areas, have few spring flowers.

Nonetheless, there are a few places in Allegan where hepatica not only bloom, but are really quite abundant. One is off 125th Ave. near the river, where there is a steep, south facing bluff which sprouts lots of Blue Hepatica in the spring.

It’s a nice site and there’s a blocked off roadway cut into the side of the hill, which makes for easy access. You can wander along the roadway and slowly descend from the top of the bluff to the banks of the Kalamazoo River. Hepatica is abundant above, below, and even on the roadway. But as soon as the river takes a bend to the north, and the side of the bluff faces west, hepatica is hard to find.

Maybe the favorable micro-climate on the south side of the hill promotes the growth of these flowers. But in this one spot, at least, the hepatica abound.

There are few places I’d rather be than on the Oak Savanna when the coreopsis is blooming. For a few days, maybe even a week, the sandy barrens seem to be adorned with gold.

Those June days seem far off, sitting here on a cold, damp, March 31 – but they will be here before you know it.

This is another shot from the archives, taken last June. Im not entirely sure why I passed it by while editing photos last summer. I am sure that a the time this immature Blue Dasher dragonfly was, metaphorically, sitting in butter.

For me, February is a slow month for photography in Michigan. The snow is waning but wildflowers, insects, and other subjects have yet to emerge. The landscape is bleak and barren – dried grass, fading snow, leafless trees.

I suppose I should do something productive with my time, but earlier this week the urge to get outdoors took hold and I found myself driving on muddy dirt roads, seeking some of my favorite places in the Allegan Forest. If there is beauty in barrenness, then the pine barrens in February is the place to behold it.

Much of the snow has melted. What hasn’t melted has thawed and re-frozen, so it is hard and you can walk on it without sinking in. I visited several places, but spent the most time in a field off 48th street. The snow was peppered with deer, coyote, and snowmobile tracks.

I lugged the Pentax 6x7 outfit down to the seasonal marsh, where in the summer dragonflies abound. The water level was astonishingly high – the thawing ice covering the marsh was at least 20 feet further in than where it was last fall, and then it was several feet further in than prior years. Maybe the seasonal marsh is heading to be permanent – the smooth ice surface, with no reeds or cattails breaking throughlooked more like a pond than a marsh.

Well, it was a good way to spend the day. I tested out the new 45mm lens I bought for the Pentax 6x7, and loved the wide angle perspective. I also shot out some film stock, using my last 120 format rolls of Efke R100 and Ilford fp4. Soon I’ll be tapping into the large stock of Agfa film I laid in before they went out of business – and who knows what will be available to shoot after that.

Good news arrived a couple of days ago when I learned that one of my photos, Spent, was accepted into the 2009 West Michigan Area Show, hosted by the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. After a two year hiatus in having work accepted into this show, it’s nice to get a piece in.