Halfway Creek at Low Tide

Matt Tilghman

There are a handful of canoe paddling trails in Florida that span both the Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park, and I've been trying to find some stunning cypress forests along them. I have a soft spot for cypress forests, and want to photograph them more. However, all of these trails are in the very southwest corner of Big Cypress, near Florida's west coast, so the waters have turned brackish or downright salty. This means the vegetation is severely lacking in cypress, and more dominated by mangrove, like in this photo from Halfway Creek. It's not what I sought, but it is nevertheless quite beautiful, to me. What was especially interesting to me is that, while the Everglades is typically teeming with wildlife, these extremely dense mangrove creeks were rather barren by comparison. I imagine they are important nurseries for adolescent fish, but the big fish had all moved out, for more room. There were almost no water birds, which feels downright odd for the Everglades, probably because the canopy was too dense and they didn't feel they had an easy route of escape. And with no birds or large fish, there were no alligators. It was almost completely dominated by foliage alone (and spiders). Every now and then an anhinga would get spooked, and struggle loudly to get through the canopy, spooking me along with it.


"Halfway Creek at Low Tide"

black mamba

Nice shot, Matt. It brings to mind the work of Clyde Butcher. That's kudos for you.

I've kicked around Florida for most of my life and am very familiar with scenes like this one. It's tough to get subjects like these ( compressed waterways, dense mangrove growth, etc. ) to transfer well to the photo image....as compared to the visual impressions we perceive when we're there. Often, the grandeur that we feel when there doesn't come through well in the recorded image. You did well in the presentation here.

BTW, I spent a week in Naples and Marco Island recently and I observed the changes, much the same as you, relative to the shift in flora and fauna in areas like this.

Tom