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| Ever-changing beauty of Reelfoot Lake captured in book |
By: Glenda H. Caudle Special Features Editor
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Posted: Thursday, January 14, 2010 9:02 pm
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Dr. Robert E. Clendenin Jr
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Special Features Editor “Reelfoot Lake is a beautiful place, but most people have never been out on it. It changes every day — the lily pads grow and change and the birds are different. You can visit once and come back a couple of weeks later and notice the difference,” says Dr. Robert E. Clendenin Jr. of Union City. It was to explore the differences and reveal the hidden spots of one of his favorite places on earth that the local physician took his camera, boarded a pontoon boat with the late Elmer Parker and devoted two to three years to recording the many and varied faces of the earthquake-born lake. His efforts are beautifully showcased in a new full-color book titled “Reelfoot Lake Images: A Photographic Tour of Reelfoot Lake.” “My goal was to photograph every ‘named’ place on the lake, although not all of them ended up in the book.” he says. And while he has trained his camera on much of the fascinating and beautiful birds and wildlife that abound at the lake, very few of them are featured in the book, either. “I could have filled up a book with eagles, herons, ospreys, ducks and geese and, in fact, when I first started putting the book together, I had montages of birds, but I decided to leave them out and make this a tour of the lake itself. I wanted this to be a book about the lake and not the birds,” Clendenin says. To start things off, the photographer has included a map of the lake with dozens of locations listed — many of them with obscure names that are sure to rouse curiosity about their origin among those who delve into the book. Rat Island, Nations Ditch, Rag Point Ditch, Palestine Stumps, Snaggy Tow Head, Buzzard Slough, Black Jack Hollow, Needle Eye Basin, Big Ronaldson Slough, Bee Tree Slough, Little Starve Pond and Big Starve Pond, Katies Gourd, Bayou du Chien and more beg to be explored once the book has been enjoyed. And Clendenin hopes many of those who see his book will be encouraged to take their own cameras and binoculars and drawing pads and pencils and move out onto the lake themselves. One of the most beautiful shots in the book is a summer view of Donaldson Ditch, with cypress trees and their leafy cousins shading all but the far center of the watery vista in serene and peaceful shades of green. One of the photographer’s personal favorites is a shot of Horse Island Ditch opening in to Big Starve Pond. Presenting the image constituted a challenge on two levels — Clendenin’s skill with the camera and the possibilities provided by computer technology. “It’s a three-image vertical panorama. I was so close to the tall cypress trees when I shot the picture that I couldn’t get it all in,” Clendenin recalls. He solved his problem by combining three vertical shots in the computer’s “photoshop” program and presenting it as one image. Likewise, a shot of the spillway — which he included because he expects it to disappear soon — is a three-image horizontal panorama. The photo of Big Ronaldson Slough made the final cut because of the physician-photographer’s fascination with the area’s history. “It’s a place that used to be inaccessible. If you wanted to go to Big Ronaldson, you went to Crane Town and Stake in the Hole. At one time, there was a heron rookery at Crane Town. When the movie “Raintree County” was shot at Reelfoot Lake (a half century ago) the film company set off a dynamite charge to raise the cranes for a shot in the production. After that, so many visitors flocked to the area that the cranes and herons who had made their home there were driven out. Then wildlife took over the area again and, until fairly recently, a beaver dam blocked access to the area for all but the most determined boat-jumpers. The shot Clendenin captured of the area is also a three-shot panorama. A “mostly” self-taught photographer, Clendenin got his camera-ready start at about 13 years of age when he lived in Martin. A friend had received a special Montgomery-Ward film developing kit for Christmas and it grabbed young Clendenin’s attention. He begged his parents for one and, when he got it, set to work perfecting his skills both in and out of the dark room. He was the school yearbook photographer and later, when he studied at the former University of Tennessee at Martin Branch, he provided lots of action sports shots. While he has enrolled in a couple of week-long courses in color photography and developing and printing slides and even an interesting one in black and white photography, he discovered he was already utilizing much of the information provided, so the time spent was actually devoted to “polishing” his skills. While he was intrigued by the miracles of the dark room he discovered as a teen-ager, he admits the “age of digital” is a fascinating approach to putting the finishing touches on his work with the camera. “It’s sort of like cheating,” he adds with a laugh of his new-found skills with the computer. Clendenin says he was urged on in his compilation of photographs for the beautiful volume by his longtime friend and fellow Reelfoot Lake fan Russell Caldwell. Clendenin supplied photos and was featured in Caldwell’s own book about the hauntingly beautiful spot that fascinates them both, “Reelfoot Lake Remembered” (2005). “He encouraged me to show people the beauty of the lake and let the names of its various areas become known. Reelfoot Lake sort of gets in your blood. I’ve always been intrigued with it. When I was growing up, there was the Martin Clubhouse at the old Miller’s Camp at Reelfoot. We would come down there and watch people fishing at the spillway. I just wanted people to see the lake — to show it off,” he says of his book. “Reelfoot Lake Images” sells for $30 and is available from the Union City physician, who can be contacted at 885-2322; at Lanzer Printing and Office Supply in downtown Union City; and at Dixie Gun Works in Union City. Dr. Clendenin has been married to Martha Clendenin for 51 years and they are the parents of three adult sons. He is a retired physician who practiced in Union City for many years and has spent countless hours exploring and capturing the beauty and mystery that is Reelfoot Lake. Published in The Messenger 1.14.10 |
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