Black Bayou

Black Bayou — the slow, dark water near Monroe in northeast Louisiana, where the bayou spreads out under cypress and tupelo and the surface goes still enough to mirror the trees. This is classic Louisiana wetland: not quite lake, not quite river, full of standing timber and the particular quiet that comes with water that barely moves.

Photographed near Monroe, Louisiana, in 2012. The bayou country has a stillness that's different from a mountain lake — heavier, greener, more enclosed — and it rewards patience more than timing.