At 12:10 PM the other night I used my Nikon D-800 to shoot a night
shot at a friend’s lake. The moon was
setting to my right and it along with the stars made my exposure of 30 seconds
at f6.7 give me great detail in the water and sky. I shoot in raw format and by
using the exposure slider in Adobe Lightroom I was able to make another
rendition of the above image. This one showing detail to make it look almost
like day time. Look closely at the second image
below and you can still see the stars.
Southern stars over Havenwood Lake
Image# 150627-0130
Way back when (2006) when I was still shooting film, there was no
way to get these two different versions of an image out of one Kodachrome 200
slide or any other film. These days you can do hundreds of editing tasks with
LR or Photoshop much easier and quicker than you could in the darkroom and many
more such as this two examples that you could not do before because of the limitations
of film.
Fake daylight over Havenwood Lake
Image# 150627-0130 adjusted
But with traditional photographers like myself, you can use these
remarkable cameras to make straightforward images of beautiful places such as
the lands protected and restored by The Nature Conservancy in Louisiana. I did so over the last two years when I
visited multiple times the 60 plus properties covering over 350,000 acres in
Louisiana by TNC. My book, Louisiana
Wild, which has been researched, photographed, written, edited, designed and
printed is now being shipped to the warehouse.
It will be in books stores by September.
New book cover
Every Tuesday, I will write about one of the areas I visited making
this book. I will start July 28 with one of the most interesting areas which is named
Copenhagen Hills. This hilly sylvan
paradise has more different species of trees than any place in Louisiana. I started my shooting for this book there on
the last day of July 2013 and have been working on it since. Please tune into my blog every Tuesday to
learn more about these interesting habitats. And look for Louisiana Wild in
your bookstore or on this web site soon.
