Magnolia Plantation Store
Cotton Gin
Cotton Gin Machinery
Slave Houses
One Way out of Slavery
Cane River Lake
Melrose Plantation Entrance
Main House Melrose Plantation
Historic St. Augustine Church
St. Augustine Cemetery
This past April, my wife and I went on a genealogy road trip. My portion of the trip took me to my ancestral home in the State of Louisiana. One of the many historical areas we visited was the Cane River National Heritage Region. This region is famous for its creole heritage and the home of many plantations that were founded upon slave labor when Louisiana was part of the French Empire. If you would like more information on this region, visit this link http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Cane+River+Creoles+of+Color&FORM=RESTAB .
I want to discuss my photographic journey as stated in the launch of this blog. One of the things that have kept me busy has been learning the ins and outs of Lightroom 5 and recently version 6. Most of the photos in the Cane River Gallery were edited with Lightroom 6. It seems that I am finally getting a better for feel for using this powerful tool. I have been using videos on Adobe’s site as well as YouTube and one purchased online web class and finally it is coming together for me. I wonder how many of you aspiring photographers have struggled to learn Lightroom. I haven’t even given learning Photoshop a moments attention!
As for these photos, a key technique that I failed to grasp was making sure to use a shutter speed high enough to avoid camera shake and fuzzy or non-sharp photos. All of these photos were shot handheld and on several the focus suffered from a slow shutter speed. Take photo shot inside the Magnolia Plantation Store at ISO 1600, 24mm, 1/6 second @f4.0. Handholding at 1/6 of a second is a bad idea. This photo suffers from a lack of sharpness. I also could have helped myself if I had carried my camera bag with the speedlite inside, but I didn’t!
The photo of the Cotton Gin was one of my favorites of this trip for many reasons. It was obviously outdoors and shot at ISO 100, 24mm, 1/13 second @f18. The picture would have been significantly better with a different combination of shutter and aperture when handholding. The next photo is the machinery inside the cotton gin building. It is very old and dusty and the interior was dark. I shot this at ISO 400, 28mm, 1/6 second @f4.0. Again this is too slow a shutter for handholding and needless to say I missed my speedlite!
Another photo that suffered from this slow shutter malady was of Cane River Lake. I actually got down on my knees to shoot thru the foliage in the foreground. Again, the photo lacks sharpness primarily due to a slow shutter when handholding the camera. This was shot at ISO 100, 33mm, 1/15 second @f16.
I think the other pictures came out much better. What is your opinion? By the way, my camera is a Canon Rebel t3 with a Canon 24-70mm L series lens (the good stuff). Hopefully, my next post will feature some improved photos. Let’s see how I progress, afterall, c’est la vie 4 me.
C'est la vie 