Pre Dawn at St. Marks #1 Canvas Print

Getting up well before dawn, driving from my campsite to the lighthouse at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in the panhandle of Florida, and then putting on waders to head out past some old pilings across the oyster beds has its own reward. On this day, it was begin able to shoot a series of images before, during, and after the sun rose in a glorious setting.
Always trying something a bit different, this six second exposure did a nice job of highlighting all the many colors just before dawn on a spectacular morning.

Don Mercer is an author and freelance fine art photographer. Research for one book took him to the middle of Cambodia in 1999, as he was the first from among his wartime unit to return to that country. During the War in Southeast Asia - known to most as the Vietnam War, he flew over two hundred combat missions as an Air Force pilot in the Cessna O-2A. His combat assignment was as a Forward Air Controller, or FAC. The majority of his combat missions were flown in Cambodia at night. While in Southeast Asia in 1970-71, his interest in photography intensified with the purchase of his first two of numerous Nikon cameras. Black and white, as well as color, 35mm, and Super 8 movie films were used at the time. The transition to digital...