Hi Bob, What you're seeing is the Palatlakaha river. Oftentimes early in the morning it's perfectly placid, as it is here -- well, almost; there's a little motion in that water. I made the shot day before yesterday. Later on in the year I'll probably switch to late afternoon shooting instead of the crack-of-dawn thing I've been doing. Once things cool down a bit I'll also be able to get over to St. Aug for some street, and go back to doing regular jaunts through P.E.A.R. Park.
And yes, it's a demanding scene, as are all the very high contrast morning scenes at this time of year. I shot it with the D750 and a 70-300mm lens at 112mm, well within that lens's most effective range. I walked the river for months with the 70-200 f/4, but the whole rig kept gaining weight, so I switched to the lighter 70-300, which I've had since 2008.
For post-processing I stay pretty much in Camera Raw -- and Photoshop if there's a problem that needs something beyond CR -- though if I've been shooting at high ISO I start the processing with DxO Optics Pro, which is the best noise killer I've seen. I don't mess with the Oly software. I shoot with the D750, D800, and the Pen-F -- sometimes two of them in the same day, so I convert everything to .DNG immediately. I use Photoshop and Camera Raw, but it's been a long time since I've done any PP in Lightroom. I use that for cataloging my stuff. On the other hand, I have a pretty rigid storage and backup system that starts with permanently storing the stuff in its original format as it comes off the camera, so I always can go back and start over.
I've probably shot this dock a hundred times from various angles. Every time I go by it the light is different. And the Spanish moss always is different. I love Spanish moss in backlight.
