Dawn Lane

A native and lifelong resident of Michigan, there's nothing Dawn enjoys more than hiking around the local state parks and nature preserves with her camera. "With camera in hand, I see what I might otherwise overlook." While having enjoyed the pursuit of photography in the days before digital, the digital era opened up a whole new world of creative control that rekindled Dawn's interest in image making.

Dawn's background in website usability testing has strengthened the critical eye she turns toward her images. "I create images in order to communicate something to the viewer. If it's not successful in this communication, then the image is not successful."

Dawn especially enjoys landscape photography that features botanical elements, rivers and lakes. Dawn admits that the more she studies photography, the better she is able to isolate elements of interest and "arrange" the landscape into an aesthetically pleasing composition. But the photograph just isn't finished until you take it into the digital darkroom and make it come alive. Dawn advocates post processing every image that one intends to show others. The beauty of digital photography is that the darkroom door is now open to everyone and a bright light is shining through the window of possibility your computer.

Dawn's equipment is, self-admittedly, a humble collection for now. I'm concentrating on refining things like composition, exposure and post processing before graduating to a DSLR. I don't want to get too wrapped up in collecting lenses before I know what to do with them. She uses a Nikon CoolPix 5700, an SB-50DX (flash), a WC-E80 (wide angle converter), a TC-E15ED (teleconverter) and a set of Nikon filters that include a polarizer and two ND filters.

However, Dawn says perhaps her most important accessory is a tripod. A recent convert to using a tripod, Dawn can attest to the difference it makes when shooting subjects such as macros and landscapes. It also affords me much more flexibility and allows me to shoot successfully in low light conditions which were prohibitive without a tripod.

Dawn is a regular participant in several digital photography forums. I can't stress enough how beneficial such participation can be. Go out on a limb and offer critiques of others' photos. Once you do, you'll begin to develop your critical eye to the extent that you'll see improvements in your own images over time.'

Dawn offers this advice to beginners just learning digital photography: Shoot at least one image per day and process at least one image per day in the digital darkroom.

Thumbnails are of photos by Dawn Lane - used with permission
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