My good friend John Moran has inspired me to do more night photography, using long exposures and various artificial lights to illuminate the scene. Here are some quick example photographs from a recent camping trip to coastal Georgia.

Pure moon light reflects off the ocean and silhouettes my friends, one of whom is using a cell phone that lights up his face.

My head lamp lights up part of my face, while the other part remains dark. It is my movement that allows the stars to shine "through" my body.

A distant town glows yellow-orange after a minute-long exposure. This snag is illuminate by my LED headlamp on the front and an incandescent headlamp from behind. White balance was set on daylight, giving the scene an overall warm tone.

The same snag as above except at a 45 minute exposure. The town lights are so bright that the branches of the snag are silhouette. No front lighting. Only ambient light and a brief back-lighting from an incandescent headlamp.

A 30 second exposure as a q-beam spot light with an amber gel is blasted from directly behind the tree, rim-lighting the tree and marsh grass.

I used a 4:52 second exposure to bring out the sky behind this majestic live oak, while John Moran bounced the q-beam spotlight off the ground and his own body to light the tree from all angles. For this shot I used tungsten white balance, rendering the sky a deep blue.

I lit these lives oaks by myself using John's q-beam and amber gel. The only difference was that this image was shot just before dawn.

Timing is everything in photography. Sometimes, having good timing comes totally by accident.

Consider the two recently photographed images from coastal Georgia. One image is somber, almost scary. It features a looming storm and foreboding horizon; the silhouetted snag appears like a trap waiting to be sprung. The ebb and flow of the waves pull you in, reluctantly. The other image is the exact opposite: A cloudless, sunny sky, gentle, undulating sand, long captivating shadows, and a snag that is revealed harmless. I photographed the stormy scene as a the tide was coming in during a rainy afternoon. The second image came 36 hours later right after sunrise during low tide. The stark contrast happened by accident. Thankfully so. It is a striking example of how the same scene can carry completely different feelings given different timing that the photographer finds the scene.

It's a rare occasion that I get to photograph nature just for the hell of it, just because it's what I love to do. Not to try and save the world or make a buck, but for the challenge of making a great photograph and for exploring an unfamiliar place.

Just was the case as I rested my soul north of San Francisco in the heart of wine country for 48 glorious hours. With rolling green hills, gnarled moss-covered oaks, cliffs plummeting 1000 feet into the pacific, and giant redwoods, there was no shortage of photographic subjects.

A couple walks to an overlook above California's rugged pacific coast. This is a composite image consisting of two photographs – one exposed for the sky and one exposed for the land. When done correctly, this technique, which is a simple method of HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography, allows for capturing a wide range of light without appearing fake. I shot this on my first night in California. The sunset never really showed its true colors. The light was generally terrible for big scenics, so I spent most of the rest of my time in California working close-ups and intimate landscapes.

Serendipitously, I crossed paths with a good friend from my hometown. I could not believe my eyes, and neither could he! We both live in Alachua County Florida He was with his family. At his daughter's request for her college graduation, they were touring wine country for the fun of it, much like I was. After a few minutes of laughing and head shaking, we said goodbye, but not before he gave me a photo location tip. He said go to Armstrong Redwoods park instead of Muir Woods because it was less crowded and a more pleasant hike. I took his advice not knowing if I would follow it. I'm  hard-headed like that. But I ended up following his advice and was not disappointed. (See below.)

At Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve, I found a bright red mushroom that I might have looked over had it not been for the fact that I was photographing just for the fun of it. It stood on its own, with nothing around it but black detritus. Not overtly appealing. However, it was bright red, and that intrigued me. So I put on my macro lens and began to work my way in, closer and closer.

I love panoramas of big trees in the forest, especially when dappled lighting renders some trees darker than others. This kind of light helps create the illusion of more layers in the composition, and thus more depth of field. These Redwoods are nearly 300 hundred feet tall and 1000 years old. Even without a person in the image, the feeling of scale and age of this forest is evident.

This grove of oak trees (I think) was so cool. The light was absolutely perfect. Low, relatively thin clouds allowed for just enough sunlight to fall softly on the earth to create a highlight on the top side of each moss-covered trunk and limb in this road-side grove of trees. The very tips of the branches were covered in lichens, giving the illusion of leaves when leaves had not yet sprouted. I shot several of compositions. Picking the best one was impossible for me. So I will soon add a blog post about this scene in particular. 

This abstract scene is an extreme close up of a flower growing along the coast at Bodega Bay.

Also at Bodega Bay, I practiced my panning and drag shutter technique for photographing fast moving subjects. In this case, a few thousand sea gulls made ideal subjects.

The NANPA Summit ended on a high note Friday evening with a stellar presentation by photographer Joel Sartore. Afterward, college students, committee members, and colleagues went out for dinner and drinks at a local pub. Always a great bonding experience when alcohol is involved. We stayed up late (again) but actually got a chance to unwind.

This year's students were amazing to work with. Not only are they talented photographs, they are team players with a second-to-none work ethic. Not all have Web sites yet. Here's what I have.

Neil Losin Web site

Michael Dossett Web site

Ellen Woods Web site

Ethan Welty Web site

Great job to the 2010 NANPA Summit College Scholarship Students! I will post the multimedia video they created as soon as all the release forms have been signed.

This Summit is my last as a college committee member, at least for now. I leave to focus on my conservation photography project "Life on the Edge."

Last night I attempted to post these photos through squinted eyes, dried by the desert climate and made restless by the near 24-hour work day. Maybe it was me, maybe it was the internet connection. Either way, something went wrong. So now here I am awake at 5:30 am working to get these images online before starting what will be another near 24-hour work day.

The college students selected as this year's NANPA scholarship winners have worked very hard. They have portfolio reviews today by some of the industry's top editors and photographers. Every day they meet with pros for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Between are workshops and keynote presentations. Amidst all of that, we've asked them to find time to tell the story of the restoration of the Truckee River. We're asking a lot from 12 strangers that have traveled to Reno from across the continent. We hope to have the 5-or-so-minute piece finish by early Friday morning, perhaps around 2 or 3 am, if we're lucky. Then Friday evening we present to the entire NANPA audience. We have very talented photographers in this group of students, and I am absolutely excited by what will come of this effort.

Here are some images I captured at the Truckee River restoration sites. (If there's a typo in this blog entry, I blame it on sleep deprivation ...)

A variety of grasses mixed with trees of different ages creates a more complete ecosystem on the banks and flood plain of the Truckee River. Before The Nature Conservancy began their $21 million restoration efforts in 2006, the only natural plants here were a few tall cottonwoods. The Conservancy planted and replanted more than 3000 trees, and more than 10,000 shrubs and other small plants along this 500-acre section of river. All of this at the McCarran Ranch, one of four restoration sites along the Truckee River.

Canadian geese visit the restored habitat of the Truckee River at McCarran Ranch.

A nearby factory is evidence of a troubled past for the Truckee, and a future that will always be a challenge.

A few students and I took the opportunity to visit a construction site (and factory) on the river that were near the restored area. Our goal was to show contrasting uses of the river. This dozer is working the banks of the river.

Wire mesh is meant to keep beavers from  gnawing at the newly planted cottonwood trees.

The Nature Conservancy created wetlands along the river. The wetlands are vital habitat for small animals such as frogs, which in turn become food for birds and snakes.

We didn't fully appreciate the work of The Nature Conservancy until we visited Mustang Ranch, a site where the restoration process was in its infancy. In two or three years, the desolate Mustang Ranch will look like the McCarran Ranch.

Rachel Nuwer is a grad student at University of East Anglia in the UK studying Applied Ecology.

Neil Losin and Michael Dosset were the birders of the group. With their long 500 and 600 mm lenses, they focused mostly on documenting wildlife along the Truckee River.

Adam Wilson attends the University of Connecticut studying Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.