Trevlac Bluffs revisited, with some Photoshop magic

Eye-popping nature photography wasn’t high on my list of gets during a re-exploration of Trevlac Bluffs Nature Preserve on Saturday with my granddaughter Raina. While color is at a premium in late winter, these Brown County bluffs do support some eastern hemlocks that add swatches of evergreen to the otherwise drab color spectrum. But the sun just wasn’t in a mood to show.

I had other priorities anyway, foremost among them some mid-winter exercise. I also needed some orientation, as the two times I’d been there I’d come away rather befuddled. In late July 2014, the Bottomland Trail literally disappeared in undergrowth; I could see the path but not the ground. That fall, I ended up photographing a scenic pond near the Yellowwood Trail, which turned out to be on private property.

But that’s not to say I left the old D600 at home on Saturday. I needed some more Trevlac images for the slideshow I’m preparing for my Earth Day book signing at The Venue. And, as I tell my students, you only need enough light to illuminate the scene in the digital age. As I think the images in this Photo Album show, PhotoShop magic can help.

Trevlac Bluffs is a Sycamore Land Trust property and a Dedicated State Nature Preserve that adjoins Yellowwood State Forest to the east. It’s bisected by the Beanblossom Creek about a mile and a half east of Lake Lemon, just across the Monroe County Line.

To the creek’s south, the Yellowood Trail ascends a 200-foot ridge top, which overlooks the creek valley and wooded wetlands to the north. From the north, the Bottomland Trail leads to the creek and winds through a hundred acres of bottomland forest.

The bluffs support native stands of eastern hemlocks, which are relicts of the post-Wisconsin Glacial period, which began some 10,000 years ago. At the southern limits of their range today, eastern hemlocks survive in only a dozen places in Indiana, such as Hemlock Bluff Nature Preserve, located due south of Trevlac in Lawrence County above the Guthrie Creek.

The last time I tried to reach the Trevlac bluff tops I started up a road, which I thought was the property line, that followed the ridge to the east, the scenic pond and, ultimately, a log house. I had heard there was a structure on the site but didn’t approach the house. Today, the drive is gated and says Private Property.

I couldn’t figure out on Saturday where I lost the Bottomland Trail back in the summer of 2014. The path today is wide and well-maintained. But this time we reached the creek.

And I got a couple images to add to the slide show. Thanks to PhotoShop.

Photographs: Trevlac Bluffs Nature Preserve

The Wildflower Workshop

May 13, 2017

Register now at Indiana Nature Photography

A Collaborative Project with Sycamore Land Trust

This Indiana Nature Photography workshop will focus on wildflower photography for the digital photographer. During our day exploring and photographing nature preserves owned by the Sycamore Land Trust, you will gain hands on experience photographing flowers from various views and angles.

Gary and Steven will demonstrate how to use camera settings, lenses – from macros to telephotos – and a variety of homemade and commercially available tools to help you capture the best photos possible.
During this workshop, you will participate in group demonstrations and one-on-one instruction with the instructors. Be prepared to get on the ground and capture some great photographs!

Indiana Nature Photography will donate 10% of the workshop receipts to Sycamore Land Trust, a nonprofit conservation organization that protects nearly 9,000 acres of natural southern Indiana from Brown County to Evansville.