MISTY MORNING | Niki Butcher

J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge © 2020

Photographic Story One of my favorite places on Sanibel Island is the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge. One morning, just as the gate opened, I drove through the Refuge’s wetland and mangrove area while there was still mist rising from the earth. It was beautiful and added a softness to the scene. By the time I reached the location where I wanted to photograph the sun was burning away the mist. There was just a small amount of mist still there. Well, the mist was so subtle that I didn’t catch it in my photographic image. I am assuming I used an incorrect exposure. But, since I hand-paint my images, I was able to create the mist so that the image was that soft surreal image I saw when I drove up to photograph it. The Art of Hand Painting Black and White Photographs Photographed with a Sony digital camera and instead of oil painting with Q-tips and cotton balls, Niki was able to paint using Photoshop. Changing from the old-fashioned way of doing her art, to the new ‘fashion’ of using technology was challenging, but she’s enjoying getting back to her own personal expression. Archival Print Making Niki’s open edition gicleé artwork is printed on Sunset Bright Velvet Rag matte finish paper using eight archival inks. A state-of-the-art Epson Stylus Pro printer creates deep, rich dark values that hold subtle detail in the shadows as well as bright vivid colors that are truly tropical.