Larry Braun's photography inspired by Hudson River School painters

The eye sees much more than a camera can record, but enhancing and combining photographic images brings the result closer to nature.

That's the belief and practice of Benton, Mo., photographer Larry Braun, whose work is on display through March at Yoga East Healing Arts Studio at 827 Broadway.

Having hiked throughout the 200-square-mile Benton Hills wilderness south of Cape Girardeau, Braun has found scenes for his Canon Mark II digital camera, particularly around Tywappity Community Lake and the General Watkins Conservation Area.

"The purist photographers think you should just take the photo and print it, but there are more color variations than you can capture with the camera's sensor," he said.

"The Hudson River School [in New York] of painters in the mid-1880s developed their own style of landscape painting, and a lot of my pictures are inspired by the way they presented nature."

Larry Braun’s photo of a hiking trail at General Watkins Conservation Area in Scott County is shown. Braun’s work will be on display through March at Yoga East Healing Arts Studio in Cape Girardeau. (Submitted)

Asked whether he finds nature transcendental, Braun said, "I find it spiritual. The presence of God is in nature, and I feel very at home in the woods."

The 61-year-old St. Mary, Mo., native studied by correspondence with the New York Institute of Photography and retired in January after a career as a chemist with the New Madrid Power Plant. Braun served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and is a 1986 Southeast Missouri State University graduate. He and his wife Darcy have five children and six grandchildren.

His photos can be found at larrybraunphotography.com, and he plans to show one photo per month at the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri at 32 N. Main St.

Yoga East owner Judy Grier said she and her art coordinator, Kelly Hughes, wanted Braun's photos for their First Friday series because of the images in the scenes they depict. "We're always looking for things that are soothing, calming, things like that," Grier said.

"Larry's work is exquisite," she added.

On sale for $100 each, all but one of the eight photos exhibited at the studio since early February are a product of the HDR -- or high dynamic range -- technique -- combining underexposed, overexposed and correctly exposed images.

"HDR has gotten a bad name in the photography business because some photos have exaggerated effects, almost like a cartoon," Braun said. "But you don't know you're looking at HDR the way I use it."

Referring to a graphics editing program, he said: "I'm big on Photoshop because I can take my pictures where I want them to go. Pictures right out of the camera are not all that impressive."

Braun said his wife, a teacher who before the digital age did all the photography for the Chaffee High School yearbooks, "is a good judge" and does not mind being critical when it's needed.

His photos on display at Yoga East include "Morning Hike," "This Bud's for You," "Forest Trail," "Dancing Leaves" and the only non-HDR work, "Moonlit Magnolias." He showed his images at the Wren Gallery before his current exhibition.

Braun will attend Yoga East's First Friday reception at 5 p.m. March 7.