Mt. Pleasant Photographer to show work in January.

Lucas Paul is a Mt. Pleasant photographer who does not really set out for a particular shot; he basically lets his shots come to him.

“I don’t actually set out to find something in particular,” explained Paul about how he goes about getting his subjects.

Sometimes he is quite creative about getting certain shots.

“I didn’t even get out of my car for one photo, and I said, ‘I’m going to shoot from the wet windshield instead,’” said Paul about one of his photos taken at Geode State Park.

There are times when Paul will use himself as the subject for his photos, but for the most part, he works his photos on the fly.

“Sometimes when I do go out with intention it never quite works out,” Paul said. “It always happens to me, I’ll go out scouting to shoot one thing, and I end up getting sidetracked. It’s always the happy accidents that are the best.”

When asked about his camera set up, Paul admits that he has his favorites.

“I don’t shoot with many zoom lenses. I love the prime lenses. I love the zoom with your feet,” said Paul. “I used to use zoom lenses when I first started out, but then I realized that they were making me lazy. Prime lenses make you work harder, you really have to think things through.”

Paul said that he uses his digital camera for the majority of his work.

“That’s the beauty of digital cameras,” said Paul, “You can already see the beauty of the photograph that you are working with. You can already see your shot through the viewfinder.”

The technical makeup of his work is fairly simple.

“I shoot both jpeg and RAW photos simultaneously. I use the jpeg as an opportunity to view the scene with an effect already on it. Black and white photos are one example of how I do this with custom camera set up. The detail that you can get is just remarkable.”

Paul is from a small town in northeast Missouri, and has been living in Southeast Iowa since 2002.

The show at The Main Street Art Center is Paul’s first show, titled “Bright Lights in Dark Places.”

He did have some work shown through the Iowa Wesleyan University Iowa IMPACT show, but this is the first time that Paul’s work will be presented as a stand-alone exhibit.

“I will have 84 photos on display with this exhibition,” said Paul. “I don’t have a theme for this showing, I wanted to show my strengths.”