Earlier this year, I visited Fort Jefferson at the Dry Tortugas National Park. Dry Tortugas is one of the most remote national parks in the United States. It's a very small island located about 70 miles off the coast of Key West, Florida.

The repeating arches was my favorite subject to photograph at the fort. To create the final image, I captured 15 frames and utilized the following software: Photoshop CS5, Nik Color Efex Pro and Nik HDR Efex Pro.

First, I captured an image of the scene with a single exposure:

Then, I took four more images of this scene. I ended up with five total exposures--one properly exposed, two underexposed images (by one and two stops) and two overexposed images (by one and two stops). I blended the five exposures using HDR Efex Pro software to create a high dynamic range (HDR) photograph. I applied the Tonal Contrast (Nik Color Efex 4) filter to the arches and floor as well.

Fort Jefferson is surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico and a small beach:

I was disappointed that the large steel doors at the end of the arches were closed as they blocked the view of the beach and the water. I located another window in the fort that provided an open view of the scene:

I captured nine exposures of this scene to create a high dynamic range image and then removed all of the people from the scene with the cloning tool in Photoshop:

A view of paradise Finally, I copied the scene from the window and applied it to open the door at the end of the arches!

Walkway to the ocean