GARRISON -- A Garrison conservation officer has taken his interest in photography to another level with his first book being released earlier this year.
Ralph LaPlant, who works as a conservation officer for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, also operates a writing and photography business called North Woods Images. He co-authored a book called "Outdoor and Survival Skills for Nature Photographers."
LaPlant wrote and took pictures for the book, and Amy Sharpe, editor of the Crosby-Ironton Courier, edited it. The book features instructions and suggestions dealing with equipment, finding subjects, getting close to subjects, safety issues, survival skills and medical emergencies.
LaPlant has been a conservation officer in Garrison for five years. Before that he worked in Crosby and Ironton as a police officer. He was also a paramedic for 25 years.
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As Ralph LaPlant serves as a conservation officer for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, he shoots pictures not only of crime scenes, but of anything that strikes his interest. (Photo courtesy of Outdoor News)
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"My interest in photography goes back to when I was a kid," said LaPlant, "though I didn't get into it heavily until the mid-'80s."
LaPlant carries his camera everywhere, taking pictures mostly of nature-related subjects, but he will photograph anything that interests him. He has photographed antique cars, airplanes, rodeos and powwows. He now sends out approximately 150 rolls of film a year to be printed, and has a collection of more than 30,000 slides on file.
"My dream was to have a photo that I would be proud to hang on the wall," said LaPlant.
Shooting pictures for enjoyment soon became a business. He sells individual prints, and also sells prints to companies for publications. LaPlant subscribes to a Web-based service in New York that lists needed photographs. He can then send samples, which are purchased for books or magazines. He said a lot of his images are printed in textbooks.
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Ralph LaPlant, a Garrison conservation officer, wrote and took photographs for his book, "Outdoor and Survival Skills for Nature Photographers." Amy Sharpe, editor of the Crosby-Ironton Courier, edited the book.
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Amherst Media, a publisher of photography books, had requested an article on outdoor survival, and when LaPlant submitted an article the company asked him to expand it into a book. It took LaPlant and Sharpe six months to write, edit and rewrite the book before it was ready for publication.
"There were some intense days, and then I wouldn't touch it for a week," said LaPlant. "Sometimes you've got to get away from it to get back into it."
The premise for the book came from years of being a camper, hunter, fisherman, pilot and paramedic, LaPlant said. He has been in situations where he has fallen through the ice, needed to resuscitate people and had to deliver babies. To get the photographs he needed for the book, he had to exercise many of the outdoor skills he writes about.
"It was lousy weather, but it was appropriate because that's the environment that these people are going to put themselves in," said LaPlant.
Most of the information included in the book, he said, was researched simply to confirm what LaPlant already knew. He admits he did learn a few things in the process about appropriate clothing, baiting and decoys.
LaPlant already has his next book in the works, "Minnesota's Wildlife Friends: A Family Guide." It will be a compilation of past articles he has written for area newspapers. He describes the book as lying somewhere between a field guide and a coffee table book. It will be a book that makes it easy for kids and adults to learn about nature in Minnesota.
"With this first book," LaPlant said of the outdoor survival book, "I'm hoping that people will take it and learn and have fun out there."
