A shot from the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest trip I took in summer of '11...

A 24 minute exposure lit partially by moonlight and flashlight...


PS- So great to see all my old flickr friends again! Thanks for the warm welcome-back.

Tags:   ancient bristlecone pine forest california landscape night star trail long exposure tree patriarch grove

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Tags:   eureka dunes death valley california night long exposure stars moon landscape desert

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Well, This was one of those sunsets that a guy like me only gets to see about once every year or two... A photographer's dream.

We weren't sure what was going to happen with the cloud cover, and the erratic pattern of storm clouds had not shown much sign of moving into place until about an hour before sunset...
Once these clouds filled the eastern sky above us, the sunset light was in the perfect position, and the magic began...
This light lasted about 6 minutes... Just long enough to a few shots (that have been very hard to choose from)...

I'm pretty grateful to have experienced this... Big thanks to my friend Marc Adamus, who had been scouting the entire area for a few days before I arrived, and provided us with some excellent options for tree subjects here in the Bristlecone Pine Forest - like this ancient gnarly beast... This tree in particular (though *mostly dead) has been standing for well over 3000 years. It's pretty amazing to think about all this tree must have seen and endured... I'm happy to have seen it just once in this light. :)

Thanks so much for looking.

-Mac

Tags:   Ancient bristlecone pine forest california white mountains landscape sunset tree dead TNC11

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Clouds move through the air during this two-minute-long exposure in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest... The entire scene was lit by a half-moon off to the west...

Some of these dead trees have been standing for well over 2500 years...

I used a small halogen torch to help illuminate the tree briefly during the exposure... thanks for looking.

Tags:   night long exposure bristlecone ancient pine forest tree stars california landscape the-secret-life-of-trees

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The full-moon phenomena theory might be true... I couldn't sleep, knowing I was going to shoot the next day, for the first time in months... I looked outside at midnight and the clouds were barreling across the sky with high winds.. Those are my type of conditions.

At 3:30am, I got to Red Rock National park in Nevada and started trying to find compositions... The clouds were moving very fast, and so was I... I had to get to Death Valley and out onto the sand dunes, ready to shoot by 5:40am (sunrise)...
I tried not to be hasty, but I ended up bumping up the ISO and settling for shorter exposures than I'd have liked...
this one was 3 1/2 mins...
Full moon as just out of the frame to the left...

thanks for looking

-Mac

Tags:   red rock landscape desert moon clouds long exposure joshua tree las vegas nevada stars national park night TNC11

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