I have a lot of photos that I have described as one of my favorites. Well here it is. MY FAVORITE SHOT EVER!!! I shot this in 2002 in Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia. It was just one of those lucky moments to catch on film. It was not doctored in Photoshop. Nothing major anyway. Increased contrast in the sky, and brightened the rocks in the foreground, which is stuff I could have done in the darkroom. Got rid of a few people walking aound on the rocks, otherwise, the negative looks exactly like this. The ironic thing is, I thought I was totally wasting my time waiting for the sunset. It was very overcast. The sun was behind the clouds, and it was just a gray, dreary, ugly evening. Just a minute before the sun set, the sun dropped below the clouds. With the sun exposed, the landscape transformed into this magical scene. One minute later, the sun dropped below the horizon, and everything turned gray and dreary again.

Tags:   Mike Jones photo professional photographer landscape scenic nature new england water ocean sea oceanscape sunrise sunset dusk twilight clouds sky lighthouse peggys cove peggy's canada InstantFave specobject ABigFave APlusPhoto Holidays-Vacanze-Urlaub invitedPRO BRAVO Travelerphotos MagicDonkey dumbass FiveFlickrFavs GoldenPhotographer DiamondClassPhotographer wishitookthat

© All Rights Reserved

Well... It's become an annual tradition to repost this photo on 9-11 in memory of that horrible day and all those that lost their lives. Amazing that it's really been 15 years.

In memory of that horrible day, and all those who lost their lives, It's become an annual tradition to change the date on my favorite photo of the Worlds Trade Center to move it up to the top.

I can't believe it has really been 13 years since that day. I still remember it like yesterday. I was actually out early that morning, cruising around the beach in Belmar, New Jersey. I was doing a shoot for New Jersey Monthly magazine. The DJ on the radio announced that a plane had hit one of the towers. I thought, 'That sucks!' Like everyone else, I just assumed it was a little single engine, private plane. The radio went about playing a few more songs. I kept seeing strange things happening. It took a while for my brain to put all the pieces together. I tried to make a call on my cell phone, and all circuits were busy. Never heard that before. There was a guy on Belmar boardwalk frantically pulling a huge flag down to half mast. I wondered, 'who died?' Then the DJ on the radio announced that a second plane had hit. I thought, 'now this is getting weird.' They went back to playing another song, and I could see tons of black smoke filling the horizon, looking out at the ocean, towards New York City. I wondered, 'what's burning?' Suddenly everything came together in my head. I realized' 'Oh SHIT! This is something REALLY BIG!' Just as I had that thought, the DJ cut off the song and said... "I'm sorry... I didn't realize the enormity of what is happening here. Someone just poked their head into the studio and told me a plane had hit the towers. This is really BAD! I'm going to switch over our broadcast to CNN news for the rest of the day" I ended up driving all the way to Sandy Hook that afternoon. I just had to see it with my own eyes. I couldn't believe what I was hearing on the radio was really happening. Sandy Hook has a great view of Lower Manhattan. I just stood there on the beach in silence, with a thousand other people, looking across the water at the smoke... Looking at a skyline now missing two huge buildings that I could see out my bedroom window as a kid. I still can't believe they're really gone. I went up to the top of one of the towers just a few months before they fell. It was so hard to believe that a few months later they were just rubble.

Here's something really weird. Just a couple days before 9-11, I did an outdoor art festival, selling some of my photography. I met the nicest couple. We talked for a while. They were asking me all about the big camping trip I had just taken out west. I invited them to come to the opening of a gallery show I was doing the next week. They said they would love to see the show, but they're flying to California on Tuesday, but they would love to see the show when they come back... A couple of days later, I saw their photos in the newspaper. They were on the infamous Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.

This was taken from Liberty State Park, back around 1990. It was a very long time exposure 5-10 minutes. The clouds were moving fairly fast, which created the streaky looking sky.

Tags:   Mike Jones photo professional photographer landscape scenic nature NYC New York City Manhatten skyline worlds trade center WTC nighttime water black and white B&W Liberty state park 25+faves BlueRibbonWinner

© All Rights Reserved

This was a 30 second time exposure taken at night during a late summmer thunderstorm. The bridge is in Mantoloking, NJ

Tags:   Mike Jones photo professional photographer landscape scenic nature water ocean sea bay lightning storm ABigFave 25+faves

© All Rights Reserved

Is it real, or is it Photoshopped? I'm not telling.

Tags:   Mike Jones photo professionalphotographer landscape scenic nature professional photographer water ocean sea oceanscape rainbow i500 multicolor Outstanding Shots Superb Masterpiece lighthouse stripes color bright payback is a bitch dumbass DiamondClassPhotographer ColorPhotoAward

© All Rights Reserved

I shot this picture about 15 years ago on an old Graflex 4x5 view camera that I bought in High school. People are always asking if the colors are real, well, Photoshop didn't even exist yet when I shot this, so the answer is yes. It was a rusty old bike that I painted with some spray cans of flourescent paint I had lying around. I shot the picture purely for my own amusement. I never would have beleived that 15 years later it would still be my most popular picture.

Tags:   Mike Jones photo professional photographer landscape scenic nature water ocean sea rainbow series rainbow color bike bicycle old Schwinn multicolor SuperbMasterpiece ABigFave BeyondExcellence DiamondClassPhotographer Bravo specobject SuperShot MagicDonkey flickrdiamond jalalspages_coloursoflife APlusPhoto coolest Vivid FlickrElite

© All Rights Reserved