I had an absolutely magical afternoon for shooting today. I just can't resist shooting these old southern plantations, with their perfect rows of Live Oak trees. I've shot several of these before, but never with such spectacular light as this. The light rays are actually from smoke. Today must have been official 'Burn Your Farm' day in Louisiana. Every single farm I drove past all afternoon had lit their fields on fire, The air was filled with smoke. The wind kept shifting, so the smoke kept coming and going. Of course, every time I lined up a perfect shot, the damn smoke would suddenly disappear, the air would go totally clear, and the magic was lost, so I spent a lot of time standing there anxiously hoping the wind would shift, to bring back the smoke. Eventually, I got my shot!
Tags: www.mikejonesphoto.com Smith-Southwestern Mike Jones photo landscape scenic nature professional photographer 0715 SuperShot Louisiana LA plantation live oak tunnel AnAwesomeShot NaturesFinest the-secret-life-of-trees VosPlusBellesPhotos MASTERSofLIFE GALLERY MegaTopoftheFog mywinners
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This one goes out to my friend Wes (BamaWester). His big claim to fame, is his one, nighttime shot, of these orange colored foggy trees. Since people liked it, he's posted about 25 more, nearly identical versions of the same exact shot, taken on the same night. He keeps changing the date on the first one, to move it back up to the top of his photostream in a desperate attempt to get more comments and faves, to milk it for all it's worth. He loves to talk about how many faves it has. It's really pretty pathetic.
SO, when this scene presented itself to me last week, I immediately thought 'OH NO! IT'S BAMA'S FOGGY TREES PHOTO!' So, I just had to shoot it. The difference is, his is a foggy night, lit by a streetlight. Mine was actually a forest filled with smoke from a nearby forest fire, lit by the rising sun. I shot this on my last morning at Lake Tahoe. After a disappointingly lame sunrise, I drove around, and found this one smoke filled section of the forest. I got out and walked around. All the sudden, the sun finally emerged, and transformed the smoky forest into this scene.
I'm Mike Jones, and I approve this message.
Tags: www.mikejonesphoto.com Smith-Southwestern Mike Jones photo landscape scenic nature professional photographer CA california 9008 Supershot I'm a pyromaniac I love smelling the smoke as long as you're not the one smoking AnAwesomeShot
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The Milky Way... I've been wanting to try this ever since I got this amazing new camera three months ago. To push the camera to the absolute minimum amount of light possible, and see what it can pull out of it. The results absolutely blew my mind!!! In New Jersey, on a clear night you can see 4 or 5 stars. After spending most of my life there, I am just mesmerized when I look up at the night sky in the mountains out west. Being up over 6000 feet elevation, where the air is thin and clear, hundreds of miles from city lights. A couple nights ago, I looked up at one of the clearest, darkest night skies I had ever seen. The moon was not out yet. There was the milky way, streaking across the middle of the sky like a streaky white cloud. I figured, now's the time. Let's give this a try. I aimed the camera almost straight up towards the Milky Way, and Jupiter. I used my 50mm f1.4 lens, with the f-stop wide open. I was worried about the focus, which is critical at f1.4. To my amazement, Jupiter was so bright, my autofocus was actually able to focus on it. Jupiter is always easy to spot. It's the brightest thing in the sky.
So... The exposure. 10 seconds, f1.4, ISO 800. This camera had virtually no noise at 800 ISO. I pulled it up in Photoshop. At first the smaller stars were faint. All I did was start cranking up the contrast, and all these distant stars started appearing, and the faint cloud of the milky way just exploded to life, it's the diagonal lighter stripe going across the frame. I went back outside and looked at that same section of the sky. For every one star I could see with the naked eye, this camera probably picked up a thousand more. The mis-shapen, flying saucer shaped ones toward the right are all distant galaxies. This shot is uncropped. The only photoshopping was cranking up the contrast, and some slight sharpening. There is no camera noise visible... These are ALL stars!
I uploaded this one the twice as large as I normally do.
THIS ONE ABSOLUTELY MUST BE VIEWED AT THE LARGE SIZE TO APPRECIATE THE DETAILS.
Even if it doesn't fit on your screen and you have to scroll around it. Check it out large.
View Large, On Black
Tags: www.mikejonesphoto.com Smith-Southwestern Mike Jones photo landscape scenic nature professional photographer Arizona AZ 2515 BRAVO Supershot AnAwesomeShot
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This was one of the greatest hiking trails ever. It felt like a scene from Lord of the Rings. This was in Lubec, Maine.
Tags: Mike Jones photo professionalphotographer landscape scenic nature professional photographer lubec maine fog mist haze hazy 6862
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A very famous statue in a very amazing cemetary.
Tags: Mike Jones photo professionalphotographer landscape scenic nature professional photographer savannah georgia orton 2417
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