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Country Pecan Tree Sunset

The End of the Road Plantation (Farm) in Waverly Mississippi a Winter Sunset out in the front hay field. Captured with Voigtlander 12mm f-5.6 @ f-22 with Sony A...
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The End of the Road Plantation (Farm) in Waverly Mississippi a Winter Sunset out in the front hay field. Captured with Voigtlander 12mm f-5.6 @ f-22 with Sony A7s.
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Sony ILCE-7S

settings

ISO 50 Shutter 1/6

upload_date

Jan, 2016

Views

1227

Likes

+147

Awards

Featured

Contest Finalist in Beautiful Trees Photo Contest

Peer Award

+24

Superb Composition

+16

Top Choice

Outstanding Creativity

Absolute Masterpiece

All Star

Superior Skill

Magnificent Capture

Emotions

Impressed

Top Ranks

Top 10 rank

Top 20 rank week 1

Top 30 rank

Top 30 rank week 1

Top 20 rank

Top 20 rank week 3

Top 30 rank week 1

Behind The Lens

Location

On my brother-in-laws farm in Waverly Mississippi between West Point and Columbus Mississippi. With an old 1800's plantation house up the road that continues looking the way it did when it was built, Catfish filled river with woods filled with wild game and livestock filled pastures and fields full of corn, cotton, soy beans and trees full of walnuts, pecans and acorns all grand anytime of year. A quite and peaceful place most of the time and beautiful all the time from the river behind and the big trees in front and all around. Just a great place to capture the light day or night.

Time

In the evening just before dinner. I was outside just walking around before dinner and saw this great sunset, every evening is a light show due to great weather. I like to just walk about every evening while others watch TV, because this is the high definition show that has no reruns and the screen is literally as big as all outdoors (where did that term come from indoors/outdoors), is there another word for being somewhere with the sky as your ceiling the tress or ocean view your walls and the ground/ the water you stand on and having no doors, to have no doors! Just standing in and amongst the view!! That's it standing amongst and within the view!!!!

Lighting

Every day and night there is fantastic light, and this evening did not disappoint. I ran into the house got my camera and tripod and as I looked around saw the lone tree and has I walked to it set the camera settings. Here the colors fade fast, for a photographer but linger forever when just sipping some ice tea. When setup I just looked around, the clouds were kinda lazy and moving slowly so I was able to get a side view with a cloud right behind the tree. The colors changed many times as the sunset to the left and as the clouds moved to the west. I captured 10 different shots all great gifts for just being there.

Equipment

A7s with the Voigtlander 12mm f/5.6 lens and a Manfrotto 190L tripod. PhotoPills and The Photographer's Ephemeris apps. The 12mm on a full frame camera gets not only what you see in front of you (a 50mm view) but also your peripheral view. Just hold your fingers out to the left and right look forward and where you see your fingers all that is viewed will be in the frame and the same for above and below. The good or bad part is your foreground subject appears further away. The good you can stand 10 yds in front of a 100 ft. tree and get it all in not 50 yds with a 50mm just an example. The Bad you have to watch your shadow even at night when lit from behind and tripod legs at times. The Voigtlander 12mm is aspherical and not a fish-eye so the view is the same as human vision even when tilted up a little. But one has to remember an ultra-wide lens is not about getting it all in, like this shot BUT the angle's keeping lines straight as you capture from low or high above. I rarely take this lens off my camera. Use filters only in Post Processing because there is so much sky taken in during an outdoor capture.

Inspiration

When you view these tall pecan trees at the edge of a hay field in front of a sunset everyday there is just this strong tug at your inner soul to capture the view. I keep my camera and tripod at the ready every morning and evening. I am addicted to the colorful sunrises and sunsets everyday where ever I am. Like a farmer going to feed the animals before dawn, one gift in return for his work is the view of the sky when the task is done while resting and sipping his cup of coffee. I awaken before sunrise most mornings just to watch the day begin from blue hour to after golden hour sunrise and eat an early dinner to catch a sunset till the blue hour ends and now go out into the night to capture the Milky Way on a clear star field night only clouds keep me home.

Editing

At the time I was into HDR capturing for it is the only way to get all the colors the human eyes sees but is forgotten so fast because the human eye compensates for the blue hue a camera sensor translates into shady areas. All you need is 3 frames at +/- 2ev, but during a sunrise/set I like 5 frames at +/- 2ev because I do not like to use filters and when looking right into the sun I get a nice round sun not big and blown out, when you look into the sun even with sunglasses you see a nice round sun spot every time you blink. I have learned though that the dynamic range of new digital cameras and the new Post processing software you now can accomplish the same effect with just a single image, like playing a video game you have to learn how to play it. Remember a camera sensor captures in shades of grey (not 50 but 256 and more), then a program inside the camera converts to colors, and then other programs create effects for most scenes you may encounter to enhance the colors/contrast. So you are not really cheating when using Lightroom maybe in Photoshop, so when you take two or more images and stack them to enhance color/contrast you are just continuing a post process a programmer was unable to squeeze into the computer of your camera for cost/room restrictions how far you take it is up to the artist of your soul. In the film days we had a real Lightroom with chemicals and gear, so we save our lives and planet form more chemicals just having fun.

In my camera bag

With the Sony A7 series cameras there are many lens adapters and being full frame any lens I find I can use. But I carry an A7s not for video but for sunsets/rises and now the Milky Way in the darkest of nights, the dynamic range is a miracle. I have manly manual lenses because when using a tripod you turn every thing off anyway, and lenses cost less also (and I am an old film guy). I have Canon FD lenses from 24mm f/1.4 to a 100-300mm f/5.6, My Rebel T2i lenses and Sony SEL1635Z, 35mm f/2.8, SEL24240, Rokinon 12 and 14 mm f/2.8 and my favorite Voigtlander 12mm f/5.6. Also take my Canon T2i and film Canon Ftb/AE1 with 2 or 3 tripods have had all set up for sunrises/sets just to play, People grab chairs and watch while you play with that much gear all at once!

Feedback

First any camera from a cell phone to a $50k camera can do it so stay in budget. Today Photoshop/Lightroom are rented together for photographers $9 a month or $125 a year, just last year both could cost $1,500 every two years. That is your start a camera and post processing programs. Get rid of your gaming programs but keep the gaming computer (you need the speed) with lots of drive bays to store your photos. Keep your photos on three different drives that are copies of each and store in different fire/water prof safes at least one at a friends/Family members house. I first heard about HDR in 2011 when I ran across stuckincustoms.com and I was hooked using only Canon's RAW program. Today Lightroom has not only HDR merge but Panorama merge also. I would invest in Google's Nik software (7 excellent modules) that blend into LR/PS. Learn about light from blue hour/gold hour and the temps for all, understand photography exposure value (EV) the halving and doubling of light with shutter speed/ISO/f/stop first start with Aperture mode then learn in manual it is all about knowing what light you are capturing and the brightness levels between two frames. No one writing a book on HDR or website completely explains it. I do not have Photoshop too expensive so for an example I wanted to capture the moon in focus and bright above a city or building to do that your ISO and SS have to be the same say SS 125 ISO 125 to start then focus but the foreground is all dark so you need another at 30 seconds, so everyone just cuts and pastes in PS. The difference is 12 ev from SS 125 to SS 30 seconds, The A7s will do 5 frames +/- 3 ev or you can use the Promote Control device with a Canon or Nikon to select any range and number of frames up to 45 at .3 ev to the max your camera will go with mirror lockup for speed. But when doing moon or sun or milky way they move their diameters across the sky every two minutes so you get ghosting (multiple images) also with clouds. So that is where the king of HDR programs Photomatix is best to get that moving flag/clouds/moon to look one and whole. Just like this image moving clouds how do you keep them from blurring! This was processed with Oloneo Photoengine (it has the HDR engine in it) very good even with a single image. On stormy days lots of time processing images in different programs no two the same and many are free. It takes years and lots of practice images to get the look you want, most start with the cartoon/painting effect from the early days but keeping it real looking takes time with a lot of playing, the stuckincostoms,com tutorial 13 hours of video will cut the learning curve not to sell anything just wish I had got it sooner. Not being too specific! for I have 15 HDR books, 6 programs, and so many web sites stared in my browser and one tutorial over five years (time goes so fast). Lastly learn your cameras dynamic range and see if a single image will do, HDR is for looking into the light, not sideways (MDR) or with the light behind (LDR), 7 books later I learned that. Just keep capturing and playing for you are the processor and artist of the final image you like (others just do not under stand the broadness of digital) Lastly give thanks to all the camera and software programmers for doing good things for photography otherwise we would still be using film in box. Give thanks also to those who take the time to view, like and vote for your images, no one ever liked the slide projector but now you show it on Viewbug and people view and comment at there leisure. Yea! Thanks to all !!!!

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Country Pecan Tree Sunset

The End of the Road Plantation (Farm) in Waverly Mississippi a Winter Sunset out in the front hay field. Captured with Voigtlander 12mm f-5.6 @ f-22 with Sony A... Read more

Behind The Lens

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The End of the Road Plantation (Farm) in Waverly Mississippi a Winter Sunset out in the front hay field. Captured with Voigtlander 12mm f-5.6 @ f-22 with Sony A...
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