Posts

Laurel Mill at Night

/0 Comments/in , /by

I have dreamed of this photo for months and months, finally I was able to make it happen! I first discovered Laurel Mill using Google Maps last summer. I made one trip out to attempt to photograph it and was disheartened to find “No Trespassing” signs all over. As I’ve stated before, as a professional photographer I believe it is important to respect other peoples property, so I decided not to shoot it that night. After some research, I was able to find the address of the owner and wrote him a letter. To my surprise, he actually called me back and gave me permission to shoot there anytime. Now I just had to wait for the right night – clear skies. I finally got the opportunity last Friday night…

The sky is a blend of around 225 exposures, each at 30 seconds long. The foreground (water and mill) is a single exposure that is 2 minutes long. There was no moon and the road was too far away for car lights to light the mill. I had to do the 2 minute exposure to get a foreground with enough detail and light. I was beginning to get worried that the mist rising from the water due to the exceptionally cool evening would fog the lens or ruin the scene. Instead, I think it adds a nice softness to that area of the image. Exposure details are below.

Sky
Blend of 225 exposures.
f2.8
30 seconds
ISO 1600

Foreground
f2.8
122 seconds
ISO 3200

The foreground was photographed first, followed immediately by the 200+ sky exposures.

Carolina Night

/0 Comments/in , /by

I found another great looking old house last night. This one near Coats, NC.

This photo consists of 169 30-second exposures. Facing east, the stars are rising from behind the house.  The house and land is lit with a combination of moonlight and headlights from passing cars over the 1.5 hour time.

1600 ISO, f4.0, 16mm, 30 seconds x169

I will not give out the exact location of this one as I was approached by the owner while shooting here last night. After briefly explaining what I was doing, he was nice enough to allow me to continue. There are a lot of photographers that wouldn’t hesitate at trespassing to get a photo, but I will just not do that. I was shooting from the road, and was respectful of their property. There was a “No Trespassing” sign up and I don’t want to be responsible for other photographers showing up.

 

Hope you enjoy!

A Dream Home

/2 Comments/in /by

You may remember this house from my last post where the weather wouldn’t cooperate. Well, Saturday night may have only been 22 degrees, but there wasn’t a cloud in site so I rode back out to this abandoned house I found on Google maps to shoot some startrails.

 

This is a combination of 240 exposures. Each exposure was 30 seconds long. The exposures were then stacked together to show the movement of the stars in a two hour time period. The camera settings for the exposures were: f2.8, ISO 1000, white balance set to “tungsten” to help combat the light pollution from nearby towns.

 

The house is located near Pinetops, NC. It looks as though it was once a large, beautiful old farm house. It’s amazing to me that a house like this is just left to rot away.

 

Hope you enjoy!

Raven’s Roost at Night

/0 Comments/in /by

 

(Looks better if you click on it!)

Many of you may remember my “Buzzard’s Roost at night” image, taken at Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee (Seen below). Today, I’ve prepared a new similar image – “Raven’s Roost at Night”. This one was taken at the Raven’s Roost overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Lyndhurst, Virginia.

“Raven’s Roost at Night” is a combination of more than 160 photos, taken continually and merged together in post. The tree and the rocks were lit with a handheld flash fired manually several times from different locations. We are looking west in this image, so the stars appear to be streaking downward as they circle around the North Star, which is off to the right of the image. The colors in the sky is light pollution from nearby cities, reflecting into the clouds.

Hope you enjoy!

 

_MG_3150-Edit

Christmas on the Farm

/0 Comments/in /by

About an hours worth of 30-second photos, merged to show the movement of the stars.

College Grove Methodist Church

/0 Comments/in , /by

*Looks better if you click it :)*

I headed out a couple of days ago in search of a good night photo. I ended up in College Grove, where this beautiful church is. I’ve passed it before, so I’ve thought about a night shot. The problem was the street lights in front and to the side. I had to shoot from this angle to block the one on the side. Overall, I think it turned out pretty well. This is approximately 45 minutes worth of 30 second exposures, blended to show the motion of the stars.

 

 [button link=”http://store.malcolmmacgregorphotography.com/FineArtPrints/Landscapes/i-h36sxxn/A” text=”Buy This Print Starting at $5!!” color=”red” /]

[button link=”http://malcolmmacgregorphotography.com/2014-calendar-pre-order-page” text=”Order a 2014 Calendar Here!!” color=”red” /]

 

Night Sky Over Nashville

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Looks better if you click on it! 🙂

The Nashville Skyline with stars and the full moon overhead. Don’t you wish this were possible? The night sky is amazing, I wish we could see more of it over the cities. This is, in fact, a composite created by merging several photos together. The night sky was photographed miles away from the city and then blended into the photo of the Nashville skyline to make an artistic version of Nashville at night.

 

[button link=”http://store.malcolmmacgregorphotography.com/FineArtPrints/Nashville/i-vHzr5vK/A” text=”Buy this photo starting at $5!!” color=”red” /]

[button link=”http://malcolmmacgregorphotography.com/2014-calendar-pre-order-page” text=”Purchase a 2014 Calendar – Limited Supply!” color=”red” /]

 

 

Cow Field in the Moon Light

/0 Comments/in , /by

Here’s another night scene I photographed in rural Bedford County the other night. The moon was so bright it lit the field up as though it were day. This is a 30 second exposure, the cows were amazingly still 🙂

 

 

Night on the Farm

/0 Comments/in , /by

Looks better if you click on it!!! 🙂

So I left the house late Saturday night in search of night scene to shoot. I took off on some back roads in rural Bedford County. Came across a few interesting scenes, shot a little here and there, then I was very excited when I came across this. The barn was sitting in perfect moon light. The North Star just off to the left (just out of frame). So I set up here and shot for about an hour and a half to capture the star trails. No artificial light was used in this scene, everything was completely lit by a very bright moon. Hopefully I’ll be headed out that way soon for some other ideas I found along the way 🙂

[button link=”http://store.malcolmmacgregorphotography.com/FineArtPrints/Landscapes/i-dQGxM6g/A” text=”Buy Prints Starting at $5!!” color=”red” /]

 

Price Lake at Night

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Price Lake at night. This was probably 11:30 at night, but the nearly full moon was so bright it lit the scene as though it were day.

This was taken as an HDR, but instead of changing the shutter speed, I adjusted the ISO in between each photo. Then the 6 resulting photos were merged.

 

Price Lake is located on the Blue Ridge Parkway, near Blowing Rock, North Carolina

 

Don’t forget that you can vote for me for a Ruthies Award! You can vote everyday for the month of August! Check it out HERE!!!