Uploads from MikeJonesPhoto, tagged photographer

Morning Haze

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:59:20 -0700

I took a ride up the Bush Highway early, early, yesterday morning in search of the elusive wild horses that wander around the Salt River. I have seen them from a distance a few times, but never close enough for a decent photo.

I got up there before sunrise and wandered around for a few hours. Shot some mesquite trees along the river while waiting for the horses to wander by.

I eventually did find them, exactly where I wanted them. There were a dozen or so, wading along the shoreline of the river. I parked, put on the big lens, and started quietly heading down towards the water. As soon as they saw me, they headed off into the woods. I followed them through the woods for a while, but got nothing. Elusive buggers.

Blue Canyon

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:15:50 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

Here's another from the trip I took with Jill up to northern Arizona a couple months ago.

Blue Canyon is one of the most amazing places on Earth, and practically nobody knows it exists. It is in the middle of nowhere.

Saguaro Blooms

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:00:41 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

The Saguaros are in full bloom now in the valley. I can finally get up high enough to shoot these things with my new tripod extender thingy I built a couple months ago.

Roadtrip With Mom

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Sun, 12 May 2013 15:22:42 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

Just wanted to wish a happy Mothers Day to my Mom, and all the other Moms out there.

This was the final stop in a frigid roadtrip we took together when she visited Arizona at Christmas time. She flew all the way from New Jersey down to sunny Arizona, and what do we do? Drive up to the frozen mountains in Colorado where it was about 2 degrees F.

The final stop was Monument Valley which looked beautiful with a fresh dusting of snow. It was a really fun trip.

Windy Point

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Sat, 11 May 2013 12:24:30 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

I took a trip down to Tucson last weekend and saw some cool places that I have never visited before.

These are from up on top of Mount Lemmon. I've only seen the Catalina Mountains from a distance. I never realized how much bigger the mountains in Tucson are than the pitiful little mountains we have up here around Phoenix. Our Superstition mountains are only 3-4 thousand feet high, but, Mount Lemmon is over 9000 feet high, and you can drive up to the top.

It was about 90 degrees down in Tucson. When I got to the top of the mountain it was only about 50 degrees up there. There were big pine trees. It looked like Colorado up there.

This first shot is looking west towards Tucson. I was hoping to get a skyline shot of Tucson from up there, but downtown was WAY too far away. The Tucson skyline looked like a little speck in the distance from up there.

Alright... Just One More Of These

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Thu, 09 May 2013 08:59:18 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

I... So did NOT want to go out and shoot the sunset last night.

Just got back from Tucson and have a ton of photos to go through. Survivor and American Idol were about to come on and I just splurged and bought some Alaskan King Crab legs I was about to cook for dinner (they were on sale) My mouth was watering. Looking forward to watching TV and picking on crab legs.

Kept looking out at the sky…

Shit! The sky is looking good.

I'm not going out...

A few minutes later… Looked out again. Now the sky is looking REALLY good… Shit!

I'm really hungry… I'm NOT going out...

Show is starting. Pot on the stove is hot. It's about 15 minutes to sunset. Look out the window again.

Now the sky looks AWESOME! Looks like it might be an AMAZING sunset! SHIT SHIT SHIT!!!!!!!!!!

Alright. Fine!………….. Damnit!

Turn off stove... Put crab legs back in refrigerator... Drive like a madman out to one of my favorite saguaros.

Came back a half hour later with this.

300mm Landscape

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Wed, 08 May 2013 10:35:34 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

I just got back from a couple day trip down to Tucson. I should go down to Tucson more often. It really is a great place to shoot.

This is from Saguaro National Park, East, where I met up with Greg, who knows the area quite well.

Shot this with my 300mm lens. I love bringing those beautifully textured mountains in the background in close with a big lens.

It's a Dry Heat!

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Tue, 07 May 2013 11:49:21 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

Yes. It's getting to be that time of year now...

Time when the afternoon temps in southern Arizona start creeping up towards 112º F.

We had a couple of 100º days last week, but this week has been quite pleasant. But, it's COMING!

.

True... It IS a dry heat. It's a dry heat very similar to the inside of your oven when you pull out the roast turkey on Thanksgiving.

Three For The Price Of One

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Sat, 04 May 2013 22:09:00 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

These three photos are all from the same sunset. Taken about five minutes apart. This was a great sunset last week. It was followed by a week of solid blue skies.

In A Fog

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Thu, 02 May 2013 17:54:56 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

I'm almost done going through all the crap I shot in Florida last summer.

Here are a couple of shots from a beautiful foggy day, in Crystal River.

Smoky Oaks

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:06:36 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

Another one from back in Florida. Taken near a campsite I was staying in, around Homosassa Springs. Smoke was hanging heavy in the air as some campers lit their evening camp fires. Made for some great light rays amongst a forest of live oak trees.

Below The Surface

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:06:01 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

One of my last stops in Florida, a few months ago was here. Florida Caverns State Park. In the Florida Panhandle.

Most people wouldn't really think of Florida as cavern country, but I was very pleasantly surprised by this place. It wasn't very big, but it was an absolutely beautiful cave.

It was fantastic to shoot, because I paid for an after hours private tour. This meant that I could turn all the lights on and off to completely control my lighting. This is a 50/50 blend of two different exposures. One shot with the available lighting they have in the cave. Then I turned all the lights off and fumbled around in the dark. For the second exposure I ran around firing off my flash a dozen or so times while the shutter stayed open for 30 seconds. There was absolutely NO available light, so that exposure was lit ENTIRELY by my flash. I blended those two exposures in photoshop to make the light look more even and natural.

Goldfield

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:01:29 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

Just a few more desert in bloom photos as we reach the end of the wildflower season.

Jill and I took a ride up around Canyon Lake last week. This first one was taken in the Goldfield ghost town. I thought the old buildings might make for a nice background for some cactus blooms.

The Tunnel

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 22:22:19 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

This was my favorite place I visited on last summer's trip to Florida. Fort Jefferson, in Dry Tortugas National Park. Absolutely amazing place. It's just unbelievable that a fort made of brick on a tiny island out in the middle of the ocean could be so well preserved more than 150 years after it was built.

And Now For Something Completely Different

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:05:20 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

I've been seeing a lot of photos of waterfalls lately and it's really gotten me in the mood to shoot one.

Unfortunately, for the past year and a half, I have been in Arizona and Florida. Not really the best places for waterfalls. So, I dug these out of the archives. This was one of the most beautiful and unique waterfalls I have ever seen. Mossbrae Falls, in northern California. It is so amazing how you can't see the source of the water. The water just emerges out of the side of this moss covered rock wall.

So... Here are a few photos of Mossbrae that I have never worked on. Shot the summer before last.

Satellite Dish Hoodoos

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:11:51 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

Apparently, ancient civilizations used to use these stone satellite dishes to detect an incoming UFO invasion. Maybe that's why most of the Native Americans seemed to disappear from northern Arizona around 800 years ago. I guess the dishes didn't work. They must have been abducted by aliens.

Anyway... This is from the trip up to Page that Jill and I took a month or so ago. These white hoodoos are kind of off the beaten path, out in the middle of nowhere, around the Utah/Arizona border.

Florida's State Bird

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:53:14 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

I tried all summer to get a decent macro shot of a mosquito. This is the best I could come up with. Not as sharp as I would like.

It was shot through the side window of my truck where she and her friends gathered to wait for me to dare step out of the truck. I did not.

Busy Bee

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:35:42 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

I've been out chasing desert blooms all month.

The wildflowers are done, but the cactus blooms are going strong. Here are a few macro shots I have gotten in the past few days.

Hats off to all those responsible for catching the Marathon bombers. Amazing!

Arizona Skies

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 11:06:06 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

The giant sun sets over the eastern valley. You know what they say. Everything's bigger in Arizona. No wait... That's texas. Speaking of Texas. My heart goes out to all those affected in last night's horrible explosion. Wow! What a week it has been for tragic news.

Here is a sunset last week with a 600mm lens. I've always loved these giant sun photos, but it is extremely difficult to find a cactus that far away without any clutter in the foreground or background. Seems like there's always some building or power lines off in the distance.

Panama City Beach

nobody@flickr.com (MikeJonesPhoto) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:40:06 -0700

MikeJonesPhoto posted a photo:

Here's one from a few months ago as I headed out the panhandle of Florida.