Early mornings, late evenings, foggy mornings with boundless mist in the air and the sun occasionally breaking through are the reasons I wander often into the backroads. A hot cup of coffee is desirable, but I am talking of temperatures close to the 30s (Fahrenheit) and frost and ice on the road. No matter how hot the coffee feels in my hand, it takes a minute before they turn pale cold!
My camera and my photography gear stays with the car. I have simplified my gears for backroad photography, depending mostly on my wide and very-wide angle lenses and my ND filters. In most cases I do not use any polarizers on such wide angle shots and that apart, they catch too much mist too quickly for me.
My carbon-fiber Gitzo tripod has been with me for over 10 years now and is my constant companion. I have lost tract of all the remote(s) I purchased for my cameras – somehow I manage to break them every time. Nowadays I shoot without the remotes and take an additional one or two shots to be on the safe side when it comes to camera shake.
The mid-south landscape around Mississippi and Tennessee is very different from either the New England coast or the coasts of California. Nothing ever happens here! Nothing moves, nothing sounds and there is beauty in that stillness & silence. There is beauty in the quietness of the fog and the stealth of the sun rising from these endless cotton plantations.
The trees are enormous. And there comes a time every year where you can see the raw beauty of these trees – the ground gets colorful with the fall foliage and the bare trees provide some very interesting subjects to photograph.
As the mist rolls in and out, the color changes. From mild bluish tinge to orangish to yellow as the fog clears and the sun becomes stronger. For a photographer like me, a lot of time goes in finding the right tree! Don’t get me wrong – backroads are filled with dirt roads and gorgeous trees, but it takes a while to find the right spot to photograph them.
Most of the land in the mid-south are private lands, used mainly for farming and raising cattle and sometimes you can spot beautiful barns and horse ranches. Sometimes, a horse or a deer would jump into the frame and make it more interesting.
Although I shoot wide or very wide, I still use high depth of field, shooting not less than f/16 most of the time. Nikon does a great job with Auto Color Temperature and whatever mild fixes have to be made, I make them in Lightroom.
Most of my shots are done from a low angle. I like to show the immenseness of these trees, the strength they demonstrate and the grandeur of their design. Each photographer has their own style, and with time, I have loved these low angle shots.
This tree is photographed along the backroads of Arlington, about 30 miles east of Memphis in Tennessee. The land was fenced and I stood along the fence, using one of the wooden posts as an additional support. These pictures were taken at an interval of about 10 mins, just when the fog was clearing out up to the time when the sun brought in enough golden touch to the image. Large scale prints are available from my site for these images.