Greg Molyneux Photography

Tag: top of the world

  • Up at Night

    Up at Night

    14mm wide angle astrophotography image of a star filled night sky captured atop the unique New Jersey Pinelands' pygmy pine trees.
    Up at Night — 14mm | f/2.8 | ISO 1600 | EXP 10 sec

    COVID-19 has taken many things. Lives, livelihoods, lifestyles, and liberties all curtailed as we continue to confront an ongoing public health crisis. It’s been tough and there are few to argue otherwise. A lower tier robbery thieved by COVID is spontaneous fun. The need to social distance to keep group exposure minimized has taken away spontaneous fun. You know, the plans that didn’t exist until you get a text message from a friend like, yo, get here now because we’re all doing [insert cool fun thing here]. And boom, unexpected excitement dropped into your life; the best kind of fun. This tale has in no way told the COVID story. Homebound monotony has long held sway.

    This changed for me on Thursday. Ben Wurst dropped a small group text to Jonathan Carr and me saying we should go out tonight for astrophotography. Initially I thought this was a nice sentiment, something fun in theory, but I did not expect it to shake out. I was pleasantly surprised to return from my run to see Jon was in and the game was on. Thursday night in the pines it would be.

    Around 10:00 p.m. Thursday we all met up roadside on 539 south in Warren Grove to hike in about a quarter mile to the top of the world. The top of the world is a hyperbolic name given to a small hill outcrop on an otherwise flat bowl of pygmy pines. The pygmies are a unique set of stunted pines found in the southern part of the New Jersey Pinelands. Kept small by wildfire, these bonsai-esque pines stand low—most well under six feet tall. A small sea of mini trees standing sentry for centuries. It’s a cool sight, and this was my first trek out there since January 2016. It had been a while.

    From here we tried our best at making astrophotography on a clear, moonless night. The visibility was excellent, and shooting stars dashed the night sky on regular intervals. Honestly, I didn’t even care about the photographs I was making, I was just happy to be out having unexpected fun with friends.

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  • Weather Ahead

    Weather Ahead

    Monochrome photograph of light snow covered pygmy pines of the New Jersey Pinelands
    Weather Ahead — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/50

    Let’s talk about the weather, Mid-Atlantic. In case you hadn’t heard there’s a potential snow storm looming, turning its tentative gaze toward the weekend. But first, proceed with caution. It’s been a tough winter for snow lovers, and we would do well to consider the unreliable performance of operational models of late. Despite a conducive pattern for coastal storm development we’ve seen one promising event after another appear, disappear, only to reemerge late in the game sending cutter after cutter into the Great Lakes. Whereas today we saw a storm widely thought to be out to sea, hang close enough to the coast to bring a mostly unexpected 1–3″ of snow to southeastern New Jersey—with an even bigger hit along the Delmarva. Were it not for marginal temperatures just above freezing this would have been a major bust. Suffice to say, faith in the models has been tested, and we should all feel justified in our skepticism. Of course there’s a lesson in here: despite improving datasets, more powerful processing, and better defined atmospheric dynamics there’s still plenty to get wrong in forecasting. We’re still a ways from perfect and that’s perfectly okay.

    Tempered emotions aside, it’s tough not to get a least a wee bit excited for this weekend. Some factors driving our optimism? Consistent plotting of the storm on the major weather models for at least the past 48–72 hours; we’re now progressing well into mid-range forecasting (less than 120 hours out); and most importantly, the pattern at 500mb looks favorable. Tonight’s 00z runs will be huge, and weenies (a term for weather enthusiasts like me who know just enough about weather to be dangerous) will be staying up late on this Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend waiting for the Euro. While it’ll be fun to get caught up in the excitement, we should at least wait until Tuesday when this storm is properly sampled. Said sampling allows real data to be input into the model algorithms, ensuring much greater accuracy as the models will be relying on fewer unknowns/hypotheticals. By then if the trends still look good it’ll be game on and milk and bread memes will be in full effect. In the meantime, stay tuned to Weather NJ for the latest.

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  • Heightwise

    Portrait orientation HDR photograph of NJ Pinelands pygmy pine trees at blue hour
    Heightwise — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    With evening onshore flow winning the atmospheric battle for the second day in a row heading west was the lone option for sunset photos. To the Top of the World we go.

    Upon reaching said destination I began mentally framing my shot. Take a few 360° head scans across the pygmy pines. Look up. Kneel down. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Let’s hear it for #process. From this vantage point there are two pitch pines that always command my attention. Each standing twice the height of the almost comically small pitch pines running out the entire landscape in all directions. It’s a neat place. A place Gulliver might recognize.

    As far as the photo making goes—I want to work more on portrait (vertical) orientation photographs. I have always found them difficult to make, fortunately there are others who produce the most wonderful images from this perspective. While I’ve had a few successes it’s a blindspot in my wide angle landscape game I hope to address with time and practice. Failure and success.

  • Let’s do this again sometime

    Snow covered trails and Pygmy Pines photographed from the Top of the World during blue hour
    Let’s do this again sometime — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    You’ve already seen the golden hour and sunset renditions, so here is the third and final photograph from my first ever visit to the Top of the World: a blazoned trail through snow covered Pygmy Pines at blue hour.

    There’s little need to burden you with more typed words about this locale as I think I’ve sufficiently covered that in the previous two posts; but as for this particular photograph, it’s a toss up between this and the first for which shot I like best. And while Fresh Tracks, Fresh Places probably sits in this series’ top spot, this one is just sets my mind at ease.

    Reflecting on the three photographs, it was a real treat to watch the late day light evolve with such drama over little more than a 60 minute span. Three shots: a potent golden hour, an ideal sunset, and a subdued blue hour conveyed the story just as my eyes and brain interpreted the surroundings upon which I found myself. A place I hope to surround myself again soon.

  • Standing with the Treetops

    HDR sunset photograph of the New Jersey Pinelands' Pygmy Pine Plains taken from the Top of the World
    Standing with the Treetops — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    Yesterday I waxed poetic about this great new spot locals call Top of the World. New is of course in the relative sense insofar as it is new to me. This is the second in what will most likely amount to three fully produced photographs from this nascent shoot from this clandestine (not really) Pinelands’ locale. It’s tough enough to come home with one satisfying photo so it’s always a happy dance bonus when that number turns crooked.

    As more of a technician than an artist this selected sunset is by no means perfect. And I’m OK with that. I’ve got an undesirable lens flare on the right edge to the center; my tripod was positioned a little too close to the pygmy pitch pines in the foreground, yielding unnecessary blur just outside my hyperfocal distance; and I’ve got real soft focus and some flare going on in the very bottom left corner. But somehow? It works for me. I purposefully placed my tripod dead smack in the middle of this micro pine canopy to help bring the viewer into the photograph. I wanted your face to by right where mine was—about six feet off the ground overlooking a gradual plain of the smallest fully-grown pine trees you’re never like to see. Through all that, the imperfections work for me. I’d like to say this was entirely premeditated, but other than looking at my bulbous lens glass and noting its closeness to the pines in the immediate foreground, did I notice much at all.

    Here’s an Instagram—gasp a selfie!—of me making this shot.

  • Fresh Tracks, Fresh Places

    Golden hour in the snow; as seen from the New Jersey Pinelands' Pygmy Pine forest. Fresh tire tracks and stunted pitch pine trees are illuminated by sunlight and marked with snow in this landscape HDR photograph.
    Fresh Tracks, Fresh Places — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    Hooray for change of venue. Particularly when said venue change is this good. Thanks for the suggestion, Ben Wurst!

    For years—well over a decade—I’ve heard stories of the Top of the World. This so-called “high-point” ensconced amid the New Jersey Pinelands’ Pygmy Pine Forest. I use the term high-point loosely as there is essentially zero elevation here in Ocean County, New Jersey. Nevertheless, at this unique geographic confluence, dwarf pines—not much taller than my waist—sprawl toward the horizon in all directions from what amounts to a very gradual 30 or 40 foot high vantage point. Of course Sun Tzu has been teaching us the merits of having the high ground for thousands of years. If it works in war, why not photography?

    Being this high up among trees so small forgot made for a surreal setting. Surreal in the best possible way. Seemingly perched as a giant atop a magical forest canopy, over the course of two hours I admired the sunlight as it did its golden hour into sunset and then blue hour thing. With each segment in time bringing a brand new vibe to my new surroundings.

    You’ll see more of what I’m talking about tomorrow when I post my sunset shot from tonight. For now I leave you with an energized golden hour that worked its way down the trail from which I came. To execute this shot I had to get real small with my tripod off to the right corner so as not to cast my own shadow and compromise the shot. To give some perspective on just how small these trees are, that one in the foreground to the right, it stands at no more than seven feet tall. Towering over the rest, you can see the others struggle to make it merely half as high.

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