The Mercer Oak - Princeton Battlefield State Park

jenweavernj

The beloved Mercer Oak, which had seen and survived the Battle of Princeton and the birth and vibrant life of a new nation, state and municipality, was torn by high winds on Friday March 3, 2000. It was a sad sight to see the once giant oak finally succumb to nature's elements. Many came to mourn the tree, which had stood bravely alone on the battlefield for about 300 years.

Although the Mercer Oak is no longer it looks as if another tree was planted there...the clouds are what got me today!

JulieLawsonPhotography

This is very nice. I love the way the clouds stand out. The colors feel warm to me too.:D

LilleG

Absolutely gorgeous clouds!

Arvan

The clouds got me faling backwards..Amazing capture!clap

swintonphoto

Very lovely.

TallyHo

Amazing shot, am curious what PP you did. It has a nice dreamy feel to it, did you use HDR ?

Awais Yaqub

Beautiful

Moogle Pepper

I pass that area all the time and never noticed that huge tree gone!! cry my excuse? I pass by it at night, all other times I go to Princeton via Rt. 1.

The clouds makes an impression that there is a battle to be fought, given that it was fought 300 years ago.

kitvan

thats a great shot- how did you get the details out of the clouds on this one?

jenweavernj

Thanks for all of your kind and supportive comments!

This was an HDR of 3 exposures merged in Photomatrix.

I must give credit to the clouds....they were truly amazing in person...I had my mouth open in awe. 3 minutes before this I was stuck in my car in a torrential downpour....unbelievelable right?

Moogle Pepper wrote:

I pass that area all the time and never noticed that huge tree gone!! my excuse? I pass by it at night, all other times I go to Princeton via Rt. 1.



The clouds makes an impression that there is a battle to be fought, given that it was fought 300 years ago.

YAY! A fellow New Jersian!! I just discovered this park yesterday...I usually use Route 1 as well.

Vrungel

Truly amazing clouds, nice work !

coscorrosa

Wow! I absolutely love the lighting in the foreground and the clouds in the background are sweet! Technically it's very good as well, perfect sharpness and exposure, great photo.

jenweavernj

Thank you so much! I really truly appreciate that comments!

BPerron

jenweavernj wrote:

The beloved Mercer Oak, which had seen and survived the Battle of Princeton and the birth and vibrant life of a new nation, state and municipality, was torn by high winds on Friday March 3, 2000. It was a sad sight to see the once giant oak finally succumb to nature's elements. Many came to mourn the tree, which had stood bravely alone on the battlefield for about 300 years.

Although the Mercer Oak is no longer it looks as if another tree was planted there...the clouds are what got me today!

Can you possibly give some insight into how you achieved the colors and dynamic in this photo?

jenweavernj

BPerron wrote:

Can you possibly give some insight into how you achieved the colors and dynamic in this photo?

It's was done as an HDR. I took three exposures and used Photomatrix to merge the 3 photos together adjusting the sliders accordingly.

Then I brought it into Photoshop to tweak the levels slightly and did a noise reduction pass through Noise Ninja.

BPerron

jenweavernj wrote:

It's was done as an HDR. I took three exposures and used Photomatrix to merge the 3 photos together adjusting the sliders accordingly.

Then I brought it into Photoshop to tweak the levels slightly and did a noise reduction pass through Noise Ninja.

Very cool...I am still trying to figure out HDR...The results you have there are very well done!!!!! Thanks for sharing how you did it.