An exhibition of my Pinelands Photography It's no secret that I'm proud to be a "Piney". Although I wasn't born in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, I'm happy to have called them home for the last 30+ years. Recently I was asked to put together an exhibition of my Pinelands photography for the Appel Gallery at the Katz Jewish Community Center in [...]
The Judges Shack Revisited New Jersey excels at many things including great places to photograph a moonrise and quirky little gems of history. Those two things came together on a cold winter night along the windswept New Jersey shoreline of Island Beach State Park. The Judge's Shack, located in the park, is always interesting to photograph. When the January Super Moon rose [...]
For the Love of Lava While there are many reasons to visit Hawaii, for me it was the lava. As someone who often gets a lot of peace out of the quiet, settled natural landscape of New Jersey, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that it was formed thousands of years ago by some powerful and violent forces of [...]
More Adventures In A Great National Park HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! The previous post about our fourth trip to Joshua Tree National Park challenged landscape photographers to think differently in places that they photograph on a regular basis. Here is another little project that resulted from this challenge. Light Painting For me the purpose of night photography is to portray the solemn [...]
Snow in early December is an uncommon gift here in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. It makes a nice backdrop for us to wish you A VERY HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON! Pine Barrens In Snow by Richard Lewis 2017 Snow Frosting by Richard Lewis 2017 Snowy Tree Textures by Richard Lewis 2017 Winter Day [...]
Seeing Differently in Black and White. On our fourth trip to Joshua Tree National Park and I wanted to try something different, but wasn't sure what. So I decided to let the Park show me the way. The challenge to every photographer is keeping inspired by a place you return to many times. Whether you photograph frequently in your own locale, or [...]
Composition is a Form of Communication Composition is an elusive thing for many photographers. On the other hand, the technical aspects of photography are fairly straight forward and systematic. One camera setting affects another in a logical way. Once that is learned, the photographer understands how a camera processes light coming through the lens and can create a well exposed photograph. This [...]
Don’t Ignore Your Photography Instincts Properly planning a photo shoot can mean the difference between an amazing result and a mediocre one. There is nothing worse than arriving at a location just after the best light has happened. So what do you do when your photography instincts want to override a well thought out plan? Good question. It is a question that might [...]
Photography Workshops in an Abandoned Piece of New Jersey History Abandoned places are always fascinating. For history buffs, learning their unique story is exciting. For photographers, creating art from abandonment is a challenge. As someone who is both a photographer and history buff, it is a way to complete the puzzle of American history on a more intimate scale while recording a [...]
Some recent photographs Something about the magic of the New Jersey Pine Barrens keeps calling you back. This wilderness area features a long human and natural history. The result is a landscape whose magic reveals itself to the artist who gets out and explores a bit. That's were I can help by guiding you to some very special places during my one day [...]
Photography On A Time Budget Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, a dream trip for a landscape photographer right? Well, not this time. When we visited Colorado to attend a family wedding, time was limited to mostly enjoying the company of family and old friends. Although there was no time to hike into the Rocky Mountains and find some beautiful remote back country [...]
Gorging on the works of nature and humanity. The dramatic 215 foot Taughannock Falls you see at the top of this post isn't in some western national park, or an exotic wilderness location. It's in New York, the Finger Lakes region near the town of Ithaca to be exact. The Finger Lakes in Central New York is known for its gorges and [...]
Andrew Wyeth and a New Jersey Shack The Judge's Shack is a beach shack and one of our state's lesser icons. New Jersey is known for many things. but our beach shacks tend to get little attention. They were small vacation homes built in rural parts of the Jersey shore back when there were rural parts of the Jersey Shore. Their only real [...]
Creating a Photography Challenge My wife is a quilter which means I am often accompanying her to quilt shows. By the way, I'm a willing participant because seeing this beautiful fabric art is very inspiring for my photography. One of these quilt shows was held at the historic Kirby's Mill, a restored grist mill, in Medford New Jersey. At this show my inspiration turned out to be not just [...]
Stories abound about how this schooner ended up as a shipwreck in the Delaware Bay. Perhaps it is a ship that was bound for Fall River Massachusetts with a load of coal and ran aground in 1876. Another tale tells of plans for this old wooden ship to be converted to a restaurant, however it got stuck in the sand after it broke free from the boat towing it and was left.
Abstraction and Architecture The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles California is an unusual piece of architecture. Its oddly exaggerated lines and curves look like a bizarre, animated city skyline. The bent metal shapes of the building are designed to reflect light and create a delightful changing play of light and shadow throughout the day and night. When photographing this building, I was drawn to [...]