A Year of Wonder and Beauty.
Of all the locations in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, the Franklin Parker Preserve is probably my favorite. Owned by the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, this former cranberry farm is now a gem in the Pine Barrens. It was purchased in 2003 and converted from a working farm to a beautiful, natural wetland landscape. It’s my go-to-place of refuge and photography. It is also where I hold most of my Pine Barrens photography workshops as a fundraiser for the NJCF.
2024 was one of the most unique years since I’ve been photographing in the Pine Barrens and the Franklin Parker Preserve. Amongst the misty mornings and beautiful light, there was a solar eclipse, a comet and the northern lights. It was also a year that included floods, wildfires, extreme temperatures and an epic drought. To say the least, it was a very interesting year.
Winter
While snow isn’t rare in the Pine Barrens, it is also not common there. 2024 started with a big storm followed by frigid temperatures.
Little Cedar Island in Winter, January
Snow Storm in the Preserve, January
Frozen Piney Tundra, January
Ghostly Light, March
Since this was a year of amazing photography in the Franklin Parker Preserve, here is a link to a full gallery the preserve.
Spring
Spring is the time when the Pine Barrens comes back to life. The change from the muted colors of winter to the various shades of green and yellow and red can make the landscape look as colorful as the fall.
The Giving Tree in Spring, April
Lone Maple Catching the Sun, April
A Path to Morning, April
The comical antics of the Tree Swallows are not only fun to watch and photograph, but these little birds add a bit of color to the landscape.
The Discussion, March
Here is a link to a full gallery of my photography from 2024 in the Franklin Parker Preserve.
Summer
Summer is the quiet time in the Franklin Parker Preserve. The abundance of water in these old bogs breeds some of the worst populations of mosquitos and biting flies in the Pines. That, along with the oppressive heat of this summer, made photography much more of a challenge.
Fog on the Lake, May
The waning light of the sunset combines with the lights of Atlantic City, reflecting against the clouds. It reminds you that in New Jersey’s wilderness, you are still actually in New Jersey.
Night Lights, August
Here is a link to a full gallery of my photography from 2024 in the Franklin Parker Preserve.
Fall
Fall is the time for color as the trees start to shed their leaves. This year the colors were enhanced by things like goldenrod growing in drought dried bogs and smoke from a forest fire in neighboring Wharton State Forest which smoldered for months due to a lack of rain. There was also the usual fall appearance of the rare and beautiful Pine Barrens Gentian wildflowers.
This bog would normally be full of water but the dry conditions turned it into a field of Goldenrod wildflowers.
Morning Meadow, September
The rare and beautiful Pine Barrens Gentian adds a little blue to the Franklin Parker Preserve’s fall palette. It will curl up at night in a tight spiral and unfold as the morning sunlight hits it. I’ve tried for years to catch a perfect flower in the middle of that process and finally succeeded in 2024.
Unfolding Pine Barrens Gentian, September
Fall Mist in the Preserve, October
A Sliverof Moon, October
Smoke from a contained, but long smoldering wildfire in neighboring Wharton State Forest added an eeriness to this golden hour at sunset. Normally, the Forest Fire Service will contain a fire and let the rain fully extinguish it. With no rain from late summer to early winter, this fire smoldered in the contained area for months causing many smoky sunsets.
Smoky Sunset, October
Winter at the End of the Year
The great winter sleep in the Pine Barrens may not have the bold colors of spring and fall, but the muted browns, greens and reds create an interesting color palette.
Winter Sunset, December
Small Stream Through the Cedars, December
Frozen Bog, December
Here is a link to a full gallery of my photography from 2024 in the Franklin Parker Preserve.
The Phenomena
2024 was a year of natural phenomena in the Pine Barrens. We had a number of super moons along with the partial solar eclipse and a comet. The most unusual thing was the appearance of the Northern Lights. Sadly, another phenomena was an epic drought that caused most of the bogs and even Chatsworth Lake, the main water feature of the Franklin Parker Preserve, to dry up. This created a desert like wasteland. The drought was the subject of my previous blog post, “Death Valley New Jersey.”
A total eclipse is a rare thing. It was a tough decision not to go to an area of totality and photograph it. I felt it was important to photograph the partial eclipse in the Pine Barrens to have a record of it locally. So many photographers were able to beautifully photograph the totality, so my work there wouldn’t have really been a significant contribution.
The Eclipse, April
The Comet C/2023 A3 was visible in the fall. Its shown here with the planet Venus ,low on the horizon and glowing through the clouds.
Comet C/2023 A3, October
An unusual collision of two weather fronts early in the morning cause this interesting line in the sky.
Arriving Weather Front, November
One of several super moons that happened in 2024. This one is rising over a ghost forest of dead Atlantic White Cedar trees.
Super Moonrise, October
An epic drought dried out the bogs and Chatsworth Lake creating an unusual wasteland. See my last blog post, “Death Valley New Jersey” for more.
Death Valley New Jersey #1, November
The Northern Lights in South Jersey
It’s best to end this post with the biggest natural event of the year. The Northern Lights made a rare and faint appearance earlier in the year. It was one of those things the camera saw better than the human eye. When it was predicted to return, I picked this spot in the Franklin Parker Preserve with a great northern view and a nice foreground.
The night the Aurora was going to appear was an evening that I made a presentation to my camera club on the topic of, ironically enough, night photography. As the meeting was ending, I saw spectacular photos of the Aurora on social media. My friend Dwayne and I rushed to this spot. At first, it looked like only our cameras were going to enjoy the show as the lights were just a faint glow. Suddenly the sky exploded into vivid reds and greens which lasted for about 45 minutes and spread from the north to the west and east. I later discovered that two phenomena happened that night, the Aurora Borealis and an even rarer SAR arc.
The Aurora, October
Colorful Aurora, October
SAR Arcs, unlike the Aurora, are a glowing red arc of light that appears in the sky during geomagnetic storms. On the same night as the Aurora, this SAR arc appeared to the east and west of the Northern Lights. Here it is above a setting half moon.
SAR Arc Over the Moon, October
The Aurora and SAR Arc, October
One of the reasons I love to photograph the local landscape and encourage other to do so is that familiarity and relatively easy access can allow a photographer to make truly unique and significant landscapes photographs. This year, in a place I’m intimately familiar with, allowed me to create images that will have a place in local history as well as to continue to share the unique beauty of the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
Familiarity allowed me to be in a place to photograph the rare Aurora Borealis in the north and take advantage of the rare SAR Arc when it appeared in the west. In addition being intimately familiar with a place like the Franklin Parker Preserve allows a photographer to know where to go and to even notice when unusual things happen. That can result in unique and one of a kind photographs.
Sharing 2024 in the Franklin Parker Preserve will hopefully inspire people to visit this amazing place. For the non-hiking photographer, the NJCF and I have partnered doing photography workshops here with vehicle access as a fundraiser, So far over $30,000 has been raised.
Here is a link to a full gallery of my photography from 2024 in the Franklin Parker Preserve.
Enjoy and have a Happy and Creative New Year!
The Pinelands have never looked so good! Beautiful.
Such beautiful and inspiring recollections of the year that was so unique! Thank you !
Nice retrospective of scenes from the Franklin Parker Preserve. I enjoyed the fall workshop to see Death Valley New Jersey, hopefully a rare occurrence. Happy New Year.
All I can do is tip my cap. It’s a pleasure to see these (and also be present when a couple of these were taken).
Looking forward to a great 2025.