Sometimes Everything Goes Right

January is usually a quiet time in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Not much goes on and it’s a good time to plan workshops and other photographic opportunities,. Not this year though. January has been a busy month with two snow storms and a bitter cold snap. This cold snap with near zero temperatures made the Pines look more like the Yukon than a forest in New Jersey. One day, January 18th to be specific, was a unique day in this unique month. It was a perfect day.

Frozen Pine Barrens River by Richard Lewis 2025

January 18th, 2025

It’s rare for a day to be perfect for photography all day. January 18th started out nice, but the unexpected happened. A seemingly random set of decisions and instincts put us in a position to be ready for it.

My wife is taking a photography class. Each week she gets an assignment. This particular week was to photograph two rectangles. I know it’s a crazy assignment but  things like this make you think creatively, which is kind of the point, be creative.

We brainstormed a few ideas, one being to photograph a Pine Barrens bog with the sky above. The flat landscape of the New Jersey Pine Barrens makes for a perfect rectangle in the foreground and a perfect rectangle in the sky. We headed off to the bogs of Whitesbog. While in the car we got to talking about the idea of using architecture for this assignment. Buildings are mostly rectangular and contain rectangles in the form of windows and doors. My wife isn’t a grand landscape type photographer so we immediately changed direction and headed to the best collection of old buildings in the Pine Barrens, Batsto Village in Wharton State Forest.

Batsto is a historic site preserving what was once was an 18th and 19th century iron forge. It later evolved into other industries before it was abandoned and eventually restored by the state. It is one of the more popular spots in the Pines Barrens and I’ve photographed it quite a bit over the years. So much so that I almost left the camera in the car to just enjoy walking around while my wife did her assignment.

Pine Barrens

Sunset at Batsto Mansion by Richard Lewis 2020

 

Batsto Winter Landscape by Richard Lewis 2019

 

Batsto Textures

I’ve always seen Batsto as a place. It’s a collection of historic buildings and the remains of a village with a deep history and my photography at Batsto reflects that. January 18th was overcast with very flat light. Instead of the grand landscape of Batsto, I started seeing the details of the buildings that are decaying due to a lack of state funding to preserve historic sites like Batsto. That is another story. Seeing the decay and texture led to an idea for a new photography project called Batsto Textures. Here are a couple of examples from that day. I’ll be creating a page on my website for Batsto Textures as this project develops.

Batsto in Stone and Wood by Richard Lewis 2025

 

Grist Mill Stone by Richard Lewis 2025

 

The Blue Door by Richard Lewis 2025

 

Blue Cabinet by Richard Lewis 2025

 

Old Wooden Machine 3S7 by Richard Lewis 2025

 

Mill Pond Dam by Richard Lewis 2025

 

Dutchtown

Mist is always magical in the Pine Barrens. It usually happens at sunrise when conditions are right. Those conditions are usually in the spring and fall. Mist in the winter is rare and even rarer when the water in lakes and bogs is frozen. But odd things always happen in the Pine Barrens and this was the day for those odd things to happen. Batsto is near Hammonton, New Jersey which is probably the capital of blueberry farming. Driving home from Batsto, we noticed a faint white haze in the blueberry fields. After realizing it was actually mist rising, I wondered if the fields were just irrigated. It was the first day above freezing in a while. If blueberries need to be watered in the winter it was a good day to do it. Plus mist almost never happens in the evening and it mostly happens over bodies of water, not blueberry fields.

We thought about stopping. It probably would have yielded some great photographs, but I had a feeling to keep going. Was that instinct? Piney magic? Who knows, but we kept going. After passing by the blueberry farms we started to drive through the woods where there are never much, if any, mist. We thought about turning around until we hit Dutchtown Bogs. Dutchtown is a series of old, abandoned cranberry bogs on the side of a busy highway. Although they are right by the road, they are unmaintained, overgrown and not easy to photograph. On this particular evening, they were beautiful with mist rising off the melting ice, so we stopped.

Mist on a Frozen Bog by Richard Lewis 2025

 

Late Day at Dutchtown by Richard Lewis 2025

 

Atsion Lake

Again, maybe it was instinct or that Piney magic, but we left Dutchtown, in spite of being in a good spot, to catch the sunset. Just up the road from Dutchtown is Atsion Lake, a popular lake for swimming and paddling. Atsion Lake is one of those been there, done that photographic spots. On this particular evening, the setting sun popped out of the clouds and lit the mist forming on this thawing lake. This scene that I’ve seen hundreds of times all of a sudden became something new and magical. Mist is always magical, but mist glowing in the golden hour light is precious. The glow of the mist changed color, based on the sun’s position. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time to see and photograph it. In addition, I happened to have a 100-500mm telephoto lens which was the best way to zoom in to pick out the details of the sunset on this large lake.

Frozen Atsion Mist 1 by Richard Lewis 2025

 

Frozen Atsion Mist 2 by Richard Lewis 2025

 

Frozen Atsion Mist 3 by Richard Lewis 2025

 

Frozen Atsion Mist 4 by Richard Lewis 2025

 

The Perfect End of a Perfect Day

After sunset, the mist turned to fog. My wife had left the lake to photograph the Atsion Historic area just across the street. When I went to pick her up, the timing again was right to catch the afterglow of the sunset. The lake has a view to the west and on this particular evening the afterglow happened in the east. Had I not left when I did, I never would have noticed the afterglow. The Atsion Historic area has a number of decaying (see what I mean about funding) buildings. This photograph of the ruins of an old stone barn was a perfect spot to capture the sunset afterglow and rising fog ending a perfect day of photography.

Sunset Fog at Atsion by Richard Lewis 2025

On January 18, 2025, knowing where to go and what to do was part knowledge, part instinct and part something else. Those who follow my work or have attended my workshops and lectures know that I’m a strong advocate for landscape photographers working in their local landscape. It is a place you can master because it is close by. You learn the nuances of the area and go back to. As your skills and knowledge of the area evolve you understand when the light and conditions are right.

You can also develop an instinct that goes beyond all that. That instinct is based on knowledge can also be something else. The place you repeatedly visit and share with your photography can give you subconscious hints. Maybe it is a way that the landscape gives back to the person who honors it. To me it’s all part of the Piney Magic that shows itself in some unusual ways here in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

Enjoy! 

Learn more about my photography workshops in the New Jersey Pine Barrens 

Learn where to go in the Pine Barrens to photograph with my book, Photographing the New Jersey Pine Barrens