There is no better place to master composition than a challenging environment. The best challenging environment I've worked in is the Airplane and Automotive Graveyard right here in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Since 2016 it has been my pleasure to work with the owners of this unique location to let photography groups learn how to make art out of scrap.
Taking a Break from Photography with Photography Many professional photographers use personal projects to keep their love of photography and their creative voice alive. Personal projects allow you to do what you want instead of what a client needs. When I retired from commercial photography a few years ago I thought my work would be nothing but personal projects. While it is [...]
To say 2020 was an interesting year would be an understatement. The pandemic has changed the way we live. Fortunately it confined me to a place I really don't mind being confined it, the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
Photographing Mist and Fog My friend Ron recently coined a new spelling for mysticism. It's "Mistycism" which describes what misty mornings do to the New Jersey Pine Barrens landscape. It tends to turn that landscape, especially the cedar swamps into a mystical, or "mistycal" world. Here are some examples and a bit of a tutorial on photographing mist and fog. Soft backlit [...]
As a photographer, 2019 was pretty significant for me. It was successful for print sales, workshops and speaking engagements, but I'm most happy with my growth as a photographer. Instead of just showing my favorite photographs from 2019, I'd like to share why they were made which may help you on your journey as a photographer and artist. . Inspiration This year, [...]
Do No Harm With Your Photography Lancaster County in Pennsylvania is known for its Amish and Mennonite religious sects. The Amish are a closed sect that shun the modern trappings of life and choose to live without electricity and the machinery driven by it. They farm with horses and travel in horse drawn buggies which makes them particularly attractive to photographers. But, [...]
This is a presentation on how I made and processed an image called Foreboding Light.
Every picture tells a story, but which one? Of all the ghost towns in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, Amatol may be the strangest. Hastily built in 1917 during World War I, the town's sole purpose was to staff a munitions factory. At one point Amatol had a population of over 7000 people with churches, a YMCA, speedway, movie theater and more. [...]
Journey Into Night at Ryan Ranch Our recent trip back to Joshua Tree National Park was a great time to explore the night. Thanks to some handy jetlag, I was wide awake at 3:30am and hiked to the ruins of Ryan Ranch. The moonlight was bright enough to make wearing a headlamp unnecessary. Ryan Ranch was built by JD Ryan who ran [...]
More Photographs from a quirky piece of American History. Sequels are not just a trend in movies, they happen in photography too. Many photographers revisit locations that attract and continue to interpert them creatively. When I photographed the Abandoned White Hill Mansion months ago, I felt I had finished that project. At least that was until I had the pleasure of leading [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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.