Hiking the New Jersey Pinelands for Therapy and Art I had a knee injury from a bicycle accident a few months ago and have been walking as part of a physical therapy program. On a recent Saturday afternoon, I decided to do some therapy by hiking in the Franklin Parker Preserve, one of my favorite New Jersey Pinelands spots. It ended up being more of a spiritual [...]
Strange Trees, Stranger Rock Formations and That Beautiful Desert Moon A few years ago a visit to Joshua Tree National Park was a photographic bust for me. Part of it was timing. We were only there for 2 days, the weather was really hot, blah blah blah. In retrospect, mediocre vision on my part was the real reason my work wasn't what it should be. As a result I [...]
Shop Local is Good, But is Photograph Local Better? Between commitments and our annual family reunion occurring during Thanksgiving, I decided to challenge myself and spend a week only creating photography in the New Jersey Pinelands. My self-imposed limits were to shoot within a 20 minute drive from my home and to hike no more than 1 mile after I got to a location. [...]
Strange, Surreal, and Fantastic Light in the Arizona Desert I'm going to depart from the rust, mold and decay of the abandoned places I've been photographing this Fall and return to our Arizona trip in October. This post reflects my first morning in the Copper State. Every now and then a photographer is blessed with an amazing sunrise or sunset. I had an [...]
Composition Still Rules This year we were fortunate to experience the Fall colors in Arizona, New England and New Jersey. Photographing these colors on the trees can be challenging because it is easy to be seduced by their beauty and forget what it takes to create a great photograph. The art of photography is more than pointing a camera in the general direction of a [...]
When my friends told me about you, I couldn’t wait to meet you. They said you were absolutely beautiful and that we would really hit if off. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out. Sure, you are really gorgeous, but I just didn’t feel that spark between us. Every relationship is a two-way street and our failure to connect isn’t entirely my fault. For one thing, [...]
Finding peace in a place known as the Pine Barrens Summer Sunrise by Richard Lewis 2015 3 Cedars in the Early Evening by Richard Lewis 2015 Life has kept me from this blog recently. The one overwhelming event was passing of my Mother-In-Law. She was 92 and in poor health so it was not unexpected. Still, it is always a [...]
The inspiration of a single painting Night by Richard Lewis 2014 Followers of this blog will know that I'm a big fan of the 20th century landscape painters from the New Hope, Pennsylvania area known as the Pennsylvania Impressionists. One particular painting John Folinsbee has always stuck with me. In this painting of a New Hope street, the Moon illuminates the [...]
New Jersey's Pinelands Preserve It is not that the New Jersey wilderness known as the Pinelands is forgotten. It is the photographs posted here that are. I've made enough images of this place to have overlooked a few, so here they are. Morning in the Cedars by Richard Lewis 2014 Along the Mullica River by Richard Lewis 2014 Intimate Cedar [...]
Cloud Watching in the New Jersey Pine Barrens I have always been fascinated by clouds. As a kid I would stare at them and my imagination would run wild with images inspired by the cloud formations. My fascination has continued into adulthood where it never ceases to amaze me how clouds affect the quality of light, the color in the sky and ultimately the mood of [...]
Making a Photograph Fit the Mood A Glimpse Of The Late Winter Landscape by Richard Lewis 2015 Recently my wife and I jumped the gun on spring when we set out to hike a section of the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania. The trail was very icy and when we reached an overlook called Pulpit Rock, the wind became unbearable. We ate our lunch sheltered [...]
Exploring Desert Light Lunar Glow in Death Valley Understanding the nature of the desert landscape means being open to its amazing range of light. Driving across the desert in the early evening revealed the scene below. I've never seen the moon's glow reflected quite like this. Lunar Glow in the Desert by Richard Lewis 2015 What's So Bad About the Badlands? The [...]
On our second trip to Death Valley, the plan was to visit some of the more remote places in the park. We found that the journey was actually as interesting as the destination and often revealed interesting and unusual things about the desert. The moon was a big factor in my photography this trip. It was full and just happened to rise, set, or appear at [...]
By the way, the Alabama Hills are actually in California Alabama Hills on New Year's Day by Richard Lewis 2015 Early in the morning on New Year's Day, I was hiking through the Alabama Hills in the Eastern Sierra Mountains of California to get to a great view of Mt. Whitney. It was cold, windy and I was all by [...]
If Ansel Adams had an iPhone, would he use the camera? One Glorious Afternoon by Richard Lewis 2014 - App: Snapseed The Ted Stiles Preserve at Baldpate Mountain in New Jersey is a nice park with a lot of hiking trails. Although the terrain gives you a great workout, the park is not the most scenic place and I usually do not take any [...]
Three Cedars in the Morning Light by Richard 2014 In my last post, I mentioned how we photographers can learn something from those that went before us who were shooting film. Working with film is a slower and more methodical process. By practicing a more patient and careful approach to our own photography, we can strive to come back from [...]