Exploring A Special Swamp Note: All of the images in this post were made before the New Jersey closed the parks and state forests. One of the most unusual features of the New Jersey Pine Barrens are the swamps. Atlantic White Cedar swamps in particular. These are dark and wet places. Being in one is like entering a timeless, eerie and mystical [...]
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, [...]
Fall Cedars by Richard Lewis 2019 A Week on the Mullica River Fall in the New Jersey Barrens is special. The leaves on the deciduous trees that grow among the pines turn beautiful shades of red, orange and yellow making the Pine Barrens look like it is gift wrapped. This year Fall came a little early and didn't stick around [...]
As landscape photographers, sometimes we need to let the landscape tell the story and provide our interpretation in how we compose our photographs.
Here are some recent photographs of Spring in the New Jersey Pinelands.
Preserving the Black Run Preserve with a Controlled Burn When a crew of New Jersey Forest Service Firefighters show up at the 1200 acre Black Run Preserve in the Pine Barrens, you'd think they were there to fight a fire, not start one. However, that was what they were there to do. Fire in the Pine Barrens is part of the natural [...]
Fall in the New Jersey Pine Barrens is always a great, but it was exceptional this year. Landscape photographer Richard Lewis spent 3 weeks out photographing the changing colors of fall in the Pinelands.
See How To Help Preserve The Pinelands With Your Photography Of all the seasons to be photographing the New Jersey Pinelands, summer can be the most challenging. It's not just the heat or the bugs, the landscape also changes drastically and may not look the same as it does in the other seasons. Plus the long days mean waking up early for [...]
If you want to do landscape photography, it's a good idea to look at all the faces the landscape has to offer.
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
For Everyone Else, Creating Something from Nothing I recently had the amazing privilege of leading a group of photographers on my first Pine Barrens Photography Workshop. It was a great experience showing off this special place to both local and not-so-local photographers. When I teach workshops, I am not there to take photographs. Most of the time, I don't even bother to [...]
We all can use some serenity, right? When color landscape photography is posted on social media, it is the colorful, over-saturated and dramatically composed images that seem to rack up the likes. Here is an interesting fact. Scientific studies show that while images, photographic or otherwise, with intense color catch the attention immediately, they tend to not be remembered in the long term. I'm [...]