One of those things was to review and organize my older photographs. That lead to the photographs below and the realization that for photographers, our passion, art and creative voice are housed in a small metal box of spinning disks called a hard drive. Only the best of these escape to be printed and framed or placed on a website for the world to see.
Composition and the Art of Seeing The New Jersey Pine Barrens are probably one of the most challenging places to photograph landscapes. Which means it is one of the best place to photograph landscapes. Why? Because the landscape is not obvious. I say this a lot, so forgive the repetition. The Pines are a flat sandy coastal plain with lots of hidden [...]
Savannas in New Jersey? Aren't they large grassy plains in Africa loaded with wildlife? Well, here in they are small, very wet, open grassy areas that can be home to wildflowers like orchids and carnivorous plants.
Next to a camera, a tripod is the landscape photographer's best friend. It holds the camera steady so you can control your exposure and composition. What if you want to photograph a landscape from a place where using a tripod is not feasible, like a kayak?
The Home Field Advantage Landscape photography is a crowded field. When I first started out in the 1980's, there were a couple of dozen well known landscape photographers out there. Now you can't go to a scenic spot in a national park without having to work your way through a sea of tripods. Do a web search on those places and the [...]
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 [...]