The 21st century Catskill Mountains are not the 19th century Catskill Mountains. When artists like Thomas Cole, Fredric Church, Asher Durant, Suzie Barstow and others set up their easels to paint, they saw a near wilderness with old growth forests. Those old trees are long gone and many of the small villages and hamlets along the Hudson River have grown into small cities. What's left of the wilderness is now well traversed by hikers and tourists.
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.
Don’t Ignore Your Photography Instincts Properly planning a photo shoot can mean the difference between an amazing result and a mediocre one. There is nothing worse than arriving at a location just after the best light has happened. So what do you do when your photography instincts want to override a well thought out plan? Good question. It is a question that might [...]
Gorging on the works of nature and humanity. The dramatic 215 foot Taughannock Falls you see at the top of this post isn't in some western national park, or an exotic wilderness location. It's in New York, the Finger Lakes region near the town of Ithaca to be exact. The Finger Lakes in Central New York is known for its gorges and [...]
A Morning In 17th Century It's amazing how a nice sunrise can provide an incredible sense of peace. That is what I found one morning in the Village of Sleepy Hollow, New York. There is an old historic site there called the Philipsburg Manor that dates back to 1693. Normally this place is full of people enjoying a pleasant spot on the Hudson River. However, at 6am on [...]
How to Get a Whole New Perspective on Photography Near Pine Meadow Lake by Richard Lewis 2015 Storm on Pine Meadow Lake by Richard Lewis 2015 The ease of using digital cameras and modern travel are allowing more people to go to the great places and create beautiful landscape images. As a result, there are now an overwhelming number of great landscape [...]
One way to grow as a photographer is by stretching your comfort zone and not getting "stuck" in a certain style. We need to get past the idea that "I only shoot landscapes or flowers or puppies" or whatever. You can love or be compelled to create a certain type of photography, but trying other things will help you improve and hone those core passions. I've recently [...]
On a recent trip to New York City I spent some time walking around the famous Highline with my camera. New York is a colorful city in more ways than one, so I decided to photograph it in black and white. By the way, the Highline, if you don't know it, is an old elevated railroad track that was converted into a [...]
2013 was a growth year for my landscape photography. I invested more time in the craft and actively collaborated with other artists and photographers. I'm going to use the next few posts to show some of my photographs from this year that reflect this growth. This one is a hidden treasure. View of the Hudson River from Iona Island by Richard [...]
This is the last of a 3 part post about my trip leading a group of photographers to Harriman State Park in New York. Harriman State Park is a large park located only 30 miles from New York City. My group of photographers spent the balance of our trip wandering around the area photographing creeks and lakes. Sterling Lake This lake is [...]
This is the second of a 3 part post about my trip leading a group of photographers to Harriman State Park in New York Bear Mountain Bear Mountain Lodge is a historic inn built in 1910 along the Hudson River. The group of photographers I was leading trip seemed to like it here and spent a lot of time walking around the [...]
Note: Starting with this blog post I will be discussing a little bit of why and how I create my photographs. This is the first of a 3-part post on a recent photography field trip I lead to Harriman State Park in New York. Usually my trips to Harriman involve leading hikers wanting to visit remote lakes and vistas that are only accessible [...]