Joshua Tree National Park in California is very different from the New Jersey Pine Barrens where I do most of my work, but this desert landscape has been a favorite place for a long time. Its odd little Joshua Trees that aren't really trees, and those otherworldly rock formations irresistible.
I know this is a photography blog but recently a problem on a trip to Lake Tahoe opened the door to an amazing experience.
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 Adventures In A Great National Park HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! The previous post about our fourth trip to Joshua Tree National Park challenged landscape photographers to think differently in places that they photograph on a regular basis. Here is another little project that resulted from this challenge. Light Painting For me the purpose of night photography is to portray the solemn [...]
Seeing Differently in Black and White. On our fourth trip to Joshua Tree National Park and I wanted to try something different, but wasn't sure what. So I decided to let the Park show me the way. The challenge to every photographer is keeping inspired by a place you return to many times. Whether you photograph frequently in your own locale, or [...]
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 [...]
Photography On A Time Budget Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, a dream trip for a landscape photographer right? Well, not this time. When we visited Colorado to attend a family wedding, time was limited to mostly enjoying the company of family and old friends. Although there was no time to hike into the Rocky Mountains and find some beautiful remote back country [...]
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.
The Struggle Between the Inner Artist and Inner Engineer Fading Winter Light by Richard Lewis 2017 I love going out on New Year's Day to hike to get a first photo of the year. This year the first photograph of 2017 was made on January 8. Why? Because I've been feverishly preparing for a solo exhibition of my New Jersey Pine [...]
My First Desert Storm For a guy from New Jersey, the the power of the desert is very impressive. It is a harsh environment that requires strength to survive, let alone thrive in. Yet it is also a place of amazing beauty and Joshua Tree National Park is a great example of that. This is why I keep being drawn back there. As many times as [...]
An evening on the Ben Franklin Bridge What makes South Jersey an interesting and unique place to live is that you are close to the wilderness forests of the New Jersey Pinelands and the City of Philadelphia. One can enjoy both city and country life without traveling very far. There is a pedestrian walkway on the Ben Franklin Bridge that spans the Delaware River and connects [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
I'll never figure out how I got this one Northern Lights in South East Alaska by Richard Lewis 2014 You have to wonder when the PA system on a small ship announces "Attention passengers" in the middle of the night if it would be followed by instructions to head to the life raft. Fortunately, In this case, the crew wanted [...]