For years I’ve called myself a Photo Impressionist and even named this blog accordingly. Outside of being a really neat moniker to hang on one’s photographic style, I had no idea what I meant by the term until a friend gave me a book called Pennsylvania Impressionism. The book is about the artists who lived in and around New Hope during the [...]
My inspirations in photography have always been from the great landscape painters. It is only recently that I've started to dissect my body of work and figure out just what specific influences ended up in what photographs. These particular images came from my love of the 19th century Hudson River School of landscape painters. Here is my disclaimer. I do not claim to be an art [...]
The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is truly one of the amazing places in the North East. We’ve spent countless hours hiking the trail rich New Jersey side of the Gap. Mt. Tammany, the Dunfield Creek the Appalachian Trails are the source of many great memories and some of my favorite photographs. There are two sides to every river and I [...]
Bromley Mill, Bucks County, Pennsylvania This image is one I’ve wanted to make for a long time. It is an old mill in Bucks County called the Bromley Mill. I’ve been by it many times at the wrong time of day or the wrong light for a decent photograph. This time I was lucky to be near the mill as [...]
Edge of the Cedars Winter Light One of the many things in the New Jersey Pinelands that I find fascinating are the Cedars. They grow along the edges of the rivers and lakes in thick groves. Some of these groves are almost impenetrable and the ones you can enter are usually very dark, wet and swampy. They can be [...]
The next few blog posts will have some images from 2012 that I’m particularly proud of. This one was created in Joshua Tree, California. Looking down on an expansive valley my reaction while sitting here as the sun went down was WOW. Living in lush forests means that expansive vistas are not commonplace. Out here in the middle of the desert [...]
I recently joined the Pinelands Photography Group which is a loose affiliation of people who include photography in the New Jersey Pines among their interests. What makes this group so fascinating is the members. There are botanists, wildlife experts, a few landscape artists and a spattering of all sorts of other people. The most interesting thing I've learned in this group is how little I know [...]
Click on the image to make larger Anyone raised in the spirit of traditional landscape photography has been schooled with the idea that the best time to get a great landscape image is early in the morning or late afternoon. The low light on the horizon is often referred to as “Magic Light” because of its color beauty. Now take our brothers-in-arms, [...]
Stony Brook Cascade of Slid“In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.” Lao-Tzu This Post was written before Hurricane Sandy slammed into the coast on New Jersey with such devastating results. It puts the thoughts I'm expressing here into an even better perspective. Water has [...]
The Coastline at Sunrise Big Sur at Sunset taken in the Julia Pfeiffer State Park The Coastline seen in Black and White Big Sur would not be Big Sur with out the Redwoods View from the Tin House Trail Looking up a mountain Another Great Sunset Looking up a [...]
One thing landscape photographers probably take a lot of pleasure in is discovering the beauty in places that may not be picturesque. The Pines of New Jersey can look very mundane and monotonous. Barren deserts, blizzards and storms can seem anything but pretty when you are in the middle of them. The photographer who can find the beauty in the harsh [...]
Recently a friend told me about her vacation in Peru. I asked if she took lots of pictures and she said no she didn’t take any. I thought, wow, that is weird but she went on to explain that she felt the need to be in every moment on this trip. That was more important than stopping to record images or memories with a [...]
You can’t experience a place like the Pines fully unless you see it at all different times of the year at all different times of day and night. This photo came out of a hike that started at 4am. My buddy Karin and I stumbled through the dark in the late fall for several hours with the moonlight barely penetrating the dense [...]
The Franklin Parker Perserve near Chatsworth, New Jersey is an interesting place. It part natural Pinelands and part old Cranberry Bogs. Hiking through the old bogs you get to see the transformation back to a natural state. Some bogs have become little lakes and attract eagles and herons, others are becoming meadows. This once ordered and orderly arrangement of rectangular depressions is becoming [...]
Chatsworth Lake is a typical Pine Barrens lake. It is located in the Franklin Parker Preserve near Chatsworth, New Jersey. The preserve is an interesting landscape that varies from old cranberry bogs to natural woodlands that follow the Wading River. This photo was taken right after sunrise. It was a nice spot on a nice morning with good light. Not much more [...]
In Ocean City, NJ there is an old fishing pier I discovered several years ago. It is falling apart and looks like an abstract, somewhat Japanese, sculpture made of sticks. The first time I went to photograph the old fishing pier everything just worked. Conditions were magical which resulted in an image that is one of my favorites. I happened to be [...]