Photographing the New Jersey Pine Barrens For the last few years I've ended the year with a blog post that looks back on what I've done photographically in order to share some things that I have learned. This year, one major accomplishment happened that doesn't have anything to do with specific photographs. It was the publication of my book called Photographing 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 [...]
Batona Trail in Late Summer by Richard Lewis 2013 Wood Scene by Asher Durand 1854 Recently I saw this painting (Right) by Asher Durand, a 19th century landscape painter. It was part of a series of he created called “Sketch In The Woods.” This painting shows a quiet forest scene. There are no grand mountains or roaring rivers, [...]
Summer on Deep Run Creek by Richard Lewis 2013 I love this photograph. It shows the New Jersey Pine Barrens landscape in the late spring when the Pines are quiet, green, wet and lush. When a friend saw this image she wished she could be there because it looked so peaceful. Actually, my friend would not have gotten much peace in this [...]
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 [...]
Birches #1 Birches #2 Birches #3 Birches #4 Most of my biggest influences are no longer alive so you can imagine how special it was for me to spend an afternoon with Peter Fiore, a well-known, and very much alive landscape artist. Peter paints in and around the Delaware Water Gap. What attracted my attention to [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
More of my favorites of 2012. Farming is a big part of the South Jersey landscape and I've wanted to spend more time photographing our "farmscapes" but for some reason it is coming along very slowly. Here is an example of a wheat field which is a large crop that is grown around here. I had noticed this wheat field one day driving [...]
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 [...]