The Value of Friends Photography can often be a communal activity. Camera clubs plan field trips so friends can photograph together. People sign up for photography workshops to meet and be with others while pursuing a shared passion. That's not necessarily me. While I like being with fellow photographers, it is my preference to work alone when out in the landscape, especially [...]
January is usually a quiet time in the Pine Barrens. Not much goes on and it's a good time to plan workshops and other photographic opportunities,. Not this year though. January has been a busy month with two snow storms, a bitter cold snap and even a bit of Piney magic happening.
Fall in the New Jersey Pine Barrens is the one time of year that the Pines become an amazing place to photograph. Fill will have many days with morning mist and the deciduous trees show off their bold reds, yellows and oranges as the season transition from the greens of summer to the muted colors of winter.
On one of those trips, nature showed it's ability to overwhelm with beauty. Here is that story. It took place in a few minutes, 32 to be exact, where I was able to witness a day begin in a magical realm of color and light.
Sometimes as a photographer it is good to take a risk. Not the dangle from a cliff or any put yourself in an unsafe condition kind of risk, this post is about taking subject or compositional risks.
When starting to photograph the Pine Barrens, it's easy to chase the sky colors showing our beautiful sunrises and sunsets. The light reflects in some of the 17 trillion gallons of water under the Pines that makes it to the surface in the form of bogs and lakes. As you get to know the Pine Barrens, you start to see the beauty of the shapes, forms and textures of the forest in differing light.
The Blog Post That Isn't a Blog Post Not long ago there was a major wildfire in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Pine Barrens forest fires are part of the ecology so there is do doubt that the Pines will recover, sort of. This wildfire was different. It was big, covering over 13,500 acres in some well travelled areas of the Pine [...]
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 [...]
For Everyone Else, Creating Something from Nothing I recently had the amazing privilege of leading a group of photographers on my first Pine Barrens Photography Workshop. It was a great experience showing off this special place to both local and not-so-local photographers. When I teach workshops, I am not there to take photographs. Most of the time, I don't even bother to [...]
We all can use some serenity, right? When color landscape photography is posted on social media, it is the colorful, over-saturated and dramatically composed images that seem to rack up the likes. Here is an interesting fact. Scientific studies show that while images, photographic or otherwise, with intense color catch the attention immediately, they tend to not be remembered in the long term. I'm [...]
When Ordinary Becomes Beautiful Cold Winter Light by Richard Lewis 2017 It doesn't snow much in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, so when it does, it's time to head out to find something to photograph. This old bog in the Franklin Parker Preserve seemed like a nice place to look. Usually the stumps of these old cedar trees look like abstract designs, however [...]
New Jersey's Pinelands Preserve It is not that the New Jersey wilderness known as the Pinelands is forgotten. It is the photographs posted here that are. I've made enough images of this place to have overlooked a few, so here they are. Morning in the Cedars by Richard Lewis 2014 Along the Mullica River by Richard Lewis 2014 Intimate Cedar [...]
Atlantic White Cedars in the New Jersey Pine Barrens This is the second of a two-part post on the strangely beautiful Atlantic White Cedar swamps in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. As stated in my previous post, these trees grow in dense swamps by the sides of waterways and play a vital role in filtering water and protecting the riverbanks from erosion. [...]
This is the first part of a two-part post about Atlantic White Cedar Swamps There is nothing more strangely beautiful in the New Jersey Pine Barrens than the Atlantic White Cedar swamps. These trees grow in dense swamps by the sides of waterways and play a vital role in filtering water and protecting the riverbanks from erosion. They are also the reason the [...]
Moon Rise by Richard Lewis 2013 Recently in New Jersey the sun set in the west a few minutes before the full moon rose in the east. Thanks to some great tools I was able to be out in the Pine Barrens to experience it. Getting a photograph like this is not random, it is all about preparation. What is [...]
Windy Day on the Mullica River Photographers change reality. Although we essentially record what we see with a camera, we always add our two cents to an image. This is done with the choices we make. Some are done before we click the shutter, like the subject we choose, the camera angle and composition. Some are done afterwards, like converting [...]