Natural Vs. Artificial: New Jersey Landscape Photography

I have long been interested/obsessed with lightning. As a kid, I used to love going out to the front stoop to watch storms. Living in a neighborhood with lots of trees didn’t exactly afford the best view of lightning or the sky – so the second I could drive, I began logging hours by the shore. At first, it was the bay beach a couple of miles away from my house. After a while, I began to feel comfortable creeping over to the Ocean Gate boardwalk.


I wasn’t doing photography seriously then, but I loved to take my first 35mm film camera with me to take the same 5 photos over and over again on different days. I never even attempted to get a photo of lightning, knowing that the combination of me being a seriously unlucky individual and also a rather cautious one created a cocktail that kept me from the experience. Once I got into photography seriously, I began to love long exposures, fireworks, and essentially any ‘light painting’ photo I could get.


I had not attempted getting shots of lightning until the other night. Having just finished shooting an event, on the way home, I noticed that there was some serious storm going on. It wasn’t raining, the clouds seemed to be in the right position to be able to photograph, and all the impossible variables seemed to fall into place. I set up by Island Heights, and began a relatively frustrating hour checking exposures, getting my timing down, and trying to remember to continuously press the shutter (next on my purchase list: remote shutter). I managed to get several bolts, though the one I’m going to share was the night’s best. It was totally exciting each time I knew I ‘got one’ in my shot, and I am now waiting patiently for the next storm.


Just so you can compare, I’m going to show you nature’s fireworks vs. the ones that we shoot off on the Fourth of July. I tried a little something different with this year’s fireworks and pushed my ISO way higher than I typically do, so I could include some foreground. When I finally got to look at the frames, I was really happy at the sense of ‘awe’ that including the people watching the show included.





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The New Landscape: New Jersey Fine Art Photography

I’ve always been a believer that Mother Nature is a cruel but beautiful mistress, and that the ocean deserves the utmost respect. When disasters happen, I can’t help but often feel like the ocean gives and takes, and that the way it leaves things is often the way it wants them.

The jetty down at Island Beach State Park has long been one of my favorite spots. I remember being in middle school and walking down with some family friends for the first time. It’s a mile or so of a walk, so to get there by foot you really have to want it. I found an enormous, perfect whelk shell. It was like finding GOLD. I was awed at the time that I just happened to be passing by the spot where that beauty washed up. I have never found another. I’ve found other neat things, and I do harbor an intense love of perfect scallop shells. I used to intently search for a perfect, pure white one. Believe it or not – they’re actually insanely difficult to find. Mostly they’re black, or reddish, or an assortment of colors. Over many years of looking I only ever found one that was truly white. I display it in a velvet ring box – perhaps as a reminder that even when the ocean flings things like Super-storm Sandy at the coast, it also produces small, perfect miracles. But I digress.

The landscape of the jetty changed significantly after the storm. Oddly enough, it now makes for more beautiful photographs thanks to a lovely tide pool that is somewhat reminiscent of what it looked like many years ago. I don’t know that us humans will allow it to stay that way for long, but I can’t help but enjoy the beauty that is there now.

Without further ado…

Beautiful Things: New Jersey Landscape Photography

I feel like it’s always a catch-up with this blog! We have done so many great family shoots and weddings recently, that it will take a bit to get all that goodness up. For now, enjoy this sampling from last night in Ocean Gate, NJ. The iconic (to locals) boardwalk and pavilion made it through Sandy – so it’s nice to see one local landmark completely untouched. Yes – these are HDR photos!





If you’re digging all this, make sure to check out our Facebook page where there is plenty more goodness from the Summer 2013 Landscape Collection (as well as much more!).

We also have a site with plenty to see!
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New Year, New Start: New Jersey Portrait Photographer

A few months back we ran a contest of sorts called ‘New Year, New Start’ – the idea was: if you’d been affected by hurricane Sandy – give us your name! We did a random drawing, and the lucky winner received a photo session for free. Being that it was random, we weren’t sure who we were going to pick (obviously). There were many deserving families, and we truly wished that we could give free photos to everyone (if we could, we would!). We lucked out when we picked these guys – they were so sweet, their little one was so adorable, and they were so wonderful to work with.




For the full set, ‘like’ us on Facebook!

A (little) Spring in Our Step

There were moderately (I say this conservatively) spring-like temperatures this past weekend, so we were able to get out for a bit in Cattus Island State Park. I have been DYING (dying, dying, dying) to test out my new 100mm Macro f/2.8L on bugs so I was REALLY (really, really, really) hoping that we were finally going to see some signs of life. With the exception of a couple ants, my macro pickings have been limited to plant life, household objects, and my extremely uncooperative schnauzer. I’ve gotten to use the lens for bling shots of my brides/brides to be (which it’s awesome for, and I love the bling!) – but I was really hoping for some creepy crawlies.

I was in a little luck, and was able to spy a caterpillar on our walk. It was kind of windy, so holding his branch steady without freaking him out was difficult, but I got a couple of snaps. I also took a few other shots. Check out these snaps from our ‘nature walk’. There are only a few, because it really wasn’t that exciting.
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Hello, Spring! New Jersey Portrait Photographer

We are so lucky, because seriously – we get to have photoshoots with the cutest kids ever. No, really. Other photographers may brag that they have the cutest clients – but there is no way that’s possible.
We took a trip to Spring Lake last week to get some shots of this super ridiculously adorable family. It was windy (AGAIN! Where are you, Spring?!) so we were once again forced a bit inland of where we initially intended to do the shoot. Once again, we probably could’ve done this shoot in a junkyard, and still gotten adorable photos – because when you’ve got this much cute to work with, it doesn’t matter where you’re set up!
See the full set (and like the page while you’re there!) on our Facebook page.

A Deployment: New Jersey Portrait Photographer

It is not often that I tear up when I edit photos – but it happened when I was doing these.
You probably remember the cutie from the last session. When her Mom (and a pal of mine from high school) had contacted me not only about doing those adorable Easter portraits, but also some pre-deployment shots for her family, I was touched and also thrilled that she was trusting Ray and I to capture those moments. All my love to this sweet family, and a speedy return home.
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Happy Easter: New Jersey Family Photographer

We have been very busy lately, hence a lack of posts. However – in order to catch up, we have quite a bit of posting to do!
We’ll rewind a bit back to Easter so that we can share this super adorable Easter themed shoot. While we had originally planned to shoot in Ocean Gate – the unspring-like (probably not a word) temperatures forced us a bit further inland. This little one was going to look cute no matter the circumstances, so it really didn’t matter where we were!
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Texture Adventure

In Sandy’s wake, we have limited access to the beach and consequently, our favorite photo spots. For the past couple of months, we’ve been very slow with our own personal photo work. The work that we do for our clients aside, we also enjoy just going out with cameras and capturing whatever it is we choose. In an effort to get back into our own personal photo adventures, we took some visits to local parks to get some shots – with an emphasis on textures and patterns. Being that we usually don’t shoot the woods or winter very often – it was a fun exercise. It also proved that you can find textures and patterns in nature pretty much anywhere you look.


Here are a couple favorite shots from the adventure. You can view the whole set on our Facebook page.


Initially, the woman in red in this photo irritated me. She was ruining my shot! I initially had planned to just clone her out – but I ended up liking the pop of red she provided.

These posts are really nothing special, but I really loved the clean, uninterrupted way the snow was sitting on top of them. While I initially included just the first post – I decided I liked the perspective effect the rest of them had behind it.


This was literally ice in a mud hole on the ground. I stepped on a lot of it before realizing how much like shattered glass it appeared.

If you were a 90’s kid, you surely remember Legends of the Hidden Temple on Nickelodeon. This pattern in tree bark reminded me a lot of Old Mec.



As always, be sure to check out our site (newly renovated) and ‘like’ us on Facebook for even more!

Ortley Beach: 80 Days After Sandy

Just about 3 months after the storm, visiting Ortley Beach, NJ still feels like a different world. This post is going to be a bit photo-heavy, but it can serve as a dedication of sorts to the town that Ortley once was, and what it will be again. It’s difficult to describe what it’s like to go to a town you once knew so well that you could probably describe the streets house by house – and be met with what feels like no landmarks to identify what street you’re standing on. The rubble is extensive, the streets are buckled, and there are enormous masses of tangled rope and the fabric of people’s lives washed up on the shore. These are really the only photos I’ve taken thus far since the storm – I’ve only been back twice. Ray has been back several more times than that. The beach in Ortley is closed, and not wanting to tempt fate we didn’t try to sneak up so I could get some photos of the now-infamous fallen JetStar. In the last shot of the first grouping, Ray is feeling the water – not something we get to do every day anymore.











These photos are from the same street in happier times.

This is a favorite shot of the pier and JetStar – taken standing on the old ramp that used to lie at the end of the street.








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