My wife and I drove 2 1/2 hours each way to visit the #shawangunkmountains for a just a few hours. Autumn comes a few weeks earlier at #minnewaskastatepark . I love this park. Whether it’s sheer cliff faces like Gertrude’s nose, the rocky shores of Lake Minnewaska, or waterfalls like Awosting (seen in the image above), there is beauty everywhere. On this particular day, the water flow was low, but the colors were ablaze, which made walking the creek bed really enjoyable. Compositions that are normally under water were revealed. While we spent a lot of time sitting in traffic to get there, but it was worth it for a very special visit to this highly-recommended park.

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20mm f/16 1/20s iso100

The sensual curves of Antelope Canyon. There are several sandstone slot canyons in the Navajo lands around Page Arizona. Many are not are crowded as the most famous, Antelope Canyon. My family and I had the opportunity to go on a tour of the Upper Antelope Canyon late in the afternoon. It was dark and, with only the reflected light of the blue sky, we saw blues, purples, and pinks in the otherwise orange sandstone. The Navajo believe that these canyons are windows into the spiritual world and I can certainly see why after feel nothing but awe in this spectacular place.

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29mm f/8 1/6s iso2000

Somehow I was able to convince @greesetin @timmyktk and @dang3r_noodle to get up at 2:30am to drive 2 hours out to Montauk for sunrise. In the summer, the sun can rise as early as 4:30am in New York. It was worth it to experience the beautiful light with the local fisherman. This photo is an excellent example of wide angle distortion. As I got down close to the rocks in the foreground, they became a significant character in the frame. I love their texture and subtle sheen of the sunrise light reflecting in their wetness. The fisherman, waste deep in the ocean, finishes the composition nicely. The overall scene tells the story of many Montauk mornings.

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15mm f/11 0.4s iso100

Happy Monday everyone! As an Arctic chill and winter snow storms approach, I’m reminded of this special day. While everyone seemed to be leaving quickly or sat in front of their toasty fire places, @hamscratch and I were driving directly into a snow storm in the western Catskills that we had been tracking since the night before. When we arrived in the region, we found a spectacular winter wonderland that we shared only with the occasional snowplow. As blizzard conditions blew in and out, we visited many locations including some beautiful waterfalls and woodlands. However, it was this lone tree that caught my eye from the side of the road that I fell in love with on this afternoon. I couldn’t tell you exactly where it was or how to find it, but on this particular day, it was glorious. The atmosphere from the squall eliminated all but a few strands of grass and the subtle line of the hilltop this ghostly figure sat atop. As long as you are cautious, prepared, and dressed appropriately, “bad” weather will almost always lead to unique and surprising images as the landscapes that we are used to transform momentarily into a whole new world. Stay warm my friends.

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35mm f/5 1/160s iso100

McAllister County Park is a hidden gem on Long Island. Those that know it usually refer to it as Pirate’s Cove probably due to its c shape peninsula, its dune spine that leads you out to the point, and a sunken ship that barely breaks the surface of the peaceful cove. On this day, I sat on a composition for a long time. On top of the dunes, I waited for a sunset that never happened. Disappointed, I packed up my gear and started my walk back to the car as the water level rise cuts off the straightest way back. All of a sudden, almost 15 minutes after sunset, the sky exploded into pinks and purples in all directions. I scrambled like a chicken with its head cut off to get my camera out the bag and snap this frame. I learned a valuable lesson this day. Patience is a virtue.

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70mm f/22 2.0s iso100

A dark and stormy day in Acadia. March 2022 was my first time visiting the park. I had the pleasure of experiencing this magical place with @hamscratch and @blakesheep on our first group photography adventure. We had some amazing early mornings laughing and exploring pitch dark cliff edges in the light of our headlamps. Although a portion of the park was closed for winter, we could go hours without seeing anyone and also always had a parking spot in Bar Harbor. This park is absolutely gorgeous and features a diverse set of photographic opportunities such mossy rooty woodlands, misty mountains, peaceful lakesides, and jagged seascapes. Can’t wait for my next visit.

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26mm f/16 8s iso100

Exposure Blend with a faster shutter speed to keep @blakesheep sharp

The foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains mesmerized me with their curves bathing in the warmth of sunset. They conjured up images in my head of the sand dunes of Death Valley. As the golden light caught the atmosphere in the valley, the autumn colors went ablaze in a painterly softness. #shenandoahnationalpark is such a beautiful park lined with White Oaks, winding waterfalls, and view after view along Skyline Drive. This was my daughter’s first national park unless you count Great Smokey’s when she was in the womb (which we don’t). In 3 years of life, she’s been to 4 parks so far. We gotta keep up the trend.

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📸 105mm f/11 1/90s iso500

On March 17, 2020, things were changing rapidly in New York. I was on my second day of working from home. Little did I know it was the start of months of lock down. I’m sure everyone can remember something about the early days of the pandemic. On this day, I finished work early and decided to drive out to Breezy Point which is at the end of a long skinny peninsula located on the southwestern tip of Long Island. I had never been out there before and quickly came to find out that if you weren’t a resident, you did not have access. After I disappointedly turned the car around, I quickly spotted a small parking lot on my left that seemed to have water front access. Sure enough, it had an excellent view of Marine Parkway Bridge, so why not. It was still early enough that the airplane overhead was not abnormal. I even had a chat with an off-duty cop who was fishing at this tiny slice of rocky coastline and the only other person present. It would be a while before random in-person chats were a thing again. This image brings me back to that feeling of ambiguity around what life was going to be moving forward.

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18mm f/8 0.5s iso100

Exposure Blend (faster shutter speed for the plane)

This is a classic subject from the beautiful area of Savannah GA. Live oaks and Spanish moss make the streets of Savannah feel ancient and magical. Wormsloe is perhaps one of the best places to experience these mystical trees. A tunnel of living beauty finds its way down a dirt road. What more do you need. Savannah’s history and traditions run deep and you can feel it in your bones as you walk through park squares and cemeteries, all the while admiring the unique color palette of the architecture. I can’t wait to visit again with more time, perhaps when it’s less humid and not sporadically down pouring. Some of the loudest thunder I’ve heard!

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Single Exposure : 105mm f/11 1/60s ios100

Happy New Years Everyone! Hope 2024 is an amazing year for all. I know I have big things planned. Below is a small selection of some of my personal favorite images from 2023. With so many special moments, it was hard to choose. I’m feeling really grateful for such amazing friends and family and the special experiences I got to share with them. I dream for a year of peace and renewed love for our beautiful world.

I have revisited this tree many times. Something about its shape attracts me. It’s not particularly characterful especially surrounded by the beautiful lone oaks of this park. How its stands proud by itself on this hill in the middle of a meadow feels harmonious. On this particular day late in fall, it held on to its beautiful yellow leaves just long enough. The dense fog that was rolling in and out helped to silhouette my subject against a blank moody canvas. The edge of a flock of migrating birds just made their way into the frame to balance the scene nicely and add more to the story. This was my favorite encounter with this tree.

Jordan Pond was pretty high on my list when visiting Acadia. While the Bubbles are not the towering mountains you’ll find in the west of the US, something about them encapsulates the subtle beauty of the Northeast. Up here, it’s not about the epic. It’s gentle, intimate, patient, and lush which makes landscape photography harder, but so rewarding. Of course, hiking in the Northeast is a different story altogether. Boulders of all sizes and icy creek beds make navigating up mountains like the Adirondacks and the White Mountains especially tricky and exhausting in the winter. I truly love the change of the seasons.

Happy Holidays everyone. 2 days ago I a took a really big step in my life. I left my job of fifteen plus years with a great company to start a new life as a full time dad and professional photographer. In the months to come our, house in Long Island NY will be officially sold and our family will be moving upstate somewhere in the triangle of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York to start our new life. I will share a lot more over the next few months, but for now, here is an image from the Catskills. With our head lamps, crampons, and our camera bags, @hamscratch and I traversed down the side of this frozen waterfall in the middle of the night. It is a pure rush to stand before a waterfall in pitch black and hear the roar of water flowing right in front of you. I have been to this location a few times and had an image in my mind. This is that image. I blended two exposures to ensure I didn’t get star trails, but captured as much detail in the foreground and mid-ground as possible. This was a very special adventure and luckily the bears were hibernating. At least that’s what I told myself.

The beauty of Zion is hard to describe in words. This shot was taken in early spring just as new growth was starting, but early enough that the mountains still had a dusting of snow of their peaks. The secret star of the show in this images is the cotton wood off in the distance. Still bare of its leaves, the white in the branches created a contrast that helped it standout from the hills behind it. On this day we experienced snow, rain, and sunshine and temperatures that ranged from 30-60 degrees Fahrenheit over the course of 6 hours. I hope to visit Zion many more times in my life, especially in Autumn.

This beautiful lighthouse is perched on the southern tip of Acadia National Park. While scrambling the rocks down to the spot is exciting, it becomes infinitely more fun when the tide is coming in and you watch 50 yards of rocky cliff below you disappear into the sea. The ocean forces you to think about what composition you hope to capture because you have to work on its schedule. Most photos here are captured at low tide and include more of the lighthouse, but I really love the 2 trees hanging off the cliff next to the lighthouse. For me, their character and framing of lighthouse tell the story of Acadia perfectly.

The Great Smoky Mountains being great and smoky. I opted for an intimate and mysterious look at the layers rather than the usual wider focal length that captures much more of the range. The clouds were rolling in and out right before sunset which created both atmosphere and warmth in all directions. If I could, I’d shoot in these conditions all the time. Compositions hide and reveal themselves by the seconds.

The end of Autumn can be a sad time for landscape photographers. The peak of fall colors, especially in the northeast of US, is so beautiful and inspires compositions that may otherwise not be as captivating. And so begins the wait for the transformation to a snowy landscape. With that being said, one thing I love to do is explore woodlands towards the end of fall in search of the last of the color. The contrast of color stands out ever more with the starkness of early winter surrounding and scenes are often simplified. The composition above is so common place. It could be any woodland, but its subtle beauty is so peaceful. Gentle side light helps the subject trees stand out from the background while the vibrant red canopy frames the leaf littered floor. While the images shared on instagram often celebrate epic landscapes which are spectacular, it’s important to remind ourselves of the beauty of nature is all around us in the intimate and anonymous.

This beautiful waterfall sits on the border of New York’s Taconic State Park and Massachusetts’ Bash Bish State Park. Aside from the beautiful woodlands that Bash Bish Falls is surrounded by, the falls themselves offer so many compositional opportunities. Although the observation point is a great perspective, a little bit of scrambling (crampons recommended in the winter) opens up so many compositional possibilities. I framed up this composition after climbing up the side of a massive boulder that hangs over the stream. Aside from being closer to the action, this perspective reveals a tunnel view through to the falls with some really nice foreground interest with the rocks and rapids. The snow and ice emphasize the cold blue pre-sunrise winter morning. I’m excited to explore this area more through the seasons.

There is something about old structures being over taken by the nature that surrounds them. This little lone shed sits in the desert of Williams Arizona about 40 minutes south of Grand Canyon National Park. Its humble stature emphasizes the vastness of the desert. Gently lit by the setting sun, it evokes feelings of both loneliness and fortitude as it continues to brave the scorching summer days and frigid winter nights.

This image was captured just as an impending snow storm was moving across the East River from Manhattan into Queens. The atmosphere of the storm created depth and simplified the scene obscuring all the skyscrapers and emphasizing the lone figure. The balance between the tall trees on the left and 59th street bridge on the right is a satisfying juxtaposition of man and nature. This was a special moment in time that I could’ve easily missed if a left the location just a few minutes earlier.