Purple Martins live in colonies, with multiple pairs of birds nesting in the same spot.  Bird houses designed for these birds are apartment style, with compartments layered next to and on top of one another to provide ample nesting space for all of the birds in a colony.  For photographers, an active martin nest box [...]

Two years ago, I visited Chris’s grandparents in upstate New York for the first time and also first met Eric Dresser, a talented nature photographer and good friend of Chris’s.  Eric let us photograph some birds that had been frequenting his backyard, including American Goldfinch, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, a Red-breasted Nuthatch, and this particular male Black-throated [...]

A couple of years ago, I was at one of my favorite places, Richard W. DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst, part of the New Jersey Meadowlands, listening for Marsh Wren in the reeds when I heard a little squeak from below.  I looked down and found this fella, a baby raccoon.  It was about 7:30AM in [...]

Lately, I’ve spent a lot of time reprocessing many of my older photographs using Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) in preparation for my website’s stock gallery. Of all of the Raw processing software I have tried (others include RawShooter Essentials, Nikon Capture NX, BreezeBrowser, and Canon Digital Photo Professional), I like ACR the best for the [...]

My mom loves gardening, and we have the yard to prove it.  Our property is covered with an assortment of flowering and fruit bearing plants, from pansies and tulips to parsley and cucumbers.  One of her new additions this year was a beautiful moon flower plant, an annual that grows on a vine and has heart shaped leaves [...]

A couple of nights ago, I found myself enjoying how bright it was at night, thanks to a full moon and clear, cloudless sky.  Perfect conditions for photographing a full moon aren’t exactly rare, but they aren’t very regular or predictable either, so I decided to take advantage of the weather and try my hand at photographing [...]

I recently discovered this photograph while editing folders from photography sessions of last summer.  This was taken on the New York shoreline of Lake Ontario.  I like the soft pastel colors of the pebbles and the contrast the yellow brown seaweed provides against the stones, both in color and texture.

To order this print, purchase stock [...]

Today I photographed a new species of moth, the One-eyed Sphinx (also known as Cerisy’s Sphinx).  A few days ago, I found four of these cool looking moths near the front door of the staff house.  The moths are attracted to our porch light, which sometimes gets left on overnight when staff members are out late or [...]

Chris and I have been trying to set up another Adirondack camping trip for this summer, but our busy schedules and his lack of reliable transportation (his car is on the fritz and my car is too small and cheap to carry two kayaks) have kept us from setting up a date and doing more [...]

I often find myself inspired by the work of other photographers.  One trend I’ve noticed and liked is that of black and white photographs of wildlife, as shown in the work of photographers of African wildlife Nick Brandt and Andy Biggs as well as in a book of native Hawaiian wildlife (that I can’t think of the [...]

When Chris and I planned a car camping trip to the northern part of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia last summer for landscapes, we planned for photographs of both mountain scenics and waterfalls.  We had hoped to photograph mountain vistas at sunset and sunrise, but we didn’t get the dramatic weather we had been hoping for.  Fortunately, with a little [...]

Last summer, Chris and I spent several days car camping along the northern portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia with the purpose of photographing landscapes.  This photo is one taken during our trip, and it perfectly illustrates how the Blue Ridge Mountains got their name.  While simple in design, I like the repeating [...]

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted.  It’s been over a month since I’ve taken a photo, but I must get back into it (for my own well being).  Anyway, here is a photograph from about a year ago, when Chris and I stayed at a friend’s beach house in Delaware.  We [...]

Loons are definitely one of my favorite birds to photograph.  Last summer, Chris and I spent a weekend camping in the Adirondacks of New York state, with the intent of photographing a pair of loons in one of the park’s lakes.  Each morning, we got up before sunrise and set out on the lake in [...]

I’m back in Paramus again after a fun week of my Wilderness First Responder course in West Milford.  I learned a lot of useful skills that I’m glad to have in the backcountry, met a dozen awesome people, and overall had a great time.  Unfortunately, the busy class days left me with little free time [...]

I flipped this adult Eastern Worm Snake while herping/photographing with Chris in the New Jersey Pine Barrens last week.  We drove a bunch of dirt roads hoping to find rocks, logs, and artificial cover to turn, and I found this snake under a wood pallet dumped in the woods.  Worm Snakes are small, brown snakes [...]

One of my new species discovered this weekend was the Redbelly Snake, a small snake, either rust or dark gray in color with a belly that ranges from orange to red to pink.  Collectively, our group found eight Redbelly Snakes, including this small individual.  I tried to get this snake to pose with part of [...]

I just got back from Lycoming County, PA where I spent the weekend herping with Chris and several friends.  Combined, we found over 300 herps on Saturday and Sunday, including three lifers for me, Spring Salamander, Mountain Dusky Salamander, and Redbelly Snake.  I also found the only Northern Water Snake of the trip, a baby [...]

One of the lightlights of our rainy day Tuesday herping trip was finding Longtail Salamanders, one of the species Chris had really wanted to see and photograph.  Our friend Jeff had a great spot for them and we were able to find a couple dozen of the species, including some rather cooperative individuals like this [...]

Yesterday, Chris and I met up with some friends we met through a herping forum and tried our hand at herping in some of the most miserable May weather conditions.  We had planned to find some new snakes - in particular Timber Rattlesnakes, Copperheads, Milk Snakes, and Eastern Hognose Snakes - to photograph, but the [...]