Photographer's Journal (Landscape)

Welcome to my online journal, otherwise known as a blog. Here I'll be sharing pertinent information, inspirational stories, trip reports, behind-the-photo stories, photography tips and techniques, and various random thoughts that you might find interesting. If you have any questions or comments regarding the opinions and information shared here, feel free to contact me. Thanks for your interest in my work!

Categories:
Abstract Photography: Exploring the Essence of Nature and Landscapes
March 6, 2024

In the realm of visual arts, photography stands as a medium of infinite exploration, allowing both photographers and viewers to journey beyond the mere representation of reality. Among its myriad genres, abstract photography, especially where nature and landscapes are concerned, offers a particularly fascinating avenue for exploration...

Preserving The Past
January 24, 2024

This winter has been a strange one here in Maine. We haven't had much snow, it's been warmer than it normally is, and to top it off, we've been getting hammered with vicious nor'easters that have battered the towns up and down the coast...

Capturing the Lowcountry of South Carolina
January 22, 2024  |  South Carolina

I recently had the opportunity to travel to South Carolina to visit a friend near Charleston. Thankfully, this friend is also a photo enthusiast so we spent most of our time chasing the light and visiting various locations around Charleston and the Lowcountry to photograph...

Revisiting Mesa Arch
January 12, 2024  |  Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

A quick Google image search for Mesa Arch, easily the most popular feature in Canyonlands National Park, will bring up no shortage of spectacular sunrise photos. Often, the sun has just risen over the La Sal Mountains, in the distance, and the photographer has gotten a sunstar somewhere under the arch...

2023 Year In Review
December 27, 2023

It's hard to believe 2023 is winding down, and 2024 is right around the corner. 2023 was an amazing year for a lot of reasons, photographically, for me. I did more teaching than ever this year, with online workshops mixed with some in-person workshops, but I also did a lot of photographing for myself...

Exploring The Swamps in Louisiana
November 28, 2023  |  Lake Verret, Napoleonville, Louisiana

Back in the spring of 2021, I made the drive from Maine to Louisiana to visit my friend Andy Crawford. Andy has lived in Louisiana all his life, and we met through a Facebook page for artists that was hosted by the website company we were both using at the time...

Ain't They Grand? A Review of My Recent Adventures in the Tetons
November 24, 2023  |  Grand Teton National Park, Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Grand Teton National Park near Jackson, Wyoming, is simply stunning. I've visited twice now, but since the first time was only for about 16 hours, I hardly count that, except that I did manage to make a few good photographs in that time...

5 Reasons Why Art Makes a Great Gift
November 22, 2023

At any gift-giving time of year, whether it's Christmas, Hanukkah, a birthday, wedding, or anniversary, we are often stumped as to what to give someone for a gift. Somehow, it seems art is often overlooked, but art, and specifically landscape photography, makes a great gift! Whether it's a collectable museum-quality print, or a household item such as a throw pillow, coffee mug, or jigsaw puzzle, art often is a gift that goes above and beyond a normal gift...

A Change in Perspective
November 6, 2023

The surest way to take something familiar and make it new again is to look at it from a new point of view. This is true of anything in life, whether it be a TV show that we've seen that we suddenly watch with a different point of view, a social or political issue we never considered except from our own perspective, but now look at in light of someone else's concerns, or simply considering a new use for a room that you've always used another way...

Nature's Fury: Photographing in a Tropical Storm
September 18, 2023  |  Acadia National Park, Maine

As a photographer, I appreciate a good storm for the opportunities it can provide for interesting photos. But I'm also torn. Because there's nothing like a stormy day spent at home curled up on the couch all cozy and warm, as the wind and rain whip around outside...

Making the Most of Your Visits to National Parks
August 22, 2023

National Parks have been called America's "Best Idea". Over the past decade, the number of visitors to our national parks has grown immensely. Some of the most crowded parks now require entry reservations to help manage the crowds and traffic, in an effort to ensure that our natural resources within the park are preserved...

The Most Beautiful Drive in America
July 27, 2023  |  Beartooth Highway, Red Lodge, Montana

There are no guardrails in places where you might prefer them. Driving from east to west, starting in Red Lodge, Montana, you'll climb nearly 5,700 feet, to a total elevation of 10,947 feet over the course of 12 miles...

The Creative Decision Behind Lens Choice
June 25, 2023

When I started taking photos way back when, I thought of lenses the way most people who are new to photography, or who aren't photographers at all, think of them. Specifically that telephoto lenses are used when things are far away, and wide angle lenses are for tight spaces or wide vistas...

Nature's Allure
June 18, 2023

I’ve always found myself drawn to the outdoors. When I went away to college at SUNY New Paltz, one of the draws was the small town with close access to the Catskills. I would often venture to Minnewaska State Park on days when I didn’t have afternoon classes, or when I just decided being outdoors was more important than my class...

Rick Berk's Guide to Acadia National Park
June 14, 2023  |  Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine

It should be no secret that Acadia National Park is one of my favorite places to photograph. Now that I live just over 2 hours away, it’s much easier for me to get to, and I still find there are plenty of places to photograph there that I’ve never photographed before...

Behind the Image: Sunrise at Montauk Point
June 7, 2023  |  Montauk Point, New York

Since I began selling my work, "Sunrise at Montauk Point" has become one of my most popular, selling a fair number of prints. It's easy to see why. The iconic Montauk Point Lighthouse stands in the distance atop the bluff, as the sun rises above a bank of clouds while a wave washes over the rocky shoreline west of the lighthouse...

The Enchantment of Sunsets
June 4, 2023

If sunrises are my favorite time to photograph, sunsets are a close second.

Behind the Image: Sand Harbor Tahoe
May 11, 2023  |  Sand Harbor, Lake Tahoe, Nevada

It's not unusual for me to go back through my photos months or even years after I've taken them, and find an image I've never edited or shared before. You might think that something I didn't choose to edit immediately after I made the photo would be a lesser image, or filler...

The Magic of Sunrises
April 18, 2023

It can be so difficult at times. I'll be fast asleep, snuggled up under the blankets, nice and warm, dreaming away, when suddenly, my alarm shatters the still and rips me from my slumber. I reach over and grab my phone...

Location Spotlight: The Nubble Lighthouse
April 16, 2023  |  Cape Neddick, Maine

My first time in Maine was over New Year's Eve 1998 and New Year's Day, 1999. My ex-wife and I had decided to get away for the holiday and found a cute bed and breakfast in York Harbor. When we arrived, we asked the innkeeper about nearby lighthouses, and she directed us to Cape Neddick Lighthouse, known by many as The Nubble Light...

The Mystery Dory of Ogunquit
March 27, 2023  |  Ogunquit, Maine

Did you know that different types of dories are specific to the region they were built in? The Ogunquit Dory is one such dory. Popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Ogunquit Dory was built to handle the strong tides and rocky coastline of Maine...

Smoke on the Water: Braving Frigid Temperatures to Capture an Amazing Phenomenon
February 5, 2023  |  Portland, Maine

Living in northern New England offers a wide variety of benefits for photographers such as myself. Beautiful landscape that includes mountains, rolling hills covered in flowers, thick forests, rivers, lakes, dramatic cliffs dropping hundreds of feet into the ocean, lighthouses, and picturesque fishing harbors to name several...

Trip Report: Rocky Mountain National Park
January 29, 2023  |  Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

There's something special about starting out on the trail in the pre-dawn hours, the temperatures well below freezing, a light snow falling. Headlamps switch on, illuminating the 15 feet in front of you...

Location Spotlight: Dream Lake in Winter
January 23, 2023  |  Dream Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

On my recent trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, the top item on my list was to reach Dream Lake, one of the most popular locations in the park. It draws a lot of people, with the park advising visitors to arrive early or use the park shuttle since the lot will be full...

Location Spotlight: Wells Beach
January 4, 2023  |  Wells Beach, Maine

Located on the coast of southern Maine in York County, is a popular summer destination called Wells Beach. Wells Beach is somewhat of a rarity on the Maine coast, as one of a handful of sandy beaches on an otherwise rocky coastline...

2022: My Year in Pictures
December 30, 2022

“Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.” - Ansel Adams

Well, to be sure, I've shared more than 12 photos in my year-end review here, but to be fair, using a digital camera allows me to produce many more photos than Ansel Adams using a view camera that took one sheet of film at a time...

An Unlikely Collaboration: How My Image Inspired a Shave Soap
December 12, 2022

This is going to be a slightly different type of entry. But first, a little backstory on the image in question. I photographed this small cascade at Diana's Baths, just outside North Conway, New Hampshire, in the winter of 2020...

Tips For Photographing In the Snow
December 8, 2022

Winter can be a lot of things. Cold. Wet. Damp. Raw. But it can also be magical. Fresh snow and ice can sparkle over the landscape, make it clean and fresh, and change it from the norm. That's one of the reasons I love photographing in the snow...

Trip Report: Autumn in the Smoky Mountains
October 26, 2022  |  Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Great Smoky Mountains National Park offers a wide variety of subject matter for any landscape photographer. Grand vistas, flowing waterfalls, historic cabins, and expansive meadows with majestic trees are all on the menu...

Deconstructing the Composition: Maroon Bells II
October 1, 2022  |  Maroon Bells, Colorado

One of the primary things that elevates a photograph from snapshot to art, whether it be a portrait, a candid street photograph, or a landscape or cityscape, is the composition. Composition, or the arrangement of elements within an image, can often look random, when in fact, the photographer has considered the placement of even the most minute object...

Five Tips For Amazing Fall Foliage Photos
September 16, 2022

Autumn is my absolute favorite season of the year! The air gets cool and crisp. You can smell the scent of wood burning from fireplaces and wood stoves. Apple cinnamon and pumpkin spice flavors and scents are everywhere, warming us up on chilly mornings...

Can Landscape Photographers Get Artist's Block? And How I Deal With It
September 10, 2022

We all know writers get writer's block, unsure where to take a story or article or essay. And you're probably aware that painters and other visual artists like sketch artists and illustrators can deal with artist's block...

The Elegance of Black and White Photography
September 9, 2022

If you've followed my work for any amount of time, you're accustomed to seeing the bold, vibrant color I tend to work with. And make no mistake, I very much see the world in color, and enjoy capturing the color I see with my camera and in my editing process...

A Quiet Corner of Maine's Midcoast: Lookout Point
August 21, 2022  |  Harpswell, Maine

On the north shore of Harpswell Neck, half way down the peninsula that makes up the contiguous land portion of the town of Harpswell, sits a spit of land known as Lookout Point. Harpswell is also made up of several islands, the most notable being Orr's Island and Bailey Island...

Autumn, The Golden Time
August 19, 2022

With roughly one month of the summer left to go, I find myself already thinking about the Fall. I've already stacked all my wood for the colder weather, in piles taller than me in my shed. I'm anxious for the cooler weather, lighting the fire in my wood stove, and of course, the autumn foliage...

Personal Journey: Starting Over in Maine
August 12, 2022  |  Bath, Maine

It's hard to believe, but I'm coming up on the six year anniversary of my move to Maine. I've often said relocating to Maine was one of the best things I've ever done, but the circumstances that precipitated the move were the most painful of my life...

Photographing Movie Locations
July 21, 2022

It's always interesting to see places I've been in a big time movie. Often, it takes me a second to recognize it because the context is so different. Other times, I know immediately where the camera operator was standing when he was filming...

Trip Report: North Cascades National Park
July 18, 2022  |  North Cascades National Park, Washington

“Going to the mountains is like going home” – John Muir

Having been raised in the suburbs of New Jersey, I was never really exposed to the mountains. Sure, we had the Catskills nearby, and the Watchung Mountains in New Jersey, but let's be real, they pale in comparison to those mountains out west- the San Juans in Colorado, the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho, and the Cascades in the Pacific Northwest...

A Year In The Making
May 29, 2022  |  Bailey Island, Maine

Many of my photos are fairly spontaneous. I watch the weather, decide where I'd like to photograph, and off I go. There is some amount of planning, but it's usually limited to checking the weather and finding a day to go...

Trip Report:  Spring in Maine 2022 Photo Workshop
May 25, 2022  |  Freeport, Maine

After a year and a half of putting off any large-scale photo workshops, last week I was able to finally get together with a great group of photographers for my first workshop since October of 2020. I'd held a handful of half-day photo walk type events in 2021, but I find I have the most fun teaching when I have a group ready to immerse themselves in photography for several days...

Trip Report: Shenandoah National Park
April 24, 2022  |  Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

Shenandoah National Park, located a few hours west of Washington, D.C. in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is a treasure of incredible vistas stretching forever, mixed with more intimate scenery such as waterfalls, meadows, and rock formations...

Developing My Style
April 20, 2022

It's easy to discover an artist or photographer or writer when they are more advanced in their craft, and feel like they've always been that good at what they do. Often the hard work, the learning, and the growth goes on behind closed doors, and rarely do we get to see evidence of that growth when the work is taken one piece or image at a time, as it so often is when shared on social media...

The Passage of Time: Using Long Exposures to Create a Sense of Calm
April 5, 2022

One of my favorite things to do with a camera is to transform the landscape in some way as I photograph it. There are several ways to do this, such as choosing a specific lens to frame the landscape a certain way, or using a unique point of view to force a viewer to see things differently...

Through the Viewfinder: Newfallen Snow at Pemaquid Point
March 27, 2022  |  Pemaquid Point, Maine

With winter receding in the rearview mirror, I was chatting with a friend today who had asked me about my photo, "Newfallen Snow at Pemaquid Point". It was taken January 18, 2018. I was still employed at the camera store in South Portland, and had worked the previous day and the 18th was supposed to be my day off...

Using On-Camera Filters to Create My Photographs
March 23, 2022

One of the things that helps a photographer elevate his or her photos, is the ability to manipulate the light available in a scene to produce a photograph that transforms the scene in a predictable way...

My Favorite State Parks
March 6, 2022

National Parks get all the love, but there are some amazing state parks across this country that are well worth a visit. While I can't claim to have been to all of them, or even most of them, Here's a list, in no particular order, of my favorites that I have been to...

Starry Nights
February 28, 2022

These days, most people have never seen the Milky Way, and only ever see the brightest stars in the sky. Thanks to the growth of civilization, and the dawn of the electric lights in homes and on streets over 140 years ago, the light of the stars has been drowned out over the past century...

Maine's Bold Coast: Exploring Down East
February 25, 2022  |  Lubec, Maine

The Maine coast is known for its rugged beauty, its working fishing harbors, adorable coastal villages, and of course, lobster rolls. Almost as soon as a visitor crosses the bridge over the Piscataqua River, there are sights to see...

America's Best Idea: My Favorite National Parks
February 17, 2022

"National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst." - Wallace Stegner, Writer, Environmentalist, & Historian

Other than having seen this quote many times over the years during my visits to our National Parks, I had no idea who Wallace Stegner was...

Death Valley Report Part 3: Exploring Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
February 2, 2022  |  Death Valley National Park, California

One of the things that draws me to the work I do, and drives the passion that I have for it, is the variety of landscapes I see and explore. I think that's what made the trip to Death Valley National Park so special for me, the variety of landscape within the hottest, driest, and lowest national park...

Death Valley Report Part 2: Badwater Basin
January 30, 2022  |  Badwater Basin, Death Valley National Park, California

I'm still going through photos from my recent trip to Death Valley National Park. It was a whirlwind trip, only spending four days in the park, but I had a chance to see some truly amazing sights. Last week, I highlighted my visit to Zabriskie Point, so today I thought I'd tell you about another spot in Death Valley that I found fascinating: Badwater Basin...

Death Valley Report Part 1: Morning at Zabriskie Point
January 27, 2022  |  Death Valley National Park, California

It's been a few months since I last traveled to photograph anywhere- the Oregon Coast in September, and Acadia National Park in October- so I was excited to get on a plane last week and head to Death Valley National Park with Kristen Wilkinson for a few days of photographing the desert...

Nature Photography Can Make You Happier
January 4, 2022

Most of us spend our days staring at a screen, be it our phones, a tablet, or a computer monitor. According to a 2016 report from Nielsen, the average American spends more than 10 hours per day staring at a screen...

2021: My Year in Pictures
December 30, 2021

Every year, in late December, I go back and review the images I captured over the previous 12 months. I love reminiscing about the trips I took, reliving the moments I experienced, the things that I saw...

Off the Beaten Path in Acadia
October 20, 2021  |  Acadia National Park, Maine

Acadia National Park has many well-known and iconic locations, which I love to photograph. Places like Boulder Beach, Otter Cliff, Jordan Pond, and Cadillac Mountain. But as the park has become more crowded in recent years, it's been more difficult to photograph in those places with more people around...

Recalling Colorado
October 4, 2021  |  Ouray, Colorado

A year ago this week I was returning from an amazing trip to Colorado, where I photographed the aspens in all their golden glory as they turned their autumn colors. I was joined by Kristen Wilkinson as we explored western Colorado, capturing peak color in places like Aspen, Ouray, Telluride, and Silverton...

Exploring the Oregon Coast
September 26, 2021  |  Oregon

The Oregon Coast, and the Pacific Northwest in general, have long held my interest as a place I'd like to spend more time in and photograph. I've made three trips previously, but still felt I had a lot of unexplored territory there...

Father & Son in the Sawtooth Mountains
July 23, 2021  |  Stanley, Idaho

After my second visit to the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho, I'm passionately in love with this area of the country. The landscape is just beautiful. Rolling hills, leading to jagged mountain peaks, with alpine lakes nestled among them...

Working in the Swamp
May 31, 2021  |  Louisiana

Last week, I took a road trip where the ultimate destination was my buddy Andy Crawford's place in south central Louisiana. Andy's work had shown me just how beautiful the swamps down there can be, so when he invited me down and sent me his availability, I jumped on some dates that matched up for me, which also resulted in a nearly three week long odyssey due to my trip to Cape Cod which had been previously planned...

Exploring the Outer Banks
April 18, 2021  |  Bodie Island, North Carolina

I'd never been to North Carolina's Outer Banks before last week. I'd heard plenty and it always seemed like someplace I'd like to go. In many ways, the area reminded me of the Jersey Shore, and Long Beach Island, where I spent many summers growing up, but it was also very different as well...