Bone Chilling Cold

The weather is decidedly nasty to start the new year. Although there are parts of the country that are much colder, walking the dog in 20 degree weather in a blowing wind is not my idea of a good time. This kind of weather puts a real damper on my desire to get out with my camera and find something unique in the colorless, bare-tree environment that surrounds us.

So instead I'll post another work of digital art. I took this shot of a sunflower a few years ago, but it did not knock me over as a straight photo. I like it much better after massaging it in my digital darkroom.



Main website: Photography by Matt Schrier
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Snow Robin

I don't usually see robins in winter. I know that they feed mostly on worms and other creepy-crawly things they find in the ground, and around here the ground can be frozen for weeks if not months. At the local nature center we spotted them eating some of the winter berries.

I am trying some digital manipulation techniques these days, making use of the down-time that usually accompanies winter. Here is one example.

Holiday Greetings

Photography by Matt Schrier

Winter is Almost Here

The calendar says Dec. 19, but it sure feels like winter. Snow is falling heavily today in the Mid-Atlantic states, so I headed over to my local nature center to check out the bird activity. There were plenty of local bird species filling up on the bird seed and the winter berries. I think I'll be spending a fair amount of time outside this weekend, as the snowfall is supposed to last all day, and stick around for a while.

New Philly Pics Added

I've added three new Philly images to my website:

Philadelphia Photos

Here's one of them:

Back to Philly

It's been a while, but I've made a trip into the city of Philadelphia to begin producing some new work from there. For the last few years I've been concentrating on more natural settings, and also of birds and other animals. But I do enjoy the more scenic parts of the city as well, especially in the right light.

During the morning when our family is preparing for our day we often have a local news channel on the TV. They usually show a shot of the city from across the Delaware River from the riverfront of Camden, NJ. Frequently there is a beautiful sunrise that casts a soft morning light across the hulking buildings, making them look almost beautiful (if you can say that about a hulking building).

So that's where I headed, across the Ben Franklin Bridge (by the way a very beautiful bridge in its own right), to the area near the Adventure Aquarium. On this morning the pre-dawn light was quite nice, and some soft distant clouds provided a subtle backdrop to the skyscrapers. I took a number of "keeper" shots, but one that stood out for me was the one below, where I include the moon that stood far above. I don't usually make a concerted attempt to extract deep meaning from my photos, but there's something about this composition that makes me reflect on how small our world is in the big scheme of things.

From the Archives

I often go back to my image files to see if there any shots I previously overlooked, or never completed processing. This image of the oft-photographed Jenne Farm in Vermont was made on a workshop trip a few years ago. In retrospect the reason I did not select this photo for my portfolio is because I didn't care for the composition in the "standard" aspect ratio. But after I cropped it for a panoramic I like it a lot.

Last Show of the Year

Well it's that time of year. This weekend is my last show of 2009. I have been showing at the Archbishop Wood fall craft show for 4 years, and I a glad that many past customers stop by to take a look at the new work I bring back every year.

The show runs Friday night, 6:30-9:30, and then Saturday 10-4.

Below is one of my new prints that I'll have this weekend, one of those "instant favorites" that is hard not to like if you live in the Bucks County area.

Happy Halloween

From Solly Brothers farm in Bucks County, Pa.

Website Updates

For those frequent visitors to my site I would like to point out a few changes.

(1) I added a "Welcome" page, which for the moment is simply a photo of historic Fonthill Castle, with a link to the galleries page. I like this kind of website entry point, although I will be juicing it up a little in the near future.

Welcome Page

(2) I added a page that shows all of the framed prints that I currently have in inventory. I've done this primarily to give people a chance who have seen my work in person to take a second look. Link below:

Frames Page

(3) Finally, I've added some new prints to my galleries.

New Work

Below is one of the newly added images, which is of a babydoll lamb at the Cuttalossa Farm in Bucks County. This lamb looks so innocent and youthful against the large outline of its mother just behind it.

Drip Drop

On a recent trip to the Poconos I found myself at the edge of a pond below some trees. The view across the pond was nothing special, but the water dripping from the trees above created interesting patterns in the water. When printed in a larger size the disturbances in the water can bee seen in all their glory.



Website: Photography by Matt Schrier

Poconos

I've taken my nearly yearly trip up north to the Poconos. I'm usually drawn to the Delaware Water Gap area, and this year I returned to the George W. Childs State Park, just a few miles from Dingman's Falls. This area has beautiful series of waterfalls tucked in a small valley/gorge. The light was very nice on this morning, and the air was still enough to let me use a longer exposure to accentuate the waterfalls.



Website: Photography by Matt Schrier

Golden Morning

As summer winds down we often get treated to foggy mornings. If you are prepared and put yourself in the right location to catch the sunbeams streaming through, you will have a good chance to make very nice images.

At my favorite local haunt I was fortunate to have the light fog hang around the trees while the full sun blasted from behind it.

I'm beginning to catch the fall foliage in Pennsylvania, and I hope to have some new images in time for my last two shows of the year. Stay tuned ...


Website: Photography by Matt Schrier

New Hope Award

The New Hope Arts and Crafts Festival was a mixed bag. Saturday's great weather was followed by some rain on Sunday. As always I met a lot of fun and interesting people, with many stories to share.

I was fortunate to receive the second place award in the photography category this year. In addition to the cash award it is very gratifying to know that my body of work is impressive enough to win an award at a high-end arts festival such as New Hope.

Below is a photo of me receiving the award.

I Spy

Prepping for New Hope

My last outdoor show of the year is coming up, and I'm busy selecting some new images to print. I've tweaked my presentation a bit over the past few shows, in an attempt to make browsing easier (and in the end to increase sales, of course). First of all I've produced two gallery-wraps (one which sold at the Doylestown show), to try a bit of a different effect. This format has become much more popular in recent years, and for certain images the result can be really beautiful. I've added them as an option on my website.

I've also left the smaller items home, in order to give me more flexibility in arranging my print bins. I've eliminated a table, which allows more room to move around, and allows customers to get closer to the works hanging on the walls.

The image below was made a few weeks ago in a local field. The flowers have died, but the birds were busy filling up on the remaining seeds. I like the early-day lighting, as well as the color tone of this image.

Doylestown Arts Festival

We had a very nice day yesterday at the Doylestown Arts Festival. The weather was great, the crowds were overflowing, and the atmosphere was electric. After a few weather-dampened disappointing shows this year this show was a breath of fresh air.

I met a lot of new customers, and a few old ones. A few family members also took advantage of the nice day to stop by and support me (Thanks Leslie, Vince, Linda, Frank and Ellen).

This image below seemed to garner a lot of interest. Bucks County still brims with farming, despite the explosion of development over the past few decades. And our local historical connections are also well-appreciated. So this shot of sheep on a wet winter day at the Thompson-Neely farm, right across from Bowman's Hill near New Hope, resonates with a lot of people.

Next stop: New Hope Arts and Crafts Festival, Sept 26 and 27.

Young Heron

While walking around my local nature center recently, on a quiet morning where I wasn't expecting anything especially interesting, I was startled when this young heron flew from near the path to a branch not too far away. Since he didn't go too far I was thinking that he wasn't really too afraid of me, so I calmly swapped lenses on my camera and prepared the tripod.

While I snapped some initial shots he preened himself for a while. Then he moved to this branch, above the walking path. Here I was able to inch closer and capture some clean shots.

I'm not sure what variety of heron this is, as I think his color will change as he gets older. It may be a white heron.

One lesson that I have learned while walking through natural areas is to always be prepared, and be wary of what's around you. I often go walking with a destination in mind, sometimes completely oblivious to what's around me. But then I may be startled by a deer or a heron or other large bird along the water's edge. At the very least have a medium to long lens on the camera if you have one.

What's Happening

We're in the dog days of summer right now. It's been hot and humid, and frequently raining, for the past few weeks. A few nights ago we had a tremendous thunderstorm with very loud thunderclaps. No need to add water to the pool this summer, instead we're draining water out.

As far as photography goes, I'm trying to create shots of summer flowers before they wilt due to the summer heat. Some of the local fields of wildflowers have finally flowered to the point where they attract birds like goldfinches, as well as butterflies. The bird activity at my feeder has stopped almost entirely, and that's because they have moved on to more natural sources of food. Lately at my local nature center the birds are all over the wildflowers growing there. When the natural sources start to wane then I'll expect them to return to the feeder.

Below is a hawk that I discovered at a local park. He stayed on his perch atop a tall tree for awhile, apparently looking for signs of small animals for which to feed on.

Summer Morning

I don't chase sunsets so much any more, but I do chase sunrises on occasion, or at least the post-sunrise sunlight. There are a few personal reasons for this. I believe sunsets look great with some other beautiful landscape scene for the sunset to accentuate, especially a water feature. And we don't have a lot of those in our area. Also, as beautiful as they can be, sunsets are quite common. So if I'm picking some time out of my schedule to spend photographing I'd like to work on subjects that are more unique.

As for morning light, I often find interesting things happening. Such as fog or animal activity. Also many people aren't up in the early morning hours, so the scenes I find are often very surprising to people. I like my chances of having the images being more impactive and unusual.

In the photo below the sun had been up for a while, but the fog had not yet cleared. This is the time when I find very dramatic images.