I didn't grow up in a naturally rich environment. The suburbs of Washington D.C. are not exactly a playground of wild environments. However, there are surprising pockets of abundance. Every spring, along the rich alluvial floodplains of the Potomac River, Virginia...
Spring Ephemerals Along the PHTThe Potomac Gorge is a hotspot of biodiversity just upstream of the Nation's Capital, Washington D.C. Two ecoregions overlap at the fall line and a wild river runs through. I take multiple dayhikes along the Potomac Heritage Trail...
Travel was shut down in 2020 as we all wrapped our heads around the novel coronavirus. That meant no trip to Charleston, South Carolina for me. Instead, I began to focus my attention on documenting the spring ephemeral wildflowers in my local parks. The Potomac...
March is about the forest floor. Life is anew. Spring ephemeral wildflowers begin to crowd the dirt, displacing last year's leaf litter with their hunger for sunlight. One of the first wildflowers to show at Riverbend Regional Park along the Potomac Heritage Trail...
I've always loved the potential of this shot. Sidelight at sunrise. Reflective when calm. A balance of urban environment and natural world. I think there is a spectacular frame just waiting at this location. What I don't like is everything about getting there and...
When I'm in Northern Virginia my go-to location is always Great Falls Park on the Potomac River. From the cascading waterfall to the cliff walls of Mather Gorge, there is always something interesting to find and photograph. On this particular winter morning, I found...
When I'm home during the slower winter months, my mother and I like to head over to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Virginia. The gardens have a particularly vibrant display of annual Witch Hazel blooms. Witch Hazel is a deciduous flowering shrub that shows...
When I started landscape photography I was pretty damn naive (perhaps I still am). I wanted to catch every sunrise and every sunset without fail. I figured, I'll simply outwork everyone else. I'll be up early and out late; I'll walk further on the trail, or I'll...
The dominant landscape of my hometown region is not natural but urban. Northern Virginia is right on the border with the capital city of Washington D.C. When I'm not packing a tent and overnighting in the Southern Appalachians or along the Carolina coasts, the...
I grew up in Northern Virginia, a classic bedroom suburb of Washington D.C. Here, the dominant landscape feature is the Potomac River. Just fifteen miles upstream of the Nation's Capital, the Potomac River approaches the fall line: an abrupt geologic transition...
The virus eventually shut down access to all local parks in Fairfax County. Shenandoah National Park was shuttered tight. Travel was strongly discouraged; campground gates locked. I only had one wildcard in my back pocket: a small Wildlife Management Area in...
One of the back burner projects I've always wanted to tackle was a photo essay of the spring ephemeral wildflowers along the Potomac Heritage Trail (PHT) in Northern Virginia. As the Corona Virus began to tighten its grip in March of 2020, I found myself in Northern...
The time is just after seven-thirty in the morning; the air is palpable, calm and thick. A low sun slowly ascends in the sky, casting lazy, warm light. Dew, thick and abundant, coats the grass beneath my feet. I can feel the moisture coming through the...
Each year, a small gap in my travel schedule allows a return to my hometown of Northern Virginia to witness and photograph the Virginia Bluebells. Much of the early spring hype is focused on the nearby Japanese Cherry Trees in downtown Washington D.C., where visitors...